Weekly Round-up 4/14/2024
Hi folks,
I just wanted to provide a brief update on the content that’s dropped on this Substack this week.
The biggest was my review of the new Civil War movie in theaters now. The (spoiler-heavy) review recommends that people not see the movie, making the podcast ($5) a much better deal than buying a ticket ($15) and concessions ($20) at the theater. In a way, you’re almost making money by listening to this episode.
The next big drop was a minor (never to be repeated) concession to free subscribers: Review and analysis of the classic videogame S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl. I know that most viewers probably aren’t familiar with the series or might not even care about videogames at all, but I really encourage listeners to step outside of their comfort zones with these episodes. My goal for this project is a variety show: exposing people to things they wouldn’t normally encounter. Pretty much every episode ropes in a bunch of different topics beyond the initial subject. You never know when you’ll find a new thing you can enjoy, or a new connection to make, or a new perspective that you can apply to something you’re already familiar with.
I’m still pretty swamped with work, but I’ve started to set aside time for completing the various articles on historical topics of interest that I’ve had in the hopper for a while. I hope I’ll have something to show soon. There is also a sequel to one of the Substack’s most popular and insightful articles in active development.
That’s all for now. Hope you guys are doing well. Next episode (dropping in the next week or so) will cover a bizarrely prescient 1995 Canadian sci-fi horror war film and its connections to the modern conflict in Ukraine. Preview at the bottom of the page.
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)
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)
Ep21: Hunt: Showdown is a late 1800s horror-shooter that simulates normal life in Maryland (Paid)
Ep22: COMBAT DROP! Surprise Emergency Free Starship Troopers (1997) Sunday Show (Free)
Ep23: Dune 2 was unironically really bad and you’re actually stupid if you enjoyed it (Free)
Ep24: Witness (1985) is a masterclass in the lost art of the popular thriller (Paid)
Ep25: Returning to the scene of the crime against cinema, the Dune 2 rewatch episode (Paid)
Ep26: I rewatched The Lord of the Rings and all I could think about was how bad Dune 2 was (Paid)
Ep27: The new Road House movie is an obscene act of cultural terrorism (Paid)
Ep28: This is most important Dune 2 podcast episode that you'll ever listen to (Paid)
Ep29: If you don't follow this esoteric health advice you are actually going to die (Paid)
Ep30: Free ($0) sample episode - What is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl about? (Free)
I've been enjoying the game reviews (along with everything else of course) mainly because that was my schtick for years. Prior to, and during, the pandemic I was the poster child for the gamer incel. No aspirations beyond cheap dopamine, skinny fat body, etc. My focus was usually on the next big AAA title coming out.
You review selection seems so esoteric to my old frame of thinking, yet it has a rock solid foundation in the first principles of what you expect from the games you play to be enjoyable and engaging. The best way I can think to summarize it is "Games that are easy to pickup, but difficult to master."
The games you selected seem to all share a core foundation of skills progression, not throwing the basics out the window later on but building upon them and having the basics be crafted in such a way as to push them in a direction where they compliment each other to allow high level gameplay application.
My personal parallel to this would be the Gwent card game (minigame) that exists in the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Probably my favorite single player game of all time). I understand many people may have what I see as a Skyrim Syndrome with medieval fantasy RPGs but I cannot recommend Witcher 3 enough despite many of it's shortcomings.
Can I come with you?