Chicken dinner goes mobile

From the title, you already know what game I'm talking about. PUBG is the pioneer of battle royales, and now in a surprising move it's available on Android and iOS as well. Since March 19, 2018, PUBG Mobile has graced the smallest screen while retaining much of its original charm.

To begin with, it was a very brave move from Bluehole to expand into the mobile market. It's not often that PC games have mobile counterparts, especially ones as graphically demanding as PUBG. Given that most PC's struggled to run the game at a decent frame-rate, you wouldn't think that it would work at all on mobile.

The madmen over at Tencent, however, have figured out a way. They've managed to make an almost-perfect recreation. Maps are the same size, the number of players is still at 100, and you can still hit people with a frying pan. To add to that, most of the weapons and attachments remain, as well as the vehicles. Really, the only aspect where PUBG Mobile suffers is through its low textures compared to the PC version. That is to be expected though, since the processing power of mobiles means certain cutbacks have to be made.

Controls shouldn't be an issue here either. There are shoot buttons on both sides of the screen, so you can strafe and shoot or stand still and shoot. Items are picked up automatically, and doors also open automatically. Both these help to streamline the game, and make sure you don't have to spend five minutes being stuck at a doorway because you can't find the button to open it. Plus, gunshots and footsteps are indicated on the mini-map, so that even people who aren't using stereo headphones stand a chance. With minimal lag on even mobile data, the game is well optimised and a joy to play. Just like the PC version, you can get in a squad with your mates. Thank God, because we all know you need someone to blame when you invariably get "rekt" at Pochinki. The only problem could be that the on-screen buttons sometimes obscure your view, but they can be made transparent in the controls so it's all good.

Fortnite is no longer the go-to battle royale game because of how well PUBG has catered to another market of gamers. The accessibility factor is so high that Tencent has an official emulator to run PUBG Mobile on PC's. Yes, the originally-PC game is coming back to the PC as an emulated game. While it sounds silly, it makes sense. Because of the insane requirements of the original, many PC gamers (like yours truly) couldn't experience the joys of battle royale. This is why the increased accessibility of PUBG Mobile feels wonderful.

With PUBG Mobile, Tencent have done more than making a faithful rendering of PUBG. They've given an often-ridiculed mobile gaming market something to be proud of. Heck, they've even brought over more people into gaming since everyone wants to try the new and popular game on the Play Store. On all counts, this has been a masterstroke. Now there's not much left to say, other than- "Where we dropping, boys?"

Wasique Hasan fights N'wahs during the day and TØP haters during the night. Fight him at the time of your choosing at: facebook.com/hasique.wasan