2026 Looks Set To Be A Year For The Ages – 5 Games We Can’t Wait to Play

2025 was, by all accounts, fucking fantastic for games. More than a few stellar games – Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Split Fiction, among many others – and an all-time classic in the wonderful Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Now it’s all said and done, it feels like 2025 will be looked back on in the same reverence as 2004 and 2007. 

2026 though…2026 has the potential to not only top 2025, but blow it out of the water. There are dozens of games due to release that have been in the works for a long time , and while we could write enthusiastically about them all, we’ve chosen five that are absolute must plays. Do you agree? Let us know what you’re looking forward to in the comments or on our socials!

Resident Evil Requiem

This had to be first on our list, not just because it’s the first confirmed date in the year – Feb 27th – but, I mean, if I didn’t put it first I’d not be able to sleep at night. Resident Evil is my personal most anticipated because not only do I adore the series, but Capcom have been on an utter roll for the last several years, pretty much since Resident Evil 7 revitalised the series. Sending us back to Raccoon City as Grace Ashcroft, from what has been shown so far we’re getting a tense game where she’ll need to hide and sneak more than fight back. The terrifying monster shown in the Gamescom demo is bad enough, but if they’ve shown us that already we dread to think just what else may be hiding elsewhere. 

Of course, the recent reveal of the returning Leon S. Kennedy was met with much applause (even if it was leaked by the Playstation Store a few days early). With him, we’re getting a more action-orientated game, all roundhouse kicks and chainsawing enemies in half. The series went off the rails when action came into the mix with RE5 and RE6, but considering how fantastic RE4 Remake was I can’t help but be excited to see how he balances Grace’s tenser gameplay. Will we have a section where they team up? Will both make it out alive? Will we see any other fan favourites come in to save the day (come on Capcom, we neeeed Jill to come back)? One thing is for sure; I absolutely cannot wait to find out. 

There Are No Ghosts At The Grand

And now for something a little different. Revealed at the Xbox Games Showcase back in June, I was immediately intrigued by the art, music, and vibe. A demo on Steam at the end of last year let us get hands on, and I’m now even more keen to play the final build. Part renovate-em-up, part mystery, and part musical, the game sees us playing as Chris David as he attempts to renovate an inherited hotel within 30 days and nights. 

In the demo we get a sense of how these renovations will work, with Chris having a multitool gun of sorts with which to paint walls, move furniture, demolish and tidy rubbish, and more. Later on, we get to design a place from scratch, and even in this limited area the scope is pretty wide open. We also get to see the comedy of the writing, with lots of English banter and mannerisms that had me chuckling a few times at least. And when the singing starts? Honestly one of my favourite parts of the demo. It’s coming to Game Pass day one, although there is no firm date other than 2026.

Replaced

There are big, big games coming this year (a couple of which we’ll get to), but few are as anticipated as indie title Replaced. Originally announced in 2021, it immediately caught our eye with sheer style. The cyberpunk aesthetic is stunning, the action looks incredible, and it just oozes a vibe that says ‘cool shit this way’. 

It has been delayed (and delayed) but with a date of March 12th (one more delay for good luck – it’s not coming April 14th) means we’re closer to actually playing it than ever. It’s a rare Xbox exclusive as well, and while we have no doubt it’ll make its way to elsewhere one day, for now Xbox gamers will have at least one opportunity to lord it up for a change. But seriously, just look at the latest trailer – if that doesn’t get your neurons firing, then I worry you may already be dead.

Fable

This one is a more speculative one as there’s no firm news on if it’ll actually even be 2026, let alone a proper date. But come on Microsoft; this has been in the works for years at this point, and if we don’t see it in 2026 we’ll begin to worry we may never see it. 

Fable is a reboot of sorts of the classic Lionhead series, first started on the original Xbox. It (well, notorious over-hyper Peter Molyneux) promised living, breathing worlds where your actions would be remembered, trees would grow in real time, and your character would show their good or evil traits in their appearance and be treated as such by the NPC’s. While it didn’t quite hit the grandeur of his promises, Fable still proved to be a great action RPG that did at least have a decent choice/consequence system in place. Fable II improved on this and made for a far better game. It all fell off a bit after that though, until Lionhead was shuttered following the Kinect adventure Fable: The Journey. 

So it falls to Forza Horizon developed Playground Games to step in. They have some incredible tech at hand, and the very little we’ve seen of the game at least looks stunning. But they also have some big shoes to fill, and all eyes will be on the racing studio to prove that have what it takes to make an action RPG to be worthy of the Fable name. Let us kick some chickens, romance the entire village, and give us some epic battles to win – as well as a robust morality system – and we’ll be happy. There’s every reason to believe they can exceed expectations based on their Forza work, and now we just hope that this is the year we get to see it first hand.

Grand Theft Auto VI

There are lots of other games we could have mentioned here – Gears of War: E-Day, Halo Campaign Evolved, 007 First Light to name a few – but come on, the only game that anyone will be talking about come the latter half of the year will be Grand Theft Auto VI. Originally due out in the Fall of 2025, then pushed to May 26th 2026 before another push to November 19th, Rockstar are clearly not afraid to keep us waiting. Assuming it hits the new date, it will have been over 12 years since GTA V blew us all away, and in that time games have come on a long way. Red Dead Redemption II showed us what a more modern Rockstar could do with its world simulation and tech back in 2018, but even that looks quaint in comparison to the two trailers we’ve seen of GTA VI. 

A huge world based on Florida in Vice City awaits, and this is a far cry from the PS2 game of the same name. Water ways, oceans, swamp land, nightlife, cities and more are ripe for exploration, and in the dual protagonists we get a series first – a female lead. Jason and Lucia seem to have a budding romance going on, but considering this is a game about crime we’d expect at least one or two instances of trust being broken or double crossings to occur. 

The story in GTA V was great, and we’ve no doubt GTA VI’s will be too, but really it’s the world we’re after. We can’t wait to explore the nooks and crannies, finding all sorts of secrets, side activities, and whatever else Rockstar will have crammed in there. Will we get a recreation of Orlando’s famous tourist destinations on Walt Disney World or Universal theme parks? Will we be able to explore the Florida Keys-equivalent for all manner of wildlife? Will we see space rockets launch (and if so, can we hijack one??)? No matter what they’ve cooked up, GTA VI will be the biggest release of the year, decade, and likely set a new standard for the industry yet again. We can’t wait.

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