NVIDIA SHIELD gets a GRID boost with Saints Row and Dead Island

This week the already burgeoning library of games available in NVIDIA GRID (Beta) to the NVIDIA SHIELD handheld gaming system is growing by two. This cloud-based gaming system will now have a total of 12 full-sized games made available to all users of the machine, with more on the way. These aren't some half-sized iterations, mind you, they're the full-sized Dead Island and Saint's Row: The Third!

What you're going to be doing – if you're already holding a SHIELD in your hands – is heading to the Google Play app store to download GRID Beta. This system works with your SHIELD just so long as you've got system update 65 or later. To check, go to settings, scroll to the bottom of the list, hit About SHIELD, and hit System Updates.

For those of you with GRID Beta already downloaded, these games will appear automatically – but you'll want to make sure you've updated the app anyway as a new update is appearing this week. Both of these games are added to the list of 10 that's been active for several weeks, and both seem to be running extremely slick thus far.

Mind you – the server we're working with is located in California, and we're playing up in North Dakota right this minute. This cloud gaming system with GRID is working even quicker than our first beta tests of SHIELD's in-home streaming capabilities (as you'll see in our first NVIDIA SHIELD Review).

It's actually quite striking how well it all works together. Full-sized games played remotely on servers in California up here in North Dakota wirelessly. It's not quite 6,000 miles away, like NVIDIA demonstrated at CES 2014, but it's not bad! Check out more about this system in SlashGear's NVIDIA GRID tag portal as well, not to mention our Tegra Hub to boot.

UPDATE: If you've already been playing Saints Row, you know – once you grab the bomb from the barracks and attain Shandi's Ex's crib, you attain every single DLC and special ability, including invinsibility – killing time, fun time!