Creator of Saints Row reveals open-world superhero game ‘Agents of Mayhem’

By Danny Cowan June 6, 2016

Agents of Mayhem Official Cinematic Announcement Trailer

Saints Row series creator Volition today unveiled Agents of Mayhem, a high-octane, open-world action game inspired by superhero comics and films.

While few details regarding the upcoming project are known, Volition revealed that Agents of Mayhem takes place in the Saints Row universe, opening the door for a potential franchise crossover.

Agents of Mayhem pits the heroic “Agents of M.A.Y.H.E.M.” against the villainous “L.E.G.I.O.N.” in a series of battles across a futuristic urban landscape. Between encounters with the game’s superpower-equipped enemies, players will explore a massive open world in search of side quests and unlockable content.

Players control a squad of three characters in Agents of Mayhem, recalling the protagonist-switching mechanics of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V. Each character brings their own weapons and abilities into battle, allowing players to outfit their squad to suit current mission objectives.

Studio Volition first emerged during the PlayStation 2 era, developing popular titles like Red Faction and FreeSpace. The company kicked off its Grand Theft Auto-inspired Saints Row series in 2006, leading to a string of well-received sequels and spinoffs.

Initially a straightforward crime drama series, the Saints Row games took a surreal turn starting with 2011’s Saints Row: The Third, effectively parodying the open-world genre with outlandish weaponry and supernatural story elements.

2013’s Saints Row IV continued the trend, doubling down on the series’ bizarre storyline twists by equipping players with devastating superpowers in addition to high-powered traditional weaponry. It’s likely that Agents of Mayhem will follow suit in similar style.

After an initial run on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Saints Row IV and its expansion Gat Out of Hell later made the jump to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as part of a 2015 compilation release. Agents of Mayhem will be Volition’s second major release for current-generation consoles.

Agents of Mayhem is currently in development for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC platforms. Volition targets a multiplatform launch in 2017.

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Move over Zelda: Tchia is officially my most anticipated game of 2023

Tchia glides through the air.

There are many big-budget games to look forward to in 2023, like Starfield, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. But after going hands-on with a much smaller indie title, I have a new most anticipated title of 2023. The game in question is Tchia, a vibrant, cheerful, and free-flowing open-world game about a girl exploring a tropical archipelago in the Pacific Ocean.
Tchia - Commented Gameplay Walkthrough
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What is Tchia?
Tchia is an open-world game following a little girl (named Tchia) trying to find her missing father on an archipelago inspired by New Caledonia, a tropical archipelago in the Pacific Ocean where some of the game's developers are from. While players have the stamina to climb up buildings and trees, swing from them, and even swim, dive, and sail around these islands, they can also soul-jump into lots of different animals and objects. These each add even more gameplay gimmicks that enhance exploration and help Tchia solve puzzles.

I had the chance to play some main story missions during my preview where Tchia befriends a young girl and explores one of the game's biggest islands, completing various objectives and even hunting for treasure. The story was fairly light in what I played, but the gameplay really shined. Although I had some objectives, it was just as fun to climb up the trees near the starting town and fling Tchia into a glide to travel a longer distance.
I could then let go of that glide to do tricks in the air or soul-jump into an animal, allowing me to explore the world in a new way. Tchia makes exploration feel fantastic, as you'll immediately feel like you have all the tools to make this world your oyster.
Oh, and did I mention you can play the ukulele? Because Tchia features a fully playable ukulele.
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Gaming

If you love game history, you need to try Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration

Video game collections are becoming more common these days as companies look back on their past. That’s great for game preservation, but collections like Super Mario 3D All-Stars can ultimately feel underwhelming when the end product is little more than a simple port. Atari’s classic lineup of games is no stranger to this treatment; you can play an Atari 2600 game collection on pretty much any platform you desire. Due to the overwhelming amount of Atari collections out there, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration might not seem like a compelling release at first.
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Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Trailer
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Eclipsing other collections
Digital Eclipse has been bringing old games to new platforms for years -- it made Atari game collections for the original PlayStation. Over time, it has slowly put more effort into its approach, moving beyond mere emulation. Earlier this year, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection included the Turtle’s Lair, which had boxes, manuals, ads, catalogs, comics, TV show clips, and development document. Atari 50 takes that one step further by transforming similar content into exhibit-like Interactive Timelines.
From its title screen, you can immediately access almost all of Atari 50’s 100-plus game lineup. The real draw, though, is choosing one of five Interactive Timelines recounting Atari’s 50-year history. Arcade Origins focuses on the founding of Atari, its earliest success, weird prototypes, and classic arcade games that were released from 1971 to 1984. “Birth of the Console” is about the creation, hits, and triumphs of the Atari 2600, while “High and Lows” discusses the video game crash of 1983 and how the Atari 5200 and 7800 fared during it.
The context art is created in and the legacy it leaves behind are as important as the art itself ...

Meanwhile, “The Dawn of PCs” recounts Atari’s efforts in the PC space from the Atari 400 and 800 in 1979 until the rare Atari Falcon’s release in 1992. Finally, “The 1990s and Beyond” covers everything else, emphasizing the Atari Lynx handheld and 32-bit Atari Jaguar home console. Games will pop up as players navigate these timelines, and you can play them at the press of a button. As is always the case with Digital Eclipse collections, the emulation is smooth, and players can access various visual filters and even the instruction manuals when pausing.
On top of that, almost every game included has some piece of trivia, scanned development document or ad, preserved commercial, or relevant interview to check out. Notable former Atari developers like Pong creator Al Alcorn and programmer Tod Frye frequently appear in these videos, but other prominent industry figures like Double Fine’s Tim Schafer and former Epic Games dev Cliff Bleszinski show up to offer their thoughts. The context art is created in and the legacy it leaves behind are as important as the art itself, so it’s incredible to see Digital Eclipse’s effort to include all this supplemental information.

Gaming

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No Man's Sky warp drive

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