There's nothing quite like gaming with someone you care about. I've been dating my boyfriend for the past 3 months. He very vaguely mentioned playing a "multiplayer, D&D-ish game on the PS2" while he was stationed in Cuba. He said it's the only video game he remembers having fun with. Apparently he & his friends stayed up all night, playing marathon sessions of this game. I was inspired to discover what this amazing game was. Some investigative legwork led me to my best conclusion, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. I did some trekking and found a decent copy for cheap at a used game store in the area.

When he came over last night, I surprised him with it. He wasn't sure it was the game he played before, but was willing to give it a try. We played all night. Cooperative play works very well between us. There was no struggle as to where we should go. Neither blamed the other for a game over. I would charge in head first while he backed me up with fireballs. We would just play around as well. He'd try to hit me with the fireballs as my little dwarven legs ran around him in circles! We had a blast.

Unfortunately, I was almost correct in figuring out which game. As we were playing, he mentioned little differences that only appear in the sequel. The sequel goes for much more than the original, sadly. Regardless, we had fun and that's all that counts. Besides, this game won't be over tomorrow. I have time to search for Dark Alliance 2 at a more reasonable price.

I decided to play MegaMan Battle Network 2 on my way home from work today. Normally, I don't play games on the trolley. It's only a 20 min ride so I wouldn't get that much done and I get motion sickness from gameplay & reading. But I just felt like playing it today instead of listening to my iPod.

The FAQ I have been casually following recommended a certain area to get chips to construct a folder around the "Gatter" Program Advance. For those who do not know, a Program Advance is picking 3 specific chips in a succession in a single turn. The result is an attack much more powerful than the sum of the chips that make it up. By stacking my folder ("deck" for those who play collectable card games), I can get this combination more easily. Mindless enough & easily broken up so I could battle some while I went home. So I had been just defeating enemies hoping they'd drop the chips I was looking for. Wasn't happening for the most part. Mostly getting money & chips I didn't want. Then something happened. I saw a chip I wasn't expecting.

ZapRing2 B

I could not believe my eyes. I was certain I was wrong. After all, I didn't S-rank that battle. I only got a rank of 10. I immediately checked my pack to see if it was in there. It was. I saved. Then I saved again. I did not want to loose this chip for any reason. I'm happy. I no longer have that lingering over me. I'm going to continue the game and enjoy it, not worrying about what will happen when I reach the point that I gave up last time.

So I decided to try my hand at MegaMan Battle Network 2 again. Last time I played I almost reached the end. However, I was required to trade a item to progress the story. The only way to obtain the item (a ZapRing2 B chip) is to S-rank a battle with a specific enemy, the TuffBunny. Getting an S-Ranking requires you to finish the battle in less than 5 seconds, take 0-1 hits, and move 0-2 times. You have a little leeway if you can kill more than one enemy with a single attack. Even if you do achieve an S-Rank, the game randomly decides to give you money OR an item at the end of battle.

The frustration of being required to achieve that level of perfection to progress the story, then having a random chance of not getting the item frustrated me to no end. I deleted my nearly complete save file in disgust. I'm going to try it again, but I know this frustration will be coming back. I think the thing that bothers me the most is that I like the game otherwise. It's just this one point in the story that I can not stand.