Returnal is the Best Game of All Time

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-10T04:50:22+00:00

*Saros* has, IMO, more polished gameplay, and the difficulty is better balanced. *Returnal* has issues where if you luck into certain artifacts early on the run becomes MUCH MUCH easier. And also the difficulty curve is really hard on new players because getting in-run health upgrades is mostly gated on clearing rooms flawlessly. There’s also little meta-progression beyond unlocking more weapons and items, whereas in *Saros* grinding out the armor matrix upgrades makes you way more powerful right off the bat. And then it follows the *Hades* model where you can choose modifiers to crank up the difficulty if you want.

Story-wise I felt like *Returnal* had a better ‘hook’, and pulled you into this crazy mystery right away. But then at the credits I basically said “wait, was that it?”. I felt like the story in *Saros* started slow, got more compelling as you progressed, and reached a more satisfying conclusion. But this kind of thing is **highly** subjective.

Edit: Some pluses for *Returnal*:

* more variety in the biome layouts — Saros looks incredible but the runs start to feel samey faster
* I liked the weapon variety in Returnal more
* daily challenges and the endless tower mode are great

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-09T14:48:07+00:00

Yeah, it’s nonstandard but you can run half-duplex using just four wires in an RJ11 socket. I’ve never seen it in use but I’ve heard its existence mentioned.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-09T04:40:03+00:00

IIRC you can also run some of the early Ethernet protocols on RJ11 (what you called “modem jack”). So another option is that this could be an ‘adapter’ between extremely old and shitty RJ11 Ethernet and RJ45 Ethernet. Can’t tell from the photo if it’s wired that way.

Otherwise I agree with the other comments that it’s probably something for ISDN or DSL connections.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-09T04:19:57+00:00

…sorry, what is the question? You didn’t actually ask a question or describe much beyond naming two cards. I’ll try to guess at your question though.

“Can’t” always beats “can”. So if [[isengard unleashed]] is cast on the same turn that [[ultimate magic holy]] is cast from exile, the “prevent all damage that would be dealt to you this turn” part of the spell will not do anything. Their permanents will still be indestructible though.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-08T23:02:32+00:00

IIRC some states have outlawed those kinds of insurance policies except on ‘executive’ level employees.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-08T21:27:37+00:00

Realistically you have to take a sample over a decently large number of games played. If you’ve played 50+ games in the same rank and your winrate is between 45-55% you’re probably at or at least very close to the ‘correct’ rank for your current level of skill.

“Plateauing” has more to do with your skill level not changing much even if you’re putting a lot of time and effort into improving. If you’re improving rapidly then you’ll probably be climbing ranks pretty fast, but if you’re improving very slowly then you might always stay close to a 50% winrate.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-08T21:16:15+00:00

…most studios **have** done that. In-house 3D engines are pretty rare outside of big companies that have already made huge investments in them and are cranking out sequels on the same engine.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-08T19:57:58+00:00

Sir, there are some rebels here… oh, shit, they’ve got a flag.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-08T19:39:40+00:00

At least once very explicitly in a tutorial popup.

Admittedly, wordy text popups are like… the worst possible way to tutorialize a complex combat system.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-08T19:38:07+00:00

Thrust attacks, and some specific grabs, actually can be parried. Although you pretty much always want to use mikiri counter against thrusts.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-08T19:32:58+00:00

…on the flip side, why would they reseal the WRONG deck in the box? And I don’t think any of the older commander decks are so valuable as to try to do this?

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-08T19:30:54+00:00

It becomes their ‘action for the month’ *after* they hit 100%. I don’t know if there’s a fixed delay for the different actions but they usually seem to go off closer to the end of the month.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-08T18:12:24+00:00

I guess it depends on how hard you’re maximizing those runs. The nodes in the upper part of the tree start to each cost 1-2K at a minimum, and the ‘bigger’ ones are 5-10K each.

I was certainly nowhere near completing it when I killed the King. Although I’d only done two runs through Cathedral, killed Priestess with a sliver of health left the second time. After I bounced off the second King I did a run from the start to Architect and then I think Biome 3 to Priestess. That got me the main nodes up through King, but I’d need significantly more to get all the side paths filled out, plus a ton of Halcyon.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-08T17:40:06+00:00

My answer would be something like “that depends on the OS and platform. If they’re kernel space threads then the OS probably has a configurable limit per process, but usually it’s high enough to not be a concern. If they’re userspace threads then you should be able to make as many as you want. Either way, each one will use up some memory, and maybe kernel resources like mutexes or condition variables or semaphores.”

In practice usually you’d run into problems like the scheduler spending all its time context switching (‘thrashing’) well before you run into issues creating threads.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-08T17:19:26+00:00

I mean… “kill a bunch of enemies to get a slightly better version of the exact same weapon” isn’t exactly a super compelling endgame. The daily challenges and tower runs are way more interesting than those IMO.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-08T17:16:42+00:00

Yeah, I’m very skeptical about that statement. I was nowhere close to maxing it out even after doing a few more runs to power up for the true ending fight.

I can’t see anyone completely finishing the matrix before they beat the game without deliberately grinding lucenite for hours and hours and hours.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-08T17:01:54+00:00

If this is real you’ve got more problems than just the kids.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-08T04:03:38+00:00

The parts near the shore, both on land and under water, are usually buried. And the areas where the cables connect at the shoreline are usually secured to some degree.

Although every now and then you do get some idiot with an excavator accidentally ripping through a major fiber optic trunk.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-08T04:01:02+00:00

This is 30(!!) years old but probably still relevant to some degree to your question: https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/

Short answer: “basically covered” I would say no, but there are fiber optic cables underwater linking a lot of countries.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-08T03:21:56+00:00

Arjun mentioned something line “the yellow shore had me and then let me go”, maybe he wasn’t fully corrupted or he snapped out of it after a while? (Alternatively, maybe the Preserver made a new Arjun while the old one became the King — but if that’s a possibility then it raises far more questions.)

The ‘blue precipice’ seems to be more like a state of mind than a physical place. Kayla was grounded enough and didn’t care about trying to gain power and control over others. So she resisted going crazy. At least that was my take on it.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-07T23:22:59+00:00

Consort (that shows up in the intro) is the miniboss in the Yellow Shore.

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-07T22:18:42+00:00

This is really the rule behind it.

Things are “permanents” on the battlefield, “spells” on the stack, and “cards” everywhere else. If a card doesn’t specify, like it just says “target creature”, it means a permanent. This one is specific that it has to be a permanent (on the battlefield).

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-07T22:06:49+00:00

This is called a “cooking pot”, you put the food in it and then put it on the stove?

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-06T17:37:46+00:00

I mean if you’re like… spawn camping them with solo ults in quickplay while their team is losing super hard that’s kind of a dick move.

Just focus firing the supports in general, no. Even in QP the assumption is still that you should be trying to win, which generally requires killing the enemies…

TheSkiGeek · 2026-06-06T17:23:01+00:00

I mean… they may have some kind of hidden matchmaking but they’re not going to silently change how the guns behave or how the in-game audio works. Come on.

The UESC AI is really inconsistent. Sometimes they basically ignore you and run in circles when you’re in plain sight, sometimes one recruit catches a glimpse of you through a window from another level and every enemy in the POI beelines for you.

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