It's been a whilst since I've had to write but recently I've been thinking about mobile gaming.

First, it would be worth noting I own a lot of consoles and games (I'm a collector in some ways and quite a sentimental individual) and have been gaming for many years now. Recently I've been playing a bit more on my mobile and this made me think and wonder firstly why this is and also what is the state of mobile gaming now.

For one thing, there are now more and more games that I want to play on the mobile platform. Why is that well for that we have to take a look at the existing portable gaming market.

The current handheld market

Currently, there is only one handheld occupying that space. It's the Nintendo Switch and its smaller cousin the Switch Lite. There are indie games on there and also big titles but for some people including myself I see it as a home console first that just happens to be portable and something I can carry with me when travelling overseas since it can be something, I start playing on when at home and then carry on playing when I'm away from home.

Despite the launch of the Switch Lite, both handhelds are very expensive for your average consumer and likewise the games and outside that there are no other handhelds.

The Nintendo 3DS and Playstation Vita are now retired (despite having stellar games made for both platforms).
In the past parents most likely bought their kids the DS, 2DS, 3DS to entertain them but nowadays this is unlikely to be the case. The easiest way to get into gaming outside of PC gaming which you can do using STEAM, GOG and other stores is gaming on your smartphone.

Thoughts on Mobile gaming

Gaming on your smartphone is probably the easiest way to game nowadays, more and more people are gaming on their smartphones whether it be IOS or Android games and big companies are now investing in this platform because of this boom.

The barrier to entry is quite low as any developer can develop a game for Android or IOS whether they are a lone individual or a large company and hardware is cheap especially Android phones.

In previous years big companies ported their games to Android from handhelds or older consoles such as the Final Fantasy games but more and more they are creating games for this platform such as Nintendo with their recent venture with Mario Kart, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp amongst other franchises.

On the other hand, there are also games that cost money to progress, Gacha games, games with ads, and endless runner/endless games, tower defense games and more. I'm not a fan of these games though with some Gacha game or games with micro transactions such as Fate Grand Order, SAO Alicization Rising Steel, SAO Intergral Factor, SAO Memory Defrag and Honkai Impact 3rd games I dont really mind.

I think it is still possible to enjoy yourself as long as you focus on the story and trying to complete it rather than trying to get every hero and spending money when you don't need too in order to progress or get further. Sometimes it is just worth playing these games for 5-10 minute short bursts too.

There have been some pretty cool games such as Pokemon Go too which combined gaming with real-life and managed to get me to game on the go. It's quite a rare occurrence.

The indie scene is thriving too especially with good games like Monument Valley and other rare gems so in some ways there is something for everyone, there are plenty of genres and plenty of games to suit you whether you are a 'hardcore gamer' or 'casual gamer'.
And outside of all of this, you can also emulate older handhelds and consoles on your phone (especially if it is android based).

I guess the smartphone is the device we carry everywhere with us, it's our camera, our MP3 player/music device, our map, it's basically a swiss army knife and it makes sense we can also game with it too.

In some ways, smartphones have come a long way now and even budget phones can play games with relatively good graphics like PUBG and Call of Duty compared to a few years ago and are now accessible to everyone from every background and every country including developing nations which some companies refer to as the next billion.

For me, I suppose if you look at it as smartphones are the spiritual successors to handhelds like the Gameboy and the DS lines from Nintendo. Phones are portable, and we carry them everywhere we go, we game on them and they have casual games much like the DS used to have. Likewise, it is the same with the games that come out graphically some games like Stardew Valley are the kinda games you'd expect to see on those platforms. My only complaint is the lack of physical buttons but you can buy a Bluetooth controller to solve that.

What's next?

I can see it carrying on as it is at the moment though with changes such as loot boxes falling out of favour and micro transactions being retooled differently.

Microsoft's Xcloud, Google streaming project we might be able to game on our home consoles on our phone via these streaming services which means if you own something compatible with these platforms it wouldn't really matter about the phone hardware any more.
There is also subscription service gaming which is pretty new and something that's just been introduced on both IOS and Android after some success on the home console platform with Xbox Game Pass.

Do you think mobile gaming is going to be the future of gaming?
Let me know your thoughts and comments.

In my previous articles on Destiny 2, I wrote about my return to Destiny 2, fighting the Cabal in 'The Red War' and the 'Curse of Osiris'. This time I'll be taking a look at Warmind. It is the last of the DLC which is free to play as part of the 'New Light' version of Destiny 2.

Warmind was originally released on May 8, 2018, and focuses on the Warmind Rasputin from the original game whom had a major fragment located in the Seraphim Vault in the Cosmodrome and was created during the Golden age and thought to have been destroyed during the collapse.

This time around the expansion takes took my Guardian to the planet Mars in a new area called Hellas Basin (a different place to the one in Destiny 1) where I met a new character named Ana Bray (also from the lore of the original Destiny) whom served to drive the story along and also for me to get missions from.

I initially met Ana Bray after getting a distress call and a warning that the Hive have broken out of the southern polar ice caps and are attacking the Clovis Bray Research Facility at Hellas Basin.

I went to assist and this is where the story starts to begin to unravel helping Ana find herself and her past and find out more about the Warmind Rasputin and fight a Hive worm god called Xol, Will of the Thousands, whom has also arisen and is directing the frozen hordes of Hive around Clovis Bray to attack the facility and destroy Rasputin. Zavala made an appearance this time around as well though his role isn't that big it still adds to the story.

Warmind included a second raid lair on the Leviathan, a progressive ranking system for PvP, titled Valor and Glory and a new mode called 'Escalation Protocol'.

With 'Escalation Protocol' we got a horde mode which can be started by any Guardian in the patrol mode on Mars and meant that we had to fight seven waves of Hive enemies culminating in a unique final boss which rotates each week. This was probably my most favorite edition to this particular DLC.

Compared to the character Osiris I enjoyed the addition of Ana to this DLC and especially the lore surrounding her character. I think this was probably because we got to spend a significant time with her unlike with Osiris.

The final battle against Xol was just as awesome. One thing I will say about the base game and the DLC's was the 'big bads' have been quite grand battles that are worthy of the story and your Guardian being epic and powerful.

I hope this continues in the next expansion(s). Going into 2020/21 the game changed quite significantly but I hope you check it out.

Hope you enjoyed this overview and retrospective, till next time “Stay Safe Guardian”.

Destiny and Destiny 2 are the properties of Bungie. Orginal art by Dorje Bellbrook

Destiny 2 main campaign was really fun to play if you haven't tried the game I really recommend it. The game in its current state known as 'New light' and is free to play for the original campaign and the first two DLC's 'Curse of Osiris' and 'Warmind'.

If you haven't read my first article on my return to the Destiny universe I recommend checking it out here, and my other on 'The Red War' the main story in the vanilla game.

This time around I'll be covering the first DLC pack, Curse of Osiris, which was originally released on December 5, 2017, and this time round saw my guardian (my main is a Warlock) visiting Mercury.

This time around the focus was on rescuing the character Osiris from the Vex in order to prevent a dark alternative time future from forming. The expansion also saw the exploring of the relationship between Osiris and Ikora Rey whom was one of the other key characters in this franchise and the big bad happens to be Panoptes, the Vex Mind that controls the Infinite Forest.

Apart from the addition of Osiris there was the addition of his Ghost named Sagira whom is Osiris female-voiced Ghost, as well as the character Brother Vance from the original game, who you could visit and get missions from in The Lighthouse (formerly an exclusive social space in Destiny for those who went flawless in Trials of Osiris) and his obsession with Osiris did make me smile somewhat.

For me Sagira was my favorite addition and made me really wish we didn't have our Ghost voiced by Nolan North and at least gave us the ability to change the voice to a female one.

Mercury was a little disappointing to explore, it was a pretty small map and being able to visit the Infinite Forest was only a small consolation and it reminded me of the 'Black Garden' from Destiny 1 which is a game I hold dear memories for.

In terms of the story, it was a lot shorter and left me a little disappointed as I'm very much into the story compared to the other aspects of the game which are still fun but very grindy, more so than Destiny 1.

I did enjoy the final battle and it felt just as grand as the one at the end of The Red War. Considering this is free to play at this stage of Destiny 2 life I recommend trying this particular story out.

Next time I'll be taking a look at the DLC Warmind.


Till then “Stay Safe Guardian”.

All Fast and Furious Characters and the distinctive likeness(es) are Trademarks & Copyright of Universal Studios
  All Rights Reserved.

The Fast and Furious franchise at the time of me writing this as spanned 8 film's with two more in the pipeline and at least one spin-off in the form of Hobbs and Shaw.

I’m a big fan of the franchise and for me, it started many years ago in 2001 I was a big fan of modified cars back then and dreamed of cruising the streets much like in the Fast and the Furious with a modified car and street racing, though a lot of that was put to rest as I wasn’t too reckless and insurance was very expensive. I got my fix through the Need for Speed Underground games though.

Whilst the main franchise continues to keep things around the ‘Toretto family’ the spin-off Hobbs and Shaw takes things in a different direction by taking two characters who were both introduced as bad guys in previous films with Hobbs being the main antagonist to Brian and Dom in Fast Five and Deckard Shaw being the main villain who was out for revenge in Fast and Furious 7 who took out fan favourite Han (because he was a fan favourite Fast 4, 5, 6 and part of 7 were all set before Tokyo Drift which was the 3rd film produced but sits somewhere in between 6 and 7).

Both these characters were fan favourites since Hobbs turned up at least 4 times in the main series and Shaw 2 times. And they turned from villains into anti-Heros.
The Fate of the Furious (Fast and Furious 8) had established that both Dwayne Johnson and Jason Stratham had good chemistry so giving them their own buddy cop style film was a no-brainer.

The film picks up an unspecified time after Fate of the Furious and initially follows Hobbs and Shaw doing their respective things ie: kicking ass in their own little way before keeping true to the Fast and the Furious theme of family with us seeing Hobbs and his daughter and Shaw and his mum and also establishing that they are both in some ways estrange from family before both being recruited by the CIA to do a mission.

The main plot begins establishing key characters such as a woman who is responsible for securing the virus, an unstoppable villain with enhanced strengths and abilities and lots of action, comedy, and fast cars. The key thing aspect of family is strongly touched on through this film and the ending is especially touching and despite the hatred for each other Hobbs and Shaw do learn to tolerate each other which makes for some good action and laughs later on.

There are some cameos from Hollywood actors playing agents of sorts and can be especially funny and you hope for them to make an appearance in the sequel.

If you’re looking for some mindless fun that you can turn your brain off too it well worth watching and if you’re a fan of the franchise, definitely go watch this to see what happens to some well-loved characters and for a different take on ‘Family’ and Fast cars.

If you followed my last article you may have read about my return to Destiny which took place at the start of Bungie adding cross saves into the game and in some ways making it free to play for the original main campaign “Red War” and the DLC “Curse of Osiris” and “Warmind”.

My subsequent return as you may have read allowed me to carry over my characters from the first game. Unfortunately due to me having to complete the original base game on the PS3 (which I had only done with my Warlock and Hunter characters it meant that I currently didn’t have a Titan character on my account. I’d like to think the Titan was lost during the start of the Red War (Spoilers coming up though if you have not played it yet) when the Cabal attacked the Tower forcing everyone to flee the now destroyed tower and setting into motion the story for Destiny 2.

For the Red War campaign, my main was the Warlock with the Hunter remaining as a secondary character on my account which I levelled up using gear that I had unlocked using my Warlock and also from the Season of the Undying where Guardians faced the Vex and were able to level up and unlocked various items at different tiers.

I quite enjoyed the story for Destiny 2 though I don’t think it beats ‘The Taken King’ which was one of my favourite stories.

Being stripped of all our powers and gradually having to work our way back up whilst finding the Shard of the Traveler to gain our powers back was pretty fun but because there had been changes made to Destiny 2 in ‘New Light’ the rest of the story saw me basically have everything I had unlocked and carried over from Destiny 1 which mean most of the time I felt immensely overpowered. I suppose in the original campaign it would have been more fun to gradually unlock these abilities but I settled for just progressing the story.

I quite enjoyed exploring the EDZ (which I believe is one of the biggest zones in Destiny 2) and meeting Hawthorne and seeing the struggle of those outside of the Tower and eventually getting the band back together, tracking down Zavala on Titan, Cayde-6 on Nessus and Ikora on Io before storming the old City and saving the day and watching the heroes on the newly constructed tower look at the Traveler.

The voice acting was on point especially Nathan Fillon injecting his usual humour and charisma into Cayde-6 and cast of supporting characters were pretty good with a favourite of mind being Failsafe on Nessus.

I did feel though a lot of the impact in some places of the story was lost due to the changes that Bungie made for ‘New Light’. But I think making things more accessible in the long run is probably better and allows for a new fan base to take hold to support the game alongside the existing one as evident by steam downloads, etc.

Next time I’ll be venturing into the DLC Curse of Osiris which is a lot shorter and quicker to complete than the original campaign but continues to add to the lore and history surround Destiny.

Till then “Stay Safe Guardian”.