[Asus Transformer TF700] WeSiDe:
Hey guys, I thought I'd share my experience so far with using my stock .30 FW TF700 as a gaming console device. My setup is using a MicroHDMI cable to output to a 55" TV with a 5.1 surround sound receiver and speaker set, and using the dock, I am able to use the wired, PC version of the Xbox 360 controller. There are ways to use the wireless console version using a wireless receiver, but I won't get into that as I have no experience with it. There are, however, how-to's on YouTube and other sources. You can also use Wii and PS3 controllers over Bluetooth. I chose the Xbox controller because I am used to it and more comfortable with wired versus a wireless connection.

First I'll get movies out of the way. I'm using BS Player with the the BS Engine hardware acceleration (after some very basic and general testing I found this option to yield the most/best average frames per sec, which comes out to an average of 23.97 FPS). The video is a DVD rip, standard 700ish meg file. The movie is Snow White and the Huntsmen (I chose this because it has a LOT of dark scenes and dark scenes always yield the worst viewing distortions in my experience). The movie looks and plays perceptibly identical as when I play the file on my PC and output via HDMI to the same TV, so no complaints there. I'm happy with movie playback here. My one complaint, though, is that you are not able to either close the tablet docked or power off the tablet screen and keep playing the movie on the screen. If anyone knows a workaround to this I would really appreciate some feedback. My only workaround atm is to turn the tablet away from me so I don't see the screen glow that distracts me from the movie. This also drains the battery faster if you don't have the option to be plugged in.

For gaming, the first game I tried was Dead Trigger, available for free, using a pay to win type strategy I think. Prior to plugging in my Xbox controller, I did not have any game pad options. After plugging in the controller, I was given a game pad option to map keys, and after that setup, I was able to play the game with my Xbox controller with no problems. Controls are very smooth, but fine tuning options you get on console games are absent, like aim down sights toggle versus hold and release, but I can live with that. When playing through the MicroHDMI cable on the TV, it would be very easy to confuse this game with an Xbox arcade game, if not even a retail title, the graphics are really clean and crisp. This game doesn't have bloom effects and other types of high end graphics tricks, so I'm not sure what it's fully capable of. But I did not notice any difference in performance between playing on the tablet itself and the TV. One hiccup though that I found annoying was that despite using a game pad, I was still required to use the touchscreen to advance through the menu. Maybe there is some mapping options I can tweak to fix this, because it is very annoying with the tablet having to be in the dock to use the controller. If anyone has successfully used a USB to MicroUSB to use the controller without the dock I'd love to hear about it. All in all I was happy with it.

Next game up was N.O.V.A. 3. This game does not appear to natively support game pads. If it does please someone correct me and tell me what I'm doing wrong. In order to address this, I picked up a couple apps off the app store, Joystick Center 6 and Joy2Touch, both by the same author, Poke64738. I'm struggling to get these to work, but I am sure it is ID 10 T error on my part, as many people have had success using his apps to play android games using USB and Bluetooth controllers, as well as keyboard and mouse combos. These apps work by using controller input from USB and Bluetooth devices to emulate touch input on the capacitive touchscreen, and involve a mapping overly while in the game requiring you to touch the screen and map that screen tap to the appropriate button on your input device. Once I get it sorted out, I'm sure it will be right as rain, and if anyone has a source for a walk through or how-to I would greatly appreciate the link, or better yet, a source for Xbox controller profiles would be better. N.O.V.O. 3 loading times seem to take a very long time, which I think is caused by our tablets' I/O issues, and I don't see how JB/Project Butter could address that. But has for video and audio quality, just as Dead Trigger, it looked great and ran at good speed with no tears or artifacts or any noticeable defects. Once I figure out my Joystick Center 6 setup I'm sure this will be a fun game to play.

All in all I'm having fun using my tablet as a console like device, aside from the few minor issues i described. I hope this was helpful to anyone trying to decide if they want to invest in the stuff needed to do this. Also, any feedback for the issues I'm having, apps I'm using, or ways to improve the experience are very welcome, for the benefit of myself and the community.

TL;DR TF700 makes a pretty good gaming console IMO.