Initial Impression
Holy crap this thing is heavy! I've owned a lot of portables over the years and even the bigger ones (Lynx, Nomad, Game Gear) didn't feel quite as heavy as the Shield. The good thing is that once the scree is open and it's held like a controller, the weight is pretty evenly distributed.
The Device
The device feels very solid and quality made. The bottom is lined with a rubber material for grip which feels soft to the touch and definitely helps when gripping the system. It's a big system, no doubt about that. I should have compared it to an Xbox 360 controller, but to me it feels about that size if not a little larger. It's still very comfortable to hold, at least for my hand size.
What I found that when holding the device is that the analog thumbsticks fall within good reach and never felt like it was a strain to reach for them. I thing NVIDIA designed the placement very well and my thumbs naturally fell onto them with little effort.
All of the buttons feel great and feel just right. I've used controllers where buttons are either too stiff or too spongy, but the Shields feel great.
There are 4 sets of trigger buttons on top and again, all feel nice and firm and of good quality. Again, NVIDIA did a very good job with the actual device and this feels like a quality product.
The screen is very nice and is very clear with good brightness and vibrancy. It's not "retina" quality, but darn close as far as I can tell. The viewing angles are very good from the sides - I can almost view turning it completely to the side. The screen doesn't flip up quite like a 3DS does where, if you're familiar, its snaps into place. Instead, it opens more like a laptop does where you can open and set the screen to the desired position until it is completely flat with the device. I like this since it allows the screen to easily be positioned at any angle I might need.
Overall, I'm really surprised by the quality of this device. It does not feel cheap and flimsy at all. Instead, I have the same initial feeling as I did with my Vita. I always felt like Sony nailed the feeling with the Vita and the Shield is pretty close to it's quality - just on a larger scale.
The Games
Here are my initial impressions on some of the games and how the controls worked for me.
GTA Vice City - near perfect as far as I can tell. Buttons seem to be what I remember them to be on the PS2 and everything feels responsive and great. Camera control is set to the right analog which makes rotating and moving the camera up and down perfect. There are display options which seemed to be defaulted at the lowest settings. I maxed out everything and the game is still buttery smooth.
Sonic 4 - Have and issue with the d-pad not working, but the left analog controls sonic pretty well
Cordy 2 - good feeling and very responsive with D-pad and analog. On screen control buttons stay up, but aren't too distracting.
GLDOOM - Good controls, and the right analog even controls up down view, but is inverted. Everything is mapped well, but on screen controls stay up while playing.
Riptide GP 2 - solid analog controls with triggers used for accelerate and brake. very nice and beautiful game.
Dead Trigger - One of my favorite iOS games is that much better with real controls. Game looks fantastic on the Shield. When I logged in, it even brought over my game save from the iOs version so I can continue from where I'm at.
Mupen64 - I really have always wanted a portable N64 and this emu makes it darn close. Controls can be fully customized to different layouts and then individually saved. I mapped out Goldeneye to be more like modern FPS controls and it plays great. Good speed on the emulator as well and even offers the option to speed up the game which increases speed. Happy!
Onlive - games stream and look decent on the shield. Controls are all mapped and work great for those games that offer controller support within Onlive. I did find that some games (bioshock, duke nukem forever) did not run on Android devices for some reason. Some of my favorites are fine (split second, Just Cause 2) so I will be enjoying those since I cannot stream from the Pc.
I think that's all I messed with tonight. I really wish some of the Gameloft games (Asphalt and Modern combat 4) were compatible with the Shield, but I cannot download them. I really want more racing games as well that work with these controls!
Overall, I'm satisified with my purchase so far. I have always wanted an iOS device with actual controls that work and I'm getting that so far with the Shield. Hopefully more games are released that are compatible with the controller, but so far I really like it.
which is leading me to expect the latter.
