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Nvidia Shield
2dshmuplover
Posts: 8,271 Forum Member
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Yes, it's ugly but I recently decided that this would make a fantastic retro gaming handheld via it's emulation capabilities, it was a toss up between this or the Open Pandora and I opted for the shield due mainly to the superior horsepower and screen (I cannot deal with the excessive LCD blur that OP tend to suffer).
It should be arriving in the next couple of days but I was wondering if anyone here has experience with/owns one of these and could share their impressions, perhaps offer some tips etc. It would be appreciated.
It should be arriving in the next couple of days but I was wondering if anyone here has experience with/owns one of these and could share their impressions, perhaps offer some tips etc. It would be appreciated.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoTp_xOQkcU
The d-pad and sticks are high quality and the screen is about as blur free as I've seen from LCD, even running emulation 1:1 there is no pixel smear (unlike Pandora). I've owned quite a lot of alternative handhelds over the years for emulation purposes but this one is the best, it has the power to run the emulators fullspeed and due to the Android OS there's no shortage of quality software around, particularly if it's rooted. Essentially the closest I've come to owning a handheld offering all the features of an XBMC modded Xbox (and then some).
I think it has to rank as one of the best things I've ever bought.
Not tried any streaming yet. At the moment it's just for films/podcasts/audiobooks and portable gaming which it tackles way better than I thought it would. I thought HL2 would be janky but it's so smooth and high res I played it for hours when I had a go just to see what it was like. My GTAs all run buttery smooth, TegraK1 is a beast! The icing on the cake is the controller, I was't going to bother but full tablet control over wifi direct, trackpad with mouse cursor, and audio stream so I can plug my headphones into the pad when watching movies etc... made me get it and now I'm not using my X360/Ds4 for PC gaming! Who's have thunk it!
I got mine from Amazon (32GB LTE) and an EE prepaid 6GB SIM for 20 quid, added a 64BG Sandisk Extreme Plus for storage and can't see why I would ever need to replace it (typing while watching the Nvidia conference about the new TegraX1 for mobiles though ha) fantastic tablet and no build quality issues on mine. Even started dicking about with the stylus, stand aside Pollock!
So anyway I checked out the Nvidia Store the other day and only see KOTOR has been released with Shield specific optimisations, portable gaming doesn't get much better than that! Quite simply one of the best RPG's ever made. I also downloaded GTA 3 and VC, will get around to SA in time but I have to say I'm very impressed with their performance on shield, with highest settings and 60fps+ gameplay, as you say buttery smooth, Max Payne is still a gorgeous game too, the little 5" 720p IPS LCD screen really brings out the best in these titles due to an insanely high PPI and despite some games being aged it seems to bring new life into them. I believe the Shield tablet is even higher with an 8" 1080p IPS display?
Still messing about with emulation, so much I'm yet to try and have m,ostly been distracted by MS and SNES let alone anything else, though I did dabble wth a PS1 emu and was impressed by Dino Crisis 2 running with some cool shaders and other effects not possible on my PSP.
Yeah the streaming is useful, if BT is your ISP there's a great BT Sport app and combined with Mirracast it's great being able to transmit direct to the main TV.
It's a huge shame that Nvidia got cold feet on the idea of an all-in-one portable platform dedicated to gamers, I guess it only makes this a more unique console but I really do hope they revisit the idea with the new Tegra X1 chipsets. From my time spent with the device I believe it's handhelds like this that could easily pave the way for future portable gaming.
For me it's the games, I did consider the Nvidia Shield but decided to order a New 3DS XL with Zelda MM instead (Time will tell if i made the correct decision). I might still pick up a Nvidia Shield in the future if they do a refresh that is slightly more portable.,
I actually think the form factor is it's biggest strength, it's the only portable system I've used that doesn't feel like one, a no compromise approach to the controls, in many respects it's like gaming on a 360 controller with a thin screen attached to the top. I don't think slimming it down will benefit anything other than particular forms of portability.
I also got around to trying out Nvidia's Grid Beta which is an on demand game service much like PS+, streaming PC games direct to the Shield with all the controls and settings preset and ready to go. Bearing in mind my router doesn't quite meet the requirements I got some impressive results, playing Borderlands 2 and Alan Wake was pretty surprising, I couldn't actually understand how it was so latency free tbh, sure I could feel it but it couldn't of been more than 3, perhaps 4 frames. An experience far and away from the one I had with OnLive and Gaikai, though granted that was a couple of years ago now.
The only problem I had was I would momentarily lose a bit of control every few seconds but it wasn't really enough to make it unplayable, like I say it's impressive. I can see how if I was a PC gamer I would enjoy using it to stream my games locally too.
DREAM FREAKING CAST!!!
Check it out yo
OK so I might be a bit behind the times so excuse me for the embarrassing over-excitement. :kitty: You can even play in true widescreen 720p/1080p using specific builds.
What more do you need?
If the original Xbox wasn't so ridiculously hard to emulate I'd love to think that some point in the future we'd be able to play Xbox games on the go (imagine PGR 2 and Forza) but unless Microsoft decide to enter the hand held market like Sony it probably won't happen, the Shield is probably the next best thing though.