This week, For Honorbrings Gladiators and Highlanders into the fight;Everything surrounds you with philosophy; and LawBreakers andTacoma are available to play. But first, revel in the cartoon chaos that is Agents of Mayhem.

In Agents of Mayhem, a new third-person shooter released today (August 15), the antagonist is Doctor Babylon, the Minister of Pride for LEGION, an acronym for League of Evil Gentleman Intent on Obliterating Nations.

That alone sets the tone for the open-world game, which is a rollicking adventure available for PS4, Windows, and Xbox One.

It was developed by Volition, which also created the Saints Row games, and it shows. Mayhem has the same over-the-top crazy, wrapped up in the neon-tinted cartoon version of futuristic Seoul that is the setting of the game.

You get to pick a squad of three agents from a roster of 12 antiheroes that run the gamut of wisecracking, ass-kicking troublemakers that rip up every stereotype you can think of. You play one agent at a time and can swap out who you've embodied with the tap of a button. You can change out your squad between missions, and you should take the time to find out the strengths of each.

In doing so, pay attention to the banter, because each of the agents has a back story that is revealed in the dialogue interactions between the characters.

There's role-playing elements here, too. You level up your agents and can apply upgrades to abilities and a wide range of weapons.

Never taking itself seriously, Agents of Mayhem relishes its humourous take on what it's like to be a superhero that tries to save the world and ends up destroying everything in the process.

For Honor, the game that brings such madness to the melee, is entering Season 3. Ubisoft, which developed and published the game, is calling it "Grudge and Glory".

Two new playable heroes are being introduced with this update, available today (August 15):

There are two new battlefield maps, and Grudge and Glory also introduces one-on-one-duel tournaments complete with season-long leader boards.

Ubisoft will be bringing 4-v-4 ranked matches with another update later this fall.

"Grudge and Glory" runs until October, with Season 4 of For Honor planned for November.

It's difficult to describe what Everything is all about. In the game, designed by David OReilly and distirbuted by DoubleFine, you start by taking on the guise of an animal. As you move around the landscapea diverse natural geography that includes things like forests and plainsyou'll see other creatures.

And after a while, you'll discover that you can become one of those other creatures. Or plants. Or even inanimate objects like pebbles. But you soon realize that there's nothing inanimate in Everything.

A while later, you gain the ability to slip into objects that are smaller, or larger, and you can go progressively smaller or larger as you desire, finding the universe in a grain of sand, for example, or going full cosmic.

Available on OS X, PS4, and Windows, Everything is procedurally generated, so each experience is going to be different. What doesn't change are the audio recordings of philosopher Alan Watts that are peppered throughout the environment and which are uncovered by simply exploring, creating sometimes uncanny juxtapositions.

The more time you spend with the ecosystem, the more it opens up to you. You can communicate with other things by "singing", you can form groups with other objects, you can "dance" to create new lifeforms.

And all the while you are unlocking entries in the game's encylopedia. You'll find yourself compelled to try and collect, well, everything.

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This week in video games, August 15, 2017: Agents of Mayhem brings cartoon chaos - Straight.com (blog)