I've tried it out, and I have to say, it's gorgeous. It's got a
pleasing weight to it, it's got thunderous speakers, it's got a
gorgeous screen, it's got a great gamepad. All the elements for a
great game system are here except… what's the missing ingredient… oh,
right. Games.
In terms of hardware, I can't emphasize this enough, this is one of
the Android devices to get. Seriously. Bar the new Nexus 7, I don't
think there's a better demonstration of what Android can do as an
operating system. NVidia nearly manages to beat Google at its own
game, with this. Hardware-wise, it has a great feel, and for non-game
software, it's perfect.
And therein lies the problem; your choice of games are either Android
games, which don't necessarily work with it very well, or PC games,
which don't necessarily work with it very well for entirely different
reasons.
The PC game streaming is probably the selling point, and it looks
really, really cool, right up until you turn around and the audio cuts
out for a few seconds, or artifacting smears across the screen for a
second in the middle of a tense firefight. It's not a dealbreaker, per
se, and the feature is still in beta, but if you were hoping to use
this to stream games on the couch, it's not there yet.
Similarly, booting up an Android game on this thing is like giving a
Ferrari to a gorilla. It might realize that there is speed and glory
right in front of it. It might even figure out how to start the car
and drive off. But it's more likely to look at the car, scratch its
head, and then drop a massive gorilla load all over the leather
upholstery.
For example, the first game I went to was Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
because of course. I fire it up, start the tutorial, and the game has
absolutely no idea what the hell I'm using as an input device.
Basically you've got to poke at the controls to find each button. Max
Payne? Same problem. The Dark Knight mobile game? Same problem.
I wasn't expecting it to "just work", of course, but yeesh. To be
fair, with some experimentation and fiddling, all of these games did
work and once the Shield got the hang of it, they delivered a far, far
better experience than I've yet had with mobile gaming. But once you
get out of the heavy hitters and into strictly mobile games, welcome
to configuration hell. It's not as miserable an experience as getting
a mobile game to work on a Ouya, but it can be pretty close.
It's frustrating because the Shield is pretty much the solution to the
mobile gaming conundrum. I can see exactly what NVidia was thinking;
Android games are an enormously popular genre, and if we give the
hardcore a tool to enjoy them, that will mean more Tegra sales and
piles of money for Android developers. But the Android developers
aren't on board, and they seem confused as to why anyone would give
them a system that, you know, does stuff and has inputs beyond a
volume button.
Hopefully the Shield can straighten this out, either by having some
Android games made for it or by helping developers make their games
more Shield-friendly. Because this is a gorgeous piece of gear, and
you can taste the potential in your fingertips. It just isn't being
met yet.
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