August/September Game Preview

Action/RPG
Available August 4 for PC*, PS5, and XBX*

While the folks at Game Freak are best known for their long-running series of Pokemon games for Nintendo, which the studio has been producing for three decades, they sometimes make other titles, too. The newest of these is Beast of Reincarnation, a hack-'n'-slash RPG for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. Beast of Reincarnation follows a young woman and her dog as they try to stop a monster that's blighting nature, and it features a whimsical art style and energy to it that evokes memories of Studio Ghibli films and other vibey action RPGs like Nier. And, like the latter, this one has the makings of a potential cult hit.

* Also available as a day-1 release on Game Pass

Co-op Adventure
Available August 4 for PC, PS5*, and NS2

This co-op indie exploration game, from the inspired maniacs behind Untitled Goose Game, looks like a delightfully goofy combination of Death Stranding and Peak. In it, you'll have to work together with your friends to navigate the world and find cool stuff. But in Big Walk the co-op aspect isn't optional: At least two players are required for this one, but you can also have as many as 12 people in a group. If you're the type who likes to use online games to socialize with your friends, Big Walk could end up being a must-have.

* Also available as a day-1 release on PlayStation Plus

Fighting
Available August 6 for PC and PS5

The fighting game enthusiasts at Arc System Works, known for their more technical fighters like BlazBlue and Guilty Gear, have brought their talents to the Marvel franchise for this new fighting game. Marvel Tokon should be a bit more accessible than your typical Arc System Works fighter because of the big franchise branding, and it'll feature an unusually robust tag-team system similar to the one they used for Dragon Ball FighterZ, with teams of four characters facing off against each other in stunningly gorgeous 2.5D battlegrounds. It's been a while since we've had a new Marvel fighting game, so this could be a sleeper hit in the making.

Survival Horror
Available August 18 for PC, PS5, and XBX

This standalone sequel to 2019 cult adventure title The Sinking City takes us through a new Lovecraftian city as floodwaters overtake it, with players having to explore the place and get to know all the freaks and weirdos who live there in order to figure out what's going on. This sequel seems as though it will have a more dynamically shifting world than the original game did, and it has an increased emphasis on survival elements.

While the game seems compelling on its own, the behind-the-scenes story on this title is also fascinating. The devs at Frogwares, a Ukrainian studio, have managed to deliver this game while working in the middle of a war zone.

Action/RPG
Available August 20 for PC, PS5, and XBX

The original Mortal Shell might have ended up as just another soulslike among many—it got middling-to-decent reviews when it was originally released. But that game came out in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and earned cult status from fans who liked that it felt like a throwback to an older era—that it was more Dark Souls than Bloodborne. Six years later, the sequel is changing up the formula in some interesting ways, like adding tons of new weapon types and getting rid of the stamina system entirely. The lack of a stamina meter could be a real game changer for a title like this.

Compilation
Available August 27 for PC, PS5, XBX, NS2, and NS

This new compilation includes remasters of the acclaimed PSP title Peace Walker and the PS3 Metacritic Must-Play classic Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Somehow, despite the fact that MGS4 came out almost 20 years ago as a PS3 exclusive, this is the first time that game is being ported to any other system. That's practically unheard of for a title that both sold extremely well and got amazing reviews on release, but it means a lot of new folks will finally get to try it for the first time. Just be warned that you'll spend fully half the game watching cutscenes.

Action-Adventure
Available August 27 for PC*, PS5, and XBX*

This prequel game, set a decade before the events of the other Plague Tale titles, is a complete change-up for the series about the Black Death, which had been focused on a pair of child siblings trying to survive in plague-ridden medieval France. Resonance instead tells the story of an adult woman named Sophia who lives on the Greek island of Crete and features a parallel story set during the time of the ancient Minoan civilization—you know, the folks with the spooky labyrinth with the minotaur in it. Unlike the child protagonists of the previous games, Sophia is pretty good at fighting, so even though much of the gameplay is about solving puzzles, the general rhythm of the experience will be very different thanks to a new emphasis on combat.

* Also available as a day-1 release on Game Pass

Turn-Based Tactics
Available August 27 for PC, PS5, and XBX

Zero Company is, in essence, a Star Wars take on XCOM. It's a turn-based tactics game in which you'll manage a squad of soldiers battling enemy foes—and your soldiers can be injured or permanently die if things go wrong during your missions. But Zero Company seems as though it will go deeper with your squaddies than XCOM ever did by making them react dynamically, like actual people, to what's going on. For example, they'll get really upset and take a performance hit if somebody they've been running missions alongside is killed in action, but they'll be more stoic about the deaths of squad members they never fought alongside. It'll be interesting to see how complex those systems actually can get.

Action/RPG
Available September 3 for PC, PS5, and XBX

This action RPG is the first game from Rebel Wolves, a studio founded by veterans from CD Projekt RED who previously worked on the Witcher and Cyberpunk franchises. Like The Witcher before it, The Blood of Dawnwalker takes place in a medieval Europe fantasy setting based on local folklore, but you can expect the story similarities to end there. Dawnwalker has a pretty unusual structure for an RPG: You're given an objective and set loose in the open world, and you have to complete the objective within 30 days of in-game time. There's no ticking clock, but completing quests or quest objectives will move time forward, so there won't be time to do everything in a single playthrough, and you can even fail the entire game.

Co-op Adventure
Available September 3 exclusively for NS2

This Switch 2-exclusive co-op adventure game tasks two players with working together to save a space station during a cosmic storm in an experience that seems pretty well suited to all types of gamers. If that sounds like the kind of thing that It Takes Two studio Hazelight might make, that's because it kind of is: The game director on Orbitals, Jakob Lundgren, previously worked at Hazelight on all three of its existing co-op titles. This one certainly doesn't look much like a Hazelight game, though, as Orbitals features a pretty striking anime-style aesthetic.

Action-Adventure
Available September 4 for PC, PS5, XBX, and NS2

Onimusha is one of those old gaming franchises that we'd figured had been lost to time by now, since it has been two decades since the last new title in the series. But Capcom—who, like most big corporations that deal in entertainment, can never let a good brand die—brought Onimusha back for another go in a landscape for hack-'n'-slash games that is very different than it was during this franchise's heyday. Nowadays, something like Onimusha, with its ponderous combat system, could easily be mistaken for a soulslike. So the question now is whether a new Onimusha can distinguish itself in a market that's gotten pretty crowded lately.

Survival Horror
Available September 8 for PC, PS5, and XBX

There's been no shortage over the years of asymmetrical multiplayer horror games in which a bunch of players have to face off against a single godlike baddie. Heck, Dead By Daylight has been going strong for a decade. But this Halloween game is different. Just like in an actual slasher movie, the characters will hang out, talk to each other, and seek help from NPCs and cops—they aren't just here to run around and get murdered. There are plenty of ways a game like this can go wrong (see the defunct Friday the 13th and Texas Chain Saw Massacre games), but we can't help but appreciate the attempt to make a much deeper version of a game genre that's grown a bit long in the tooth.

Survival/Sandbox
Available September 9 for PC, PS5, XBX, XB1, and NS2

Valheim has built up a pretty dedicated user base on PC and Xbox while it's been in Early Access for the past few years, but the time has finally come for the full 1.0 release. This tree-punching open-world survival game, set in a limbo for Vikings where they can earn their place in Valhalla after their deaths, won't see a complete overhaul when it hits 1.0, though the update will add an unforgiving new Deep North biome plus plenty of meaningful quality-of-life changes, and it'll also come with PS5 and Switch 2 ports.

Racing
Available September 10 for PC, PS5, XBX, and NS2

The newest Hot Wheels game finally frees our tiny fake cars from their tracks in this open world racer, which allows players to explore four distinctive islands at their own pace—though it still has classic Hot Wheels courses all over the place. You can also find the usual track-builder tools that players can use to make and share their own custom courses, as well as the courses that the developers at Milestone have put together. But with that open world as the focus, Hot Wheels Infinite Rush has a chance to be the most interesting new racing game of the year.

Open-World Action
Available September 15 exclusively for PS5

Given the popularity of the character, particularly since Hugh Jackman first took on the role in the 2000 X-Men film, you'd think we'd have a whole franchise of Wolverine video games by now. (After all, he's a natural hack-'n'-slash protagonist with those adamantium claws of his.) But there's been nothing outside of a couple movie tie-ins from the '00s. So there's plenty of reason to get excited about Marvel's Wolverine, which is part of Insomniac Games' Marvel continuity alongside its much-loved Spider-Man games (the most recent of which is Metacritic Must-Play Spider-Man 2). If Wolverine is anywhere near as good as those Spidey games, we're in for a treat.

Tactical RPG
Available September 17 exclusively for NS2

The first Fire Emblem title for the Switch 2 kinda sorta works as a standalone sequel to 2019's Three Houses because it's set in the same world—albeit an ocean away from the events of that previous game—and uses a lot of the same gameplay systems. So if you played that one, which was the second-best-reviewed entry in the Fire Emblem franchise after Awakening on the 3DS, you should feel pretty much at home with Fortune's Weave. This time out, the story focuses on a quartet of heroes entered in a competition called the Heroic Games, where the winner can have any wish granted. It's a really intriguing scenario for a series known for its branching storylines.

Action/RPG
Available September 17 for PC, PS5, NS2, and NS

This epic Japanese RPG, in which a young woman must find her missing brother and navigate a complicated church conspiracy to start a war, is a remake of the 2006 title of the same name—the original being one of those Japanese games that didn't get a Western release when it first came out. In fact, it required so much work to translate everything that it took nine years for an English release to come to light, and even then it was only on Windows. So Trails in the Sky has always been niche in the US and Europe, and this remake will be the first chance a lot of folks will have to try out this classic RPG.

Real-Time Strategy
Available September 17 for PC

Nine years after the last Dawn of War game, Warhammer 40k's real-time strategy series returns with a new title by a new developer. After Relic Entertainment made the first three Dawn of War games, King Art Games took over development on this one—somebody at Games Workshop must have loved King Art's novel 2020 RTS Iron Harvest. Dawn of War IV takes us to the planet Kronus, which fans will recall as the site of the Dark Crusade expansion from the original game, where players can choose to play through four different campaigns, one for each other factions that are relevant to the plot: Space Marines, Orks, Adeptus Mechanicus, and the Necrons. With that much story packed into a single game, Dawn of War IV might have as much appeal for Warhammer lore nerds as it does for strategy fans.

Action/RPG
Available September 24 for PC, PS5, and XBX

Remedy's sequel to the 2019 hit Control follows Dylan, a side character from the first game, as he battles an impossible creature that has escaped the Federal Bureau of Control and is wreaking all sorts of existential havoc around Manhattan. Resonant promises a very different gameplay experience from the first game, being more of a beat-em-up actioner than a shooter like the first game was, though it otherwise looks like the same sort of head trip. But now it's on a city-wide scale instead of being limited to one backrooms-esque office building. Remedy has never missed with one of its story games, and we'd be pretty surprised if Resonant is the first one they botch.

Virtual Life
Available September 24 for PC, PS5, XBX, NS2, and NS

The Harvest Moon franchise has been in a tough state since Natsume took over the name back in 2014 and decided to put its own spin on the classic game series. Most new Harvest Moon games since have performed poorly with critics, though the 2023 title Winds of Anthos gave fans hope that Natsume might be turning things around. Those hopes are now pinned to Echoes of Teradea, which looks gorgeous and seems to have all the elements it needs to have to make for a great Harvest Moon game. But given the series' recent history, we probably shouldn't assume the best. We'll still hope, though.

Survival Horror
Available September 24 for PC and PS5

Silent Hill is kind of a nebulous franchise. Silent Hill isn't really the same place in each game, and there's no overall ongoing plot. Publisher Konami correctly realized that this means the series offers lots of room for thematic exploration, and has been letting studios experiment with the brand. That decision gave us the excellent Silent Hill f in 2023 from NeoBards, and now Silent Hill: Townfall from Screen Burn and Annapurna. Townfall follows a man named Simon who wakes up in a spooky town in Scotland and has no idea why. He'll have to explore the mysteriously abandoned but still very dangerous town to figure out why he's there. Critics seem to like what they've seen of the game so far.

Read early hands-on impressions for Townfall ...

Dungeon Crawler
Available September 29 for PC, PS5, XBX, NS2, and NS

This second isometric Minecraft -themed dungeon crawler doesn't seem like too much of a departure from the first game, released back in 2020. It's still pretty much just a game with up to four players hacking and slashing their way through various dungeons for loot. But the sequel does justify its own existence with two fundamental changes to the way the game works. First, you can jump now, which allows for completely different dungeon designs. And the whole game takes place in one big interconnected map that you can walk across, so it's more like a true Minecraft world this time. Never say never, but it might be tough for Mojang and Double Eleven to mess this one up.

Want more games?
For a full list of all major upcoming game releases throughout 2026 and beyond, visit our frequently updated Game Release Calendar.

We also have individual release lists by platform:
PlayStation 5 release calendar >
PlayStation 4 release calendar >
Xbox Series X/S release calendar >
Xbox One release calendar >
PC release calendar >
Nintendo Switch 2 release calendar >
Nintendo Switch release calendar >
Meta Quest release calendar >