Con report: Lucca

So, we went for our yearly trip to Lucca for Lucca Comics and Games, and this year, I was all about the games. Seriously, I blew my whole budget on day one buying two Vita games, Assassin’s Creed: Liberation, and an imported SEGA title, Project Diva. The rest of the con, I had to just look at stuff and mope sadly around going, “But I can’t get it this year.” Aw well, next year.

I walked a lot. No, I mean a lot. There were no chairs to sit in this year, so after my legs finally gave up on me, I just hunkered down in the middle of the floor. Then I took out a book to read, or I pulled out my Vita and played games.

I ended up spending a LOT of time playing Project Diva. No shock, as it’s a music game, and those are like crack for me. Think of it like a J-pop version of guitar hero, with a music video playing while prompts pop up on the screen for what button to press or hold. This game is insanely hard. No, I mean, it’s kicking my ass on easy mode, and normal mode won’t even let me get to the guitar solo before it slaps me out of the game. Brutal, tough game. But damn, the music is so catchy.

Also, kudos to the game makers for putting together a tutorial that makes sense without needing to know the words. The extent of my rusty Japanese vocabulary is hai and iie, so I knew which buttons to press on the “are you sure?” screens. But beyond that, I would have been lost if not for that tutorial level. And also? The tutorial song is an aggressive earworm that makes Banana Phone sound weak in comparison. Even after playing four great songs, the tutorial’s beat was still stuck in my head.

My phone at the con does not work. This is a problem with our service provider, Vodafone, as people with other services connected and made calls or browsed online. But my phone wouldn’t let me tweet, or search, or surf until later on at night when traffic died down.

So, I chose to use the phone as a camera, and I took a few pics of the con. I’ll have those up on a Photobucket album soonish.

On the last day of the con, hubby announced that I could have more moneys, so I bought a few comics and a copy of Rocksmith for Xbox. So, that’s yet another music game, but this time, one that lets me turn my guitar into a controller.

I’ve been thinking about this, about my current list of favorite games. There’s LIPS, Sound Shapes, Lumines, Beat Hazard, and Project Diva. And soon, I’ll add Rocksmith to that list, I’m sure. I’d add Dance Central, but I feel kind of dorky dancing badly to a video game. I love to dance, but I don’t dance well. So having the game score my dancing is kinda demoralizing. (>_>) Anywhooo…my point is, these days if you want to hold my interest in a game, make sure the music is good.

So that’s the con report. I was in surprisingly good shape this year, and I only had two MS-related crashes. One was a fatigue-induced nap that I had to take with my head dropped on a miniatures painting table. The other was a random attack during dinner that got me sweating and panting right after I’d finished the main course. I had to stagger outside to barf, but fortunately only lost a quarter of what I’d eaten. Once I was outside in the cold, I felt better and was able to go back in for dessert. I still crashed on hubby’s shoulder five minutes later, but to be fair, I’d been up since 6:45.

I have to get back to my regular schedule here at home soon, but today I just plan to lay down a lot. I love these cons, but man, they really take a lot out of me. But I guess the tradeoff is, I had a lot of fun. So maybe the pain is worth the fun, right? Well that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.