Alienware created a gaming lounge at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con where visitors could play game demos on Alienware’s latest gaming rigs, laptops, and monitors. There was also the ubiquitous Comic-Con booth prize wheel where you could try your luck to win Alienware gear, and in the back of the booth behind some panels was hidden one of the most unique activations I’ve ever seen at a con before, and I’ve been to a lot of cons. But more on that in bit.
The star of the show was Alienware’s new 39” 5K OLED gaming monitor. The bright lights of a convention aren’t always kind to monitors, but the anti-reflective coating and bright, vibrant colors of the monitor really popped visually despite the monitor-hostile environment. Silent Hill f was being played on the system when I was checking out the monitor, and the monitor did a great job of maintaining the richness of the colors in the lit section of the environment that filled half of the screen while simultaneously maintaining all of the details in the dark alley on the other half.
There was also a variety of laptop and gaming rigs on display, including the new Alienware 15 gaming laptop which is designed to deliver gaming performance in a smaller more portable formfactor. The latest Alienware Area-51 desktop was also available for play. I’ve owned Alienware desktops in the past and while I did like the unique case designs, they made it difficult to upgrade components. The Area-51 at the booth featured a large glass sided case rimmed with LEDs that looked to be designed for those of us who endlessly tinker with our rigs.
The biggest surprise at the booth came at the end of the visit. After doing a brief interview on some of my favorite games from the past, I was brought into a small curtained-off area at the back of the booth. The only things in the space were a chair and a monitor and I was asked to sit in the chair and hold on to its handgrips. I expected something to begin showing on the monitor, but instead the chair started rotating, the curtain behind me opened, and I found myself facing a live studio audience. A game show host welcomed me and asked me a few of the types of introductory questions they always ask the contestants as the audience cheered and laughed.
The game show featured video game trivia questions with multiple choice answers, and the questions were challenging. I have fun with trivia games, but it’s an entirely different experience when what feels like a hundred people are staring at you and reacting to your answers. I had a few misses, but got more questions right than I got wrong. When it came time to risk it all on one question to double my score, I went for it. Answering that last question right and hearing the audience cheer in response was quite an adrenaline rush. And with that my chair rotated again and I was back in the Alienware booth. It really was an amazing experience, intense and fun, and left me on a bit of an adrenaline high. After covering SDCC and other cons for years, I’ve probably forgotten about more activations than those I still remember, but the Alienware Game Show is one I will remember for the rest of my life.