Let's Check Out - Loot Crate (August Box)

A few months ago at E3 we were approached by a rather friendly group of folks, who turned out to be the founders of a company called Loot Crate. Their idea was novel - Capitalize on the recent trend of subscription boxes and cater it more towards a more niche, geek crowd at a cheaper price. Needless to say, the concept has taken off and they have been doing really well. The idea of looking forward to a mystery box every month is pretty appealing, especially considering the sheer variety of product that you can be expected to receive on a monthly basis.

The August box swag, along with the July box's awesome pixel glassses (Can't get enough of 'em)

We were invited to check out their crates, and received our first one this month after a shipping mix up that delayed our June box till it was a little too late to make a video. We'll be checking out the contents of these boxes on a monthly basis, and the folks at Loot Crate were even gracious enough to hook us up with some discounts for our readers. If you head over to Lootcrate.com/AwesomeRobo , you can use the code 'CAKE' to get 12% off any subscription to the service. Cheers!

Let's Check Out : The Swapper

Due to the craziness of E3 week, we had to take a week off from the Let's Check Out series, but we're back this week with Facepalm Games' The Swapper. This relatively (and when I see relatively, I mean that in the loosest sense) under-the-radar indie title kind of snuck up on us with it's quality. A quick look at the game reveals a perplexing puzzle platformer, with brain-punching puzzles and a gameplay mechanic in which you control and switch places with up to 4 clones. The game starts at a relatively slow pace, but as it picks up you'll find yourself spending quite a bit of time with each puzzle as you decide the best route to take.

Along with the game's brain busting puzzles, the true kicker of this title is the beautiful handcrafted visuals for the characters and the set pieces. Featuring some of the best claymation I've seen in a video game, I often had trouble understanding that I was simply playing a video game and not watching a pre-recorded stop-motion video. As the game progresses, a deep and dark narrative begins to unfold adding a new layer to the game's already tense atmosphere, telling a dark secret of the space station you explore

The Swapper is a game you definitely shouldn't miss which I believe to be a benchmark for puzzle platformers and claymation in video games. For $14.99 you can pick it up today through Steam or their website. 

Let's Check Out - Scrolls By Mojang

For this week's Let's Check Out feature Chris and I checked out the closed beta for Scrolls, the latest project (Among many) from the creators of Minecraft. Despite an initial learning curve, the tactical game is fun to play with a ton of potential depth focused on honing your deck, collecting and trading cards and a fun, visualized battle system centered around destroying your enemies totems. The game is currently available in an ongoing beta form on the official Scrolls website for about $20.



Following the release of Minecraft, Notch (Markus Persson) and his team of trusty Swedish developers became famous overnight and ushered a golden era for indie devs, cementing them as the key to innovation in an overly stagnant, sequelitis plagued corporate dominated games industry. There had long been rumors about the next Mojang project, one being a scifi title similar in feel to Minecraft currently titled Ox10C, a side scroller called Cobalt and an RPG of some sort.

The RPG turned out to be a tactical TCG (Trading card game), taking elements of Magic the Gathering, Pox Nora and Heroes of Might and Magic. Despite an overly negative reaction when the game debuted from some rather self entitled Minecraft fans demanding why Notch wasn't simply making Minecraft 2, the game has solidified itself as a labor of love by Notch and Jakob Porsser. Inspired to create a game nonexistent in the marketplace, they set out to make a game that combined their love of board games and TCG's: Scrolls.

Let's Check Out: Megabyte Punch

For this week's second Let's Check Out, we took a look at Reptiles Game's Megabye Punch, a side-scrolling beat 'em up with a hell of a lot of depth. Created by a 3-person Dutch team, Megabyte Punch takes the fluid combat of Super Smash Brothers and throws it into a side scrolling campaign that Masahiro Sakurai would be jealous of. While the game is still in development, the group has created a fluid experience with combat that grows deeper the farther you get.

 

On it's surface, Megabyte Punch is exactly how I described it, Super Smash Brothers meets a solid side-scrolling campaign, but the more you play the more begins to unravel. Using an inventory system, players can attach different parts to their character, adding new abilities and stat boosts that allows players to create a play style they prefer. With a planned multiplayer, I can already see a lot of  time being spent creating the perfect class and class counter. For only $7.50 (50% of it's normal price) you can gain access to the games beta and support this awesome indie title. Head over to Reptile Game's website to pre-order and nominate for Steam's Greenlight. 

Let's Check Out - Waystone Games' Dawngate Beta

For this week's edition of Let's Check Out, we were fortunate enough to get a first stab at EA's entry into the MOBA field, created by the newly formed, and relatively unknown Waystone Games. As a rather hardcore player of Riot's League Of Legends and Valve's DOTA 2, I did share some skepticism as to whether this game would be able to stand out in the increasingly crowded genre, but following a half dozen games during Friday's first closed beta block, my feelings are leaning more towards optimism.

Similar to the way Visceral Games was born with the Dead Space project, Waystone Games is an internal 'incubator' team comprised of a swathe of former Visceral developers given free reign to work on a new IP, which considering EA's recent track record with not rehashing old properties, is refreshing to say the least.

Dawngate offers familiar gameplay with a good slew of twists and noteworth gameplay changes, with the game's lore referring to champions as 'Shapers,' heroes that draw upon the power of the earth to augment their abilities. The closed beta had a total of 12 Shapers, each with their own distinct feel and abilities, although some felt familiar (Like Kel, who shared a few similarities with LoL's Gragas, except he chucks sheep). For the sample match I chose a lifesteal tank called Voluc, who uses plenty of debuffs to wittle down at his enemies before going in for the kill.

Let's Check Out MONACO : What's Yours Is Mine

For the newest entry into our Let's Check Out series, Chris and I get to check out the top-down cooperative heist game, MONACO: What's Yours Is Mine. The game has been in development for over 4 years, and it's finally hit the market, giving one of the most engaging co-op experiences in our recent memories. Using a handful of different classes, up to 4-players devise a plan to sneak through a level and escape with a near limitless amount of possibilities.

Taste the rainbow.

It's always super refreshing to see an indie game hit the market with the amount of quality and charm that can be seen in MONACO. Pocketwatch Games has provided us with a labor of love that we can't help but recommend to everyone. Pick up MONACO: What's Yours Is Mine today on Steam or head over to the website and pick it up here. For more Let's Check Out and exclusive content, head over to our YouTube and subscribe right here!

Let's Check Out : Loadout!

In this newest installment of our ongoing Let's Check Out, we got a chance to take Edge Of Reality's new IP for a spin: Loadout! This ridiculously over the top shooter takes some of the best elements from games including Team Fortress 2, Brink and Offensive Combat and rolls it up into a truly fun little package of free to play goodness. With a heavy emphasis on tiered weapon customization, the game offers you everything from trajectory control, delivery mechanicsms and ammo type to tinker with to craft your ideal loadout.

Following close to ten years of miscellaneous portsm collabs and outsource work for projects including the Mass Effect trilogy, Dragon Age and The Sims, it's been awesome to see the company spin up something of their own. We recently caught wind of the heavily refined beta at Austin's SXSW music/media festival, and set out to get ourselves into the beta since. Sign up for beta access over at the official Loadout website. If you're interested in following us on Youtube, subscribe to us over here.

Let's Check Out : The Bridge

In this week's installment of Let's Check Out, Chris and I take a look at The Bridge, a mind bending little indie gem which combines puzzle like mechanics, M.C. Escher style optical illusions and Braid like time powers into an amazing experience. Developed by two people, Ty Taylor and artist Mario Castaneda, the game is now available on Steam. Support indie goodness!

A statement from the creators:
'My name is Ty Taylor, and I have spent the past three years pouring my heart and soul into creating The Bridge, which is releasing on Steam today for Windows. If you’re unfamiliar with The Bridge, it’s a beautiful black-and-white puzzle game set in the impossible mind-bending world of M. C. Escher. The game was created by only two people (myself and artist Mario Castaneda), and our game has gotten quite a bit of praise and attention for its unique design and art style, and it was a PAX 10 winner and IGF nominee (in addition to several other awards).'

Let's Check Out : The Organ Trail (Director's Cut)

In our second installment of our new indie feature series, Chris and I present a look at The Organ Trail, a rather tongue in cheek indie title that just recently got accepted into Steam via their Greenlight initiative. Created by the indie developers called Men Who Wear Many Hats, the game started off as a flash project before successfully being Kickstarted into a multiplatform project with many added features back in early 2012.

Watch us embark on a journey into a land of typhoid, dysentery and zombie deer battles in this zombified take on the classic Apple 2 Oregon Trail game. No rivers were forded during the making of this feature, 5 unlucky souls were put down in the process.

Let's Check Out : Super House Of Dead Ninjas

Today we're launching a new series which will be called Let's Check Out! a new series that will offer bite sized looks at videogames that will hopefully give readers a better idea of what to expect from these indie offerings. The games we'll feature will be a mix of games sent to us directly be developers, demos from initiatives like Steam Greenlight, and reader recommendations. Email us!

Our first Let's Check Out is Super House Of Dead Ninjas ($5.99) by Megadev and Adult Swim Games, a remake of the most excellent House Of Dead Ninjas, which was a smash hit on the Adult Swim game portal. With some awesomely 16-bit visuals and gameplay reminiscent of a mix of Spelunky and Super Meat Boy, this game kicks buckets of retro ass. If you enjoyed it, subscribe to us on Youtube for more goodness.