Alienware launches a launch

Mike Bantick
Friday, 08 July 2011 14:08

Opinion and Analysis

It certainly lived up to the mystery the PR team were hoping to deliver.  Last night Alienware gathered together a varied bunch of journalists, gamers and sundry others to launch an enigma at Area 52.  There was certainly some confusion as to what was about to be experienced.

I knew I was in the right place when I parked the car next to a gaggle of bewildered looking beared gentlemen.  Yep, at this time of night, in a lonely dead-end road in South Melbourne, a group like that was either a bunch of lost footy-trip players on a night out, or a group of tech-journos looking for a launch venue.

It is not yet the end of the footy season, so option two it was.  Eventually, using our navigation skills (and a handy and friendly security guard) we found Area 52, and hopped up and down in the cold awaiting the dealing out of our pass lanyards.

Inside the venue, Alienware laid out for our use the four recent configurations of gaming netbooks, from the M11X up to the M18X including the M17x running Nvidia's 3D Active Shutter system and a copy of Crysis 2.

The garishly lit (customisable thankfully) machines also showcased beautiful and smoothly running versions of Portal 2, Dead Space 2, Medal of Honor and Bulletstorm.  These netbooks are pretty impressive to look at, chunky by comparison to other brands, but given the power harboured inside, it is a need package for mobile gaming.

Less impressive was the desktop configuration running Shift 2: Unleashed compete with fully fledged sound and wheel controller layout, which was struggling to maintain a reasonable frame-rate to the sizable display.

Still, none of that mattered; today this group were ushered in to be filmed experiencing the Alienware Live Dimension Reality show.  Whatever that was.  Before us was a room of white with a large round edged squat rectangle of white, with two small circles of white at its base taking prime position in the centre of the room.  The rectangle was approximately eight feet high and 15 feet wide.

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