Portal on Shield K1

[PlaneMan]

Had the urge to play Portal today so instead of trying to get my old (Q6600, GTX 275) gaming rig going again, which would have needed at least a new SSD, possibly more as it hasn’t been on in years, I dropped just over £8 on the Play Store for it (I had some credit in my account).

Hooked up my Mad Catz licensed Xbox 360 wired controller via an OTG cable, plugged in the HDMI and off to go.

Looked at the recent incarnation of the official controller but that’s £60, not sure I can bring myself to pay that for a controller but at least I could charge it and play at the same time.

It plays better than I remember it being on my gaming rig at full HD, not a slowdown or glitch in sight so far. It does kill the battery somewhat though, about 90 minutes and it needs a charge. I can see me spending more on Half Life 2 and Part 1 and 2…. :whistle:

[Drezha]

I dug this out the other night as well – cracking game. However, I’m using the onboard AMD graphics card on my “gaming” rig. Works Ok – possible slow down here and there but overall it’s better than on the Lenovo X220.

Half Life was one of my favourite game series – I might have to go back and check out the third party remake and see how that’s going along. Last time I checked it was up to the Surface Tension level and looked amazing.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[The Duke]

Is portal a tegra exclusive? Just shad a look via the pixel and it want to be seen.

I recall in the early days tegra had its own “for tegra” games that you had to get via the Nvidia store, tho the store has long gone I think.

It made its debut on the htc one X, you gouged get some I’ve the same games in and out the tegra store, but the tegra games was so much more graphically, and way bigger in size. I recall one game was over 5GB the non tegra about 2GB, in thoughs days 2GB wad gigantic. So 5GB was eye watering, but so was the textures.

Well I see there still is a tegra store, portal is a tegra game, and the original large game was the Bards tale, that seems to now need a controller to play. Times change.

[PlaneMan]

Drez, I considered trying it on my X220, decided against it as I wanted it to play properly.

Steve, the Tegra store redirects to Google Play now, used to be a stand alone store of its own. As you found out Portal is one of the Tegra exclusives.

[Drezha]

Cant argue with that. The Lenovo manages a fair amount of the games I have reasonably well (surprisingly well actually when it had Windows on it – a bit less now it’s on Linux but hey ho).

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[PlaneMan]

My X220 is an i5, is yours the i7?

[PlaneMan]

Had a small windfall so I caved in and ordered the 2017 Shield Controller. Due tomorrow.

Now need to find some £ for the Half Life 2 games………

[Drezha]

PlaneMan wrote:

My X220 is an i5, is yours the i7?

Yeah it is. Faster than my desktop probably  :whistle:

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[PlaneMan]

The Shield controller is amazing. Really comfy and connected with no issues. Also really responsive.

As you’d expect it works seamlessly with Portal and other games that support a controller. Lego Batman:Beyond Gotham is one I tried and it just works.

I also tried Asphalt 8 and that wasn’t happy at all, massive slowdowns. I think it might be to do with the massive update it did before starting, hopefully a reboot will sort that problem.

The always on microphone is, depending on your viewpoint, brilliant or terrible. For me it’s brilliant, especially as Google Assistant is coming to the Shield devices soonish.

Minor annoyance is the lack of any indication when charging or if the battery is low. I say minor because you can check on the K1 for battery status.

For £60 it’s expensive, luckily it’s very, very good and feels really sturdy so it’s so worth the money. Just. At £45 I’d recommend it all day, even £50. £60 does feel like a bit of a gouge though.

 

[PlaneMan]

My Shield controller started rattling a little bit a few days ago, nothing serious.

Picked it up today and one of the trigger buttons on the left is just flopping about, no spring action anymore and now there is a really loud, very annoying rattle to go alongside the original minor one. Contacted NV and they wouldn’t do anything without a copy of the confirmation email. Of course I couldn’t remember where I bought it from

Went through various searches on my email accounts and nothing relevant turned up so logged onto all of the usual places I shop and still nothing.

Then I remembered this thread. Quick search and up it pops, now I have the date I ordered the controller so another couple of searches through emails and up pops the order from Currys. Emailed them after trying to get through on the phone which was a waste of time being lied to continuously.

Thanks Lee for having a decent search facility, saved me banging my head against a wall trying to stimulate 9 month old memories of shopping!

[Drezha]

Good luck with that – I emailed them about a leaking washing machine they installed on the 9th, but had no joy. Finally got someone on the phone today and finally getting it sorted. But not until the 28th, partly as I’m away for the holidays tomorrow.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[PlaneMan]

In that case I might try direct with NV again tomorrow

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