Games
The first 4K video games console is here, but it still needs a lot of fine tuning.
Move over Xbox One and PlayStation 4, 4K gaming in the living room has landed, and not from one of the big three console makers. The Nvidia Shield Android TV games machine slash set top box boasts the claim of being the first games console in the world to output in Ultra High Definition – 4K resolution to you and me – and it boasts plenty of other tricks too, aside from gaming.
It’s capable of streaming your favourite TV shows and it can pull down some top console games from the cloud. It all sounds as good as it looks, but there are still a fair few things it needs fixing before it’s ready to hit the spotlight across the world and avoid a repeat of the Ouya Android console. Join us as we run through just what Nvidia’s latest console still needs to be the best it can be and pioneer and entire new product category.
A global rollout Nvidia’s 4K Android console is tantalisingly impressive if you want to fire up a game of Crysis 3 on a console that’s thicker than two iPads laid atop one another, but it still isn’t available everywhere. The Nvidia Shield Android TV has been available in the United States for little under a month now, but it’s yet to hit shelves anywhere else. When consoles need developers and developers need to see a big install base to make creating a game for a console viable, that’s not good enough. Nvidia has said it plans to launch the Shield in the UK (and likely Europe) in the last quarter of the year, but by then who knows if the Shield will still have any traction at all. Better a global day one release, but we’ll have to take ASAP for now.
Experiences you can’t get elsewhere Nvidia’s been showing off the power of its Shield Android TV console by showcasing games like Borderlands, Crysis and Portal on it. Which is great and all – to think that an Android device can run Crysis and ruin a long running internet meme in one go – but what good is it when people have already played these classic titles through on console or PC already? Nvidia needs to strap in experiences you simply can’t get anywhere else, and that means exclusive titles – and not just popular mobile games that don’t take advantage of its true power either. Being able to stream games from your own PC or Nvidia’s GRID server is a step towards that, but until we start seeing games or media experiences you can’t get anywhere else, the Shield Console is practically playing catch-up.
Pack in a smaller controller The controller that ships with Nvidia’s Shield console is the same the company’s paired up with its Shield Tablet, and it packs in some neat skills such as its built-in mic, capacitive touch pad and rechargeable battery. It is also approximately the same size as an Xbox One. On steroids. This great bit paddle of a gamepad is a massive behemoth that rivals the original Xbox’s pad (nicknamed the Duke for its sheer size), and we’d rather settle for something a little slimmer, lighter and less feature-packed just for the sake of convenience. Still, at least you can plug in your own wired Xbox 360 pad if you have one lying around (even if its D-pad is terrible).
Android TV needs an upgrade The core of the Nvidia Shield console is Android TV, and right now, Google’s OS for the big screen is somewhat lacklustre. It lacks killer apps found on rivals like Roku’s range of video streamers and Amazon’s Fire TV range, and its search option is in reality just a search bar for Google Play and the company’s own products. You can’t use voice search in Netflix, for example, and aside from Nvidia’s source of games, you won’t find a whole lot else ready to boot into. And of course, you won’t find the whole offering of Android apps, only a curation of software that works on Android TV. While the ball’s in Google’s court to improve its TV offering, we wouldn’t mind seeing Nvidia taking some initiative and giving Android TV a boost, much like other third party phone manufacturers have done with stock Android (for better or worse). That will require a policy shift from Google more than anything, but we can dream, right?
At least bundle in the remote We get that the Nvidia Shield Console is mainly going to be a gaming console, but for the times you just want to hit play on Netflix rather than lugging out the full-fat controller (and be tempted by some Goat Simulator), we wish Nvidia would just bundle in the media remote instead of forcing you to fork out an extra $50. It’s a handy piece of kit too, as it packs in a private listening headphone jack and a built-in mic, so we understand the cost – we just think it should be included as standard.
4K isn’t ready for everyone Netflix in 4K sure does sound good (and trust us, it looks good), but it’s not that ideal if your internet connection simply can’t handle it. It could be a case of Nvidia being far too ahead of the curve, but aside from a few games blown up to 4K resolution and Kevin Spacey’s forehead, there’s not a whole lot else that’s supported in Ultra High Definition – to make matters worse, you need to have a telly that supports it too, and that’s not all 4K TVs right now.
Throw in more storage The base $200 Nvidia Shield Android TV packs in a paltry 16GB of storage which will start to fill up quickly if you’re loading it up with all of your favourite games. While there is a Pro model armed with 500GB of space for you to play with, that weighs in at $300. That price point puts it near the Xbox One, but it doesn’t offer quite the same experience – we’d rather see the base model boast at least double what it currently has, as we’ve already seen reports that the console starts crashing and stuttering when storage runs low. Still, at least you can throw in a microSD card into the Shield’s slot – and cards bigger than 128GB are starting to become an (expensive) reality now. But they can cost as much as a third of the price of the Shield itself. Sign up to the Red Bull Games newsletter right here.
