Looking to purchase a condo and came across the Villagio at Tempe with a few for sale (note that I am NOT talking about Villagio apartments on Baseline).
Does anyone have experience owning or renting a home here? How was the HOA? Any complaints with pests, noise levels or maintenance?
I don't think a game has grabbed me this hard in a long long time. I love Disco Elysium but I was never motivated to play it for hours and hours the way I did for Zero Parades. After playing it on release I took the next day off work and played it for like 10 hours. Something about it just clicked for me.
I've read initial reactions and a lot of the things people bring up are what make me love the game. The lack of soundtrack and emphasis on ambient sounds made the world feel more tactile and grounded, and when the Zero Parades theme finally hit (you know the melody) I got goosebumps. They really knew how to leverage it. And the lack of a partner threw me off at first, but I ended up really liking the change. In my first Disco playthrough I made a lot of decisions based on whether Kim would approve or not. Which I was happy to do, but I wouldn't say I played it my way. In Zero Parades I truly felt I could play out my unfettered espionage fantasy, putting my mission above all else while internally grappling with my personal failures. I really put myself in the shoes of Hershel, who was a leader without equal and had to shoulder her burdens without help from others.
The narrative was fascinating, though I'm still dissecting the actual story in my head, trying to find throughlines and meaning from it. The initial focus on soft power and the way Luzian media is used to push ideas into other countries really validated a lot of my recent thoughts on pop culture and I enjoyed hearing different perspectives and takes on it in the Zero Parades universe.
I'm curious on others' takes on the sci-fi elements and if they have some metaphorical significance or social commentary relating to the political power struggle that is taking place behind the scenes. Seems like there's two main speculative ideas: the Luzian device that imprints and creates "bootleg" people, and the mysteries around the spaceship launch along with the theory that all humans used to be controlled by space entities, only gaining individuality and consciousness a few thousand years ago.
There's so many other things to talk about too. The gorgeous art style and UI elements (the maps especially were a standout to me). The prose was biting but never over the top, the voice acting was amazing. All the character had distinct personalities and voices that came out in the writing. The game elements like the quest tracking felt more focused than Disco and kept me immersed in the sprawling game.
There's a few things that I felt could have been improved, like giving side characters more thoughtful quest lines. Or bugs that forced me to restart the application a few times.
I think I got the worst ending possible so I'll definitely be loading up old saves and trying a few more things. After that I'll probably wait for future bug fixes or maybe a "final cut" version to delve back in with a new build.
Hershel does some insane shit sometimes. If you fail the sensor check to use Gonza's stamp on PSEUDOPOD Hershel proceeds to rub his crotch, slap him twice and kiss him with tongue (obviously I had some say in this too). I laughed so hard at how fast it escalated but felt bad for molesting this poor comatose man so I reloaded the autosave.
So far I’ve recruited Karolina and HOLOCENE. I also know you can recruit Ramses, KALEIDOSCOPE and PSEUDOPOD. Anyone else?