The Conundrum Cluster
The Conundrum Cluster Podcast
Ep21: Hunt: Showdown is a late 1800s horror-shooter that simulates normal life in Maryland
Preview
0:00
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -31:06
-31:06

Ep21: Hunt: Showdown is a late 1800s horror-shooter that simulates normal life in Maryland

Patricians only

Upgrade to paid subscription

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to enjoy Hunt: Showdown. The gameplay is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the combat loop will go over a typical player’s head. There's also the story’s nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into the gameworld - the game’s philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of this gameplay, to realize that it’s not just fun - it says something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Hunt: Showdown truly ARE idiots - of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in The Cryptkeeper’s existential catchphrase "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub," which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev's Russian epic Fathers and Sons I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Crytek's genius unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools... how I pity them. 😂 And yes by the way, I DO have a Hunt: Showdown tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only - And even they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand.

Upgrade to paid subscription

Here are all the podcast episodes available now (most are paywalled):


Ep1: Redditors of the Reddit Moon (Paid)

Ep2: Robocop: Rogue City review (Free)

Ep3: "War to the Knife" takes a shit on your stupid Civil War 2 fantasy (Free)

Ep4: "The Glorious Cause" is the best book on the American Revolution (that I've found) (Free)

Ep5: Your opinion on The Killer (2023) determines whether or not you have bad taste (Paid)

Ep6: Bitter master director Ridley Scott takes his time shitting out historical epic no one wanted (Free)

Ep7: This is the one (1) movie that you absolutely need to watch literally right now (Paid)

Ep8: Revenge thriller episode (Paid)

Ep9: Ride with the Devil (1999) is the best Civil War movie that I know you haven't seen yet (Free)

Ep10: 🚨ALERT🚨 Japanese launch devastating surprise attack on moviegoers' heartstrings (Paid)

Ep11: Total Recall (1990) was the sci-fi slaughterhouse America needed and deserved (Paid)

Ep12: I watched a bunch of the new DailyWire+ original movies last week... (Paid)

Ep13: If you don't force your family to watch this movie for Christmas, they will despise you (Paid)

Ep14: Emergency surprise free Christmas review of the Prometheus Engineer chronicles (2012) (Free)

Ep15: "A Disease in the Public Mind" is the most important book to read about the Civil War and America today (Free)

Ep16: Someone finally made a good Afghanistan War movie and nobody noticed (Paid)

Ep17: If you don't watch this new movie in theaters, you are betraying me and yourself (Paid)

Ep18: Michael Mann’s Ferrari is the death-song of Esoteric Boomerism (Heat is overrated btw) (Paid)

Ep19: This forgotten Russian Civil War memoir shows why "Ruralite retreat" localism is dumb (Free)

Ep20: "In ‘First Man,’ Triumph for White Male Dreams" -The Harvard Crimson (Paid)


Upgrade to paid subscription

Here are the paid-exclusive history articles:


Communists opened fire on a Veteran's Day parade in Washington, 1919. 4 dead, 4 wounded (Paid) - Details the Centralia Massacre, a mass shooting committed by members of the far left labor union the International Workers of the World, and the subsequent cover-up which saw all of the shooters legally exonerated on dubious grounds and then released from prison

Forgotten Counterrevolution: The Boston Police Strike of 1919 (Paid) - Recounts the infamous 1919 Boston Police Strike, three days of terror inflicted on Boston by an alliance of immigrants, labor unions, and street criminals that were only ended by State Guardsmen and rightwing vigilantes flooding the city

America’s “Fighting Mayor” vs the 1919 Seattle General Strike (Paid) - Provides an introduction to the 1919 Seattle General Strike, which in my mind represents a good “opening shot” to the failed (and largely forgotten) leftist revolution attempted in 1919. The crisis was successfully resolved due to the heroic efforts of Mayor Ole Hanson, a very interesting figure in his own right who is also profiled in the article

In March 1914, socialist mobs invaded and shook-down churches all over New York City (Paid) - Provides an introduction to the socialist/anarchist International Workers of the World union by detailing a series of violent “protests” they staged in New York City during an economic downturn, targeting local churches. It turns out that people didn’t like the “Wobblies” for pretty understandable reasons

Anarchists almost blew up St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1915 (Paid) - Gives an introduction to anarchist terrorism of the period by recounting the fall of the “Bresci Circle” after a conspiracy to blow up a cathedral in New York City was discovered and infiltrated by the (then brand-new) NYPD bomb squad. The investigation itself is interesting but the trial afterwards, in which liberal lawyers created a bogus civil rights controversy to distract from the bombings, is perhaps more revealing

Sacco and Vanzetti were always guilty (Paid) - Provides an overview of the Sacco and Vanzetti case, placing it within the context of the surrounding leftwing terror wave and other unrest. Although a “wrongfully accused” narrative has been built around the pair over the last century, it turns out that the evidence against them was pretty overwhelming and they were both members of a terrorist network

The 1932 Bonus Army scandal was always communist propaganda (Paid) - Gives a rundown of the infamous gathering of 20,000 veterans with 20,000 other followers in Washington, DC that ended with the US military running everyone out at bayonet point. Surprise: it was a communist psyop

How Marshal Mannerheim saved his country by quitting and telling everyone to fuck off (Paid) - An introduction to the 1918 Finnish Civil War (more on this to come) and the actions that led to Marshal Mannerheim, the national hero of Finland, rising to his role of supreme commander of anti-communist forces

Listen to this episode with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to The Conundrum Cluster to listen to this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.