My Wife & Kid Gift Me A Weekend With Alienware, And Now I Love Gaming More Than I Love Them

I'm playing Battlefield V - perhaps the best looking World War game ever made - and it's a visual feast unlike anything I've seen.

Every pixel seems magical, the interplay of light and shadow amazingly realistic; moving imagery is breathtakingly beautiful, all the flying lead and explosions gloriously epic, and the earth bears visible scorch marks of war. This virtual world feels tantalizingly real, and I'm getting sucked into a sensory vortex.

Battlefield V screenshot

After what feels like an eternity, I pause to blink. A yawn escapes me. It's past 5 AM on Saturday, and I've been gaming for over eight hours straight like a college kid busy wasting time in his hostel room. I feel exhaustion creeping and sleep knocking on the door. But I'm not done yet, wanting to savour every moment of this chance. This rare chance.

The rare gift

You see, my wife and daughter - bless them, O Gaming Gods! - have graciously agreed to spend the weekend away, for the sake of my indulgence. For 54 hours, I can be an unsupervised man child, undividedly attending to the current object of my affection -- which happens to be one of the best gaming machines money can buy.

It's the new Alienware Aurora R8. Edgy, sporting a unique look you don't find on most PCs, the Aurora R8 has the hardware firepower to dominate any modern game. The same titles you fear to run on your "gaming PC", this gaming beast can bring down to their knees in a wink. I can't wait to get started.

alienware aurora r8 - alien logo and LED light

Knowingly fully well that time is against me, I decide on a mouthwatering lineup of games to plough through in little over two days -- besides just Battlefield V, of course. Shadow Of Tomb Raider, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Mass Effect Andromeda, Need For Speed Fallout, Darksiders 3 and Apex Legends. My rationale is simple: I want to play the latest and greatest games on the maximum possible settings and see if the Alienware Aurora R8 can handle it all.

A beast unleashed

Playing through the first hour of Battlefield V and Shadow Of Tomb Raider is simply magical. Both games at their highest setting are a treat for the senses, and they're stressing the Aurora R8's strong fundamentals -- the Intel Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz processor, 32GB XMP DDR4 RAM at 2993 MHz, 256GB M.2 PCIe SSD + 1TB 7200 RPM hard drive, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 with 8GB GDDR5X memory. Surely the system should baulk at some point, right?

No whine, nor a stutter from the Aurora R8 as it handles the load with aplomb. My temporary 24-inch BenQ Zowie XL 2546 monitor with its 240Hz refresh rate kept up with the barrage of frames pumped out by the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 graphics card at Full HD. As I finish a mission, the sun rays filter into my room and birds start chirping outside.

Alienware Aurora R8 side view

Right then, there's a power outage. The screen goes dark, Alienware Aurora's glow vanishes. Meanwhile, and also because I'm an adult, I finish some chores by taking out the trash, drinking a splash of milk and lying down for a bit. I slip into a deep sleep, undisturbed by dreams of aliens or video games.

Time to give up?

Hunger finally wakes me up. It's 3 PM. Just over a day left for me to savour my Game-a-thon. As the pain in my back kicks in, I start wondering if I'm getting too old for this. But the Aurora R8's lit and raring to go. This is no time for quitters, I tell myself. It's time to get back on the saddle.

Fresh, alert and not tired, I notice how the Aurora R8 barely makes any noise even while sprinting at full tilt. It's far from your average gaming PC, which sounds like an aircraft about to take-off. It's quiet, cool for the most part, and doesn't break a sweat during all its graphical heavy-lifting in some more Battlefield V, Deus Ex Mankind Divided and Futuremark's 3D Mark benchmark run. Quite impressive.

Alienware Aurora R8

As day turns into Saturday night, Netflix and Manchester United vs Southampton is long forgotten, as I'm in the end game. I launch Alienware Command Center and AlienFX to play around with the PC's LED lights -- which is such a big part of the Alienware experience. After all, setting the right mood is crucial for all nocturnal activities -- like binge gaming.

It's Sunday morning, and I'm starting to feel like a zombie. I've stayed up all night (yet again), zipping through my game library on the Aurora R8. I don't like the bundled keyboard and mouse, I find them too flimsy, and the expensive Aurora R8 could've definitely had sturdier feet, but I still can't believe how smooth and quiet the PC stays through all the long hours of gaming.

Also the Aurora R8 is pretty easy to upgrade, you just open one screw and the whole thing swings out without any problem. As long as you pop it open from time to time and make sure dust isn't turning into grime and blocking something it shouldn't, the Alienware Aurora R8 should run just fine.

Before long, my time's up. The doorbell rings, the family comes back in and the Alienware Aurora R8 slips out. It's a beast of a gaming machine, demands premium money (Rs 2,80,120) but it has all the chops to serve your high-end gaming needs admirably for more than a few years. It's more than a gaming machine, if you're interested in streaming or using it for professional needs (with a bit of gaming thrown in from time to time). Sure, you can assemble a gaming rig for cheaper, but it won't have the Alienware swag.

alienware aurora r8

As I retreat to my regular weekends, I can't wait to catch up on lost sleep, goof around with my daughter, irritate my wife, and Netflix till I'm bored to bits. And whenever I'll glance at my PS4, I know the Alienware Aurora R8 will be missed.

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