[Coda]

Alienware is definitely expensive. I'm not sure it's worth the money relative to the power you get from it. (On the other hand, neither is a MacBook nowadays, since the prices have gone up but Apple has fallen behind the times on power and software quality.)

It IS good for gaming, or at least as good as a laptop can be. You'll still want to plug a mouse into it and it'll throttle its performance way down if you don't have it plugged into wall power. But as long as you don't mind treating it like a desktop that's easier to move around, it'll be capable enough. (That said, if it's a hand-me-down, it's probably a little bit outdated so you'll likely need to turn down the quality settings on newer games.)