My back is still in excruciating pain tonight, but less terrible pain than it was a day ago; I realized when I walked out to pick up lunch that I feel curiously pain-free during the act of walking. So I walked for a while before eating, and then I spent some time on the elliptical machine when I made it home. I have no idea why this served as therapy, but it did. A few more workouts and I might even feel good again! For the moment I can sit upright without wishing I could scoop out the lower portion of my spine and set fire to it, and that is a decent enough victory for the nonce.
I have been scolded for being in so much pain when I posted yesterday’s update that every keystroke of that entry nearly brought me to tears and thus the awesomeness of yesterday’s articles were insufficiently touted. No disrespect to their respective authors was intended, of course. I just sort of take it as a given that you all realize, at this point, that I regard everyone who contributes to GameSpite as some sort of superhuman Adonis capable of crushing live grizzlies with the sexy power of their minds. But just in case you somehow have the impression that I think they’re stupid assholes, no! Please read those posts, as they are very good. The Slime piece is particularly great… but I guess that’s a given coming from Nich, who is a talented professional writer who frankly has better things to do than slumming it around here. I also really enjoyed the subtlety of the Slick entry — it’s writing of that quality that transforms what could be a mundane chunk of words about a one-dimensional video game character into a clever exploration of the related game and its ephemera. The others are also quite good. So yeah.
Meanwhile! A lot of words that I wrote went up at 1UP today. Granted, “a lot of words” isn’t necessarily “good words,” but perhaps you will find them of interest! The first is a mere surface-scraping of my conflicted feelings about The 3rd Birthday. The second is a generally positive analysis of the 3D hardware and software, with which I attempted to be as thorough and even-handed as possible. I’m sure Nintendo fans will be very angry, though! I didn’t say it was perfect. They hate that so hard.
Gotta love all those “DID YOU FORGET THE MITOCHONDRIA?” comments on the review.
That article pretty much sums up everything that has me both excited and worried about 3DS. The DS is my favorite bit of gaming hardware ever, so I hope they pull it off.
Love the article as always Mr.Parish,
just one thing – I’m sure you are aware of this so I found the sentence a tad bit confusing
Game Coins –
“These uses are as yet unspecified, but the potential is tremendous”
Haven’t we already seen specific examples of the uses of game coins in Layton (Buying labels / names for your street pass letters) / Street Fighter 4/ the built in mii games/ Buying ar games etc?
I guess it would have been more precise to say, “We’ve yet to see if this will be a quickly forgotten novelty feature or something integral to all games.”
If you have any sort of insurance, you might want to get the back checked if it persists. Might be something pinched, and get worse over time. Most likely will just settle itself, though.
A friend of mine finds inversion to help A LOT. Might look into trying an inversion table as one possibility. However odd it may sound.
I’ve thrown my back out two or three times, luckily always from lifting incorrectly (I KNOW WHAT CAUSED IT). But, THAT pain… dear lord. You have my sympathy and then some.
I’ve been playing through Parasite Eve 1 again on my PSP, and I find the review of The Third Birthday distressing. I still plan on picking it up, since the mechanics look genuinely interesting, but the story sounds so, so bad. I mean, I’m not exactly surprised, seeing how Square is seemingly unable to tell a story that isn’t embarrassingly awful these days, but I guess I was just hoping for a better treatment for a sequel of one of my favorite PS1 games. Silly me!
I’ve had back pain… You have my sympathy, sir.