Adhesive Games and digital comics publisher Comixology probably touched upon the very essence of geekdom when they concocted an offer involving viewing colorful pictures of robots blowing each other up to access actual gameplay of robots blowing each other up. Downloading the free first issue of Hawken: Genesis not only offers an expository primer of the backstory behind why everyone turned so trigger-happy, it also gets you a code for the third and final closed beta event starting November 20. Have they no sense of restraint?
The graphic novel series releases in full in March 2013, but the first issue is an excellent chrome-flavored taste of the planet Illal's identity in the grand scheme of Hawken's bipedal ballistics. You'll need to register an account with Comixology to nab the actual download, but it thankfully doesn't require credit card info or anything of a monetary nature.
Hawken rolls out December 12 .