Now that we’re in to February, what are some games you’ve been eyeing up with a 2026 release date that you’re excited to pick up? Are you planning to pick them up on release, or are you going to wait until a sale?
Me personally, I’ve got three titles I’m actually feeling quite excited for: Hela, Paralives and the Gothic 1 Remake. I’ve been waiting for Hela and Paralives for years because they look like fun, cozy games built by passionate devs - and the Gothic 1 Remake just popped up in my feed one day and I’m itching to get a chance to have my first Gothic experience!
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Probably the only new game i’ll play this year will be Slay the Spire 2. It’s out in “Early Access” in March but if it’s anything like the first one it’ll be worth buying before full release (fingers crossed).
My list of games to play will take me longer than this year to finish! Having played MMOs almost exclusively for 15 years, I have so many good games to play that I got on sale prices.
What’s your favorite MMO ever? What’s your favorite that’s still active?
Sorry to say that’s not really a question that I can answer. I think MMOs are predatory addiction mechanisms both in terms of how they keep you playing and in how they keep you paying. That goes for many other online only games too, not just MMOs, and I wouldn’t recommend any of them.
I’m nearly 3 years clean from MMOs and don’t plan on ever going back!
How’d you like the first Slay the Spire? I’ve never played it but I’ve heard good things.
I’m with you though - the list of games I want to play is so long, it’s going to be a major time investment to get to them! I’ve been actually finishing up Oblivion Remastered (trying to 100% all the achievements) and that’s already taken a good chunk of my time 😅
It’s really excellent. Well worth buying even just to finish a run with each character then quit. They all have unique mechanics and cool builds you can make that are pretty game breaking. It does have daily challenges and an ascension system which makes things harder if you want more.
While you’re finishing Oblivion, I haven’t even started Skyrim 😂! I’m 40hrs into The Witcher 3 and have a bunch of other RPGs/JRPGs/Shooters to play after that.
If you’re looking for another roguelike deckbuilder while you’re waiting for STS2, may I recommend Chrono Ark? I am finally playing it right now after having it heavily recommended to me for a while, and it’s really excellent. Very fun gameplay and a surprisingly interesting story, once it gets going.
Sigh, onto the
wishlistbacklog it goes!It looks pretty cool. It’s the anime/JRPG x roguelike deckbuilder crossover I didn’t know I needed :D
Yeah, that’s pretty much exactly it. It’s very good, and I say that as someone not really all that into anime.
a few that are coming out recently:
Scott Pilgrim EX
Mouse: PI for hire
Crimson desert (excited to see if this one is good, likely won’t get it right away)
Beta Decay!
https://www.rotoscopestudios.com/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1416070/beta_decay/THE GAME
Mankind has expanded its reach beyond the Sol System. Factions, corporations and syndicates are locked in a political and economic strife. The inevitable destruction and decay of a colonized exoplanet is imminent.
beta decay is a dark, dystopian RPG where you can build spaceships, join factions, and fight for territory in a newly discovered star system. Live amongst the colonists as a citizen of the new frontier. Be an engineer repairing starships, to a syndicate leader, executing raids deep within a labyrinthic neon city.Was meant to hit early access late last year, but the (pretty sure?) solo dev decided to hold off until they had hit all of their EA Roadmap goals. I have, like a lot of people, been burned by The Hype Machine™…but I can’t help but be almost unbearably stoked for this.
Ticks sooo many of my personal boxes:
- Massive world, built with intent ✅
- Dystopian far futurey shit ✅
- Grimey PS2-esque graphics ✅
- Customise everything ✅
- Big fuck off mechs that I’m positive will be personally incredibly frustrating to figure out how to operate ✅
- Actions have actual consequences and players have a meaningful impact on the world state ✅
- Destructible world ✅
- Multiplayer but not always online ✅
YouTube video by JakeyPants about impending early access.
The vibes are just…😘🤌 Fucking chefs kiss. I’m almost definitely getting it as soon as Early Access drops… I’ve been burnt, but I can’t help but hope this gets seen all the way through, and will happily buy it in EA.
I actually have had this one on my Steam wishlist for a while, and I’m so excited for it as well! That crisp PS2 graphics vibe with such an in-depth world and systems has me really excited to get my hands on it when it comes out. This is one of those ones that I agree, even though I’ve been burnt by EA and preordering in the past, I’ve gotta be there for this one!
My wife and I have been trying to rein in our spending, get ourselves into a stable space and get proper savings going.
… that’s literally the only thing that stopped me from pledging on the patreon and begging for access to the alpha testing…I am so so so soooooo psyched for it! And those graphics… fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck 🥵 PS2 crusty enough to bring back memories of great games from my youth, but with a bit of extra that shows it’s an intentional choice. Like yeah, it looks like they’re all cubist renditions of people…but then there’s volumetric fog, and systems for how windy interacts with individual leaves on the trees…
Shutupandtakemymoney.jpg
Assetto Corsa Evo! And probably also Assetto Corsa Rally, depending on when that’s done. However I am unlikely to get much on release as I have plkenty of unplayed stuff that I really want to play already
Tbh… gta6
But to be more honest
I have absolutely no idea what games will come out this year
HL3, we must believe
I never thought that Half-Life 3 would come out before GTA 6. But here we are.
I’ve been burned too many times, I don’t anticipate on release any more. :|
I am hoping for a good sale for “Hades 2”, “Little Rocket Lab”, and “Baba is You” though… :)
Baba Is You is in the No ICE in Minnesota itch.io bundle if that’s your jam
Stardew Valley 1.7.
It has an update slated for this year? Intriguing.
Agefield High. Looking forward to getting my Bully on. That or Nivalis
I will admit, I’ve never seen Agefield High but it looks like a great spiritual successor to Bully – might actually add this to my wishlist!
Squadron 42.
I’m not really interested in playing it, but I want to see how it does because that will be an indicator of how Star Citizen will perform.
- Crimson Desert
- Pragmata
- 007 First Light
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
- … maybe Super Meat Boy 3D and MOUSE: P.I. For Hire
- … and hopefully Fable
I will not even mention GTA 6 or Half-Life 3 in this reply.
007 First Light, Fable, Star Trek Voyager across the unkown
I’ve not seen much of the new 007 game for a while, but is almost like a mix of Hitman x Tomb Raider x GTA in terms of gameplay? I’d love to check it out maybe once it’s on sale.
Yeah same need to look up more gameplay too! I believe you are right though
My backlog is so long that I don’t tend to look forward all that much, I just wishlist and move on and then check in around release for reviews to see if they’re worth keeping wishlisted or not. So I don’t have a huge handle on the exact titles that are slated to be released this year.
I have been following Mouse: PI For Hire for a long time, though, so I am quite looking forward to that one (provided it turns out good).
As if my backlog wouldn’t be long (I have way over 1k games on Steam) enough, Steam forces me to buy games for cheap all the time. Just today I purchased Mortal Kombat 1 with all DLCs for 7.50 or something. How can I say no as someone who plays fighting games from time to time, and want to see how the MK series evolved?
As if that is not enough, I am also emulating old games from 80s up today and even Switch… As if that wouldn’t be enough, I am also playing free to play life service games (only one at a time) like Marvel Rivals…
Honestly, I’ve switched up my habits on that front myself - I’ve started clearing out my backlog of things that I think are cool but I know I’m just not going to play.
Mouse P.I though is an incredible one, I haven’t been following the progress but the rubber hose animation and the attention to detail on their art direction is top notch - I’m hoping it launches as a fun to play game.
It’s been really cool watching the project evolve, it started out feeling like a cool kind of “oh yeah, I guess this is public domain now so you can do something like this” kind of vibe, and slowly it evolved and grew its own distinct identity. It’s so much more interesting now than the initial concept trailers.
Ultimately as an FPS it will live and die by its gunplay, but as long as it’s at least “good enough” I think the art direction and creativity will get it the rest of the way. Sort of the same as with Bioshock (which clearly was a big inspiration for the developers).
I’m actually really excited for the new Forza Horizon game, but not for the reason most people would be. My gamer group has been struggling to find a game that we can all play together again that we actually want to play. I’m the only PC gamer of the group, so it’s gotta be cross platform. So while I’ve had good fun playing previous Horizon games, I’m mostly looking forward to who I get to play it with.
Major respect for your group eyeing up the new Forza game as a potential group game. I’m also somewhat in that boat - our group used to all be Destiny 2, but since we moved on we haven’t found anything that really fits for us. Good luck, hoping it’s a solid game 🫡
Funnily enough we all met playing Destiny 1, then continued playing Destiny 2 till Final Shape. There really isn’t anything like it out there and it’s a crying shame Bungo had to be like this. They’re the ones who turned me onto Forza, so I’m lucky it all just clicked. I think it also helps that it’s a completely different genre
It’s a shame Bungie dropped the ball on Destiny - though I’ve been seeing some good things coming from their new game Marathon, so might give it a shot on a free weekend to see how it is.
Was Terraria 1.4.5. Granted, I’m spoiled by magic storage and so I wanna wait for tmodloader to update, so hoping that happens this year. I think I picked it up in 2015, so that’s basically on release (2011).
Also hoping for a major Dyson Sphere Program update that isn’t just optimization (although that’s probably more exciting than an actual content update). But the last one initially was teased over 2 years ago I think (and was interrupted because performance update became a higher priority)? If it doesn’t release this year, I’ll just wait to play through again til it does.
Don’t know of any actual new releases that I’m just dying to play and even if I was, I’d probably wait a few years to get it on sale unless its a sub-$5 game (I might get Two Tired to Mountain at release because of that).
Terraria 1.4.5 has been incredible! Me and my buddy just hopped into it, as it’s my first time playing through the full game and I’ve been having a blast. Excited for the tmodloader update as I want to get the chance to experience the Calamity mod next.
I haven’t heard of either Dyson Sphere Program or Two Tired to Mountain, so I’ll have to check those out!
