Before enormous battlefields became routine for Dynasty Warriors, its third installment helped establish the appeal of sending entire armies flying. This remaster bundles the original with Xtreme Legends, giving an influential chapter a visual overhaul. Beneath the fresh presentation sits that wonderfully unreasonable fantasy: being one person with a weapon and deciding the enemy’s numerical advantage is their problem. | © Koei Tecmo
An underground maintenance job goes spectacularly wrong in End of Abyss, which sends combat technician Cel into a facility occupied by things no safety inspector would approve. Section 9 Interactive’s former Tarsier developers bring an eye for unsettling environments to this top-down adventure. Exploring, upgrading equipment, and opening new routes matter as much as shooting whatever crawls out of the machinery. | © Section 9 Interactive
Forget sensible flying: Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve puts you in charge of a squadron and supplies plenty of reasons to ignore your survival instincts. Dogfights, naval strikes, and ground-support missions demand different aircraft loadouts, while the separate Ace Combat Online mode adds cooperative operations. The appeal remains wonderfully direct—expensive military hardware performing maneuvers that would make an insurance assessor weep. | © Bandai Namco Entertainment
Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago aren’t hardened Locust-killing legends yet. Gears of War: E-Day catches them at the beginning of the invasion, fourteen years before the original game, when humanity is still discovering what has erupted beneath its feet. That perspective gives The Coalition’s prequel a nastier edge: familiar enemies become first encounters, and surviving takes priority over looking like a hero. | © Xbox Game Studios
Jakku’s wreckage finally has a use beyond giving scavengers somewhere to work: it makes an excellent, deeply irresponsible racetrack. Star Wars: Galactic Racer explores the galaxy’s racing scene with Fuse Games, a studio whose leadership includes Burnout veterans. That pedigree is an enticing match for high-speed machines and hostile competition. Saving the galaxy can wait; there’s someone ahead of you who needs overtaking. | © Lucasfilm
Opening a mysterious puzzle box remains a terrible decision, but Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival gives you a compelling excuse. Aidan needs its powers to rescue his girlfriend Sunny from the Labyrinth, placing him directly in Pinhead’s orbit. This single-player, first-person horror adventure combines weapons with the Genesis Configuration’s supernatural abilities. Unfortunately, the Cenobites are unlikely to accept “I’m just here to collect someone.” | © Saber Interactive
Jonathan Blow’s next elaborate assault on your confidence involves more than a thousand handcrafted puzzles. Order of the Sinking Star introduces four worlds with their own rules, then lets those systems collide as its characters meet. The intriguing part is that interaction: understanding one mechanic is only the beginning when another can change its possibilities. Even the talking boat has a role to play. | © Thekla
Napoleon’s army has a retention policy that apparently extends beyond death. In Valor Mortis, resurrected soldier William fights through a corrupted Europe using blades, firearms, and supernatural powers. The Ghostrunner developers bring their first-person expertise to a Soulslike, putting demanding combat uncomfortably close to your face. Historical grandeur and grotesque monsters share the battlefield, which should make sightseeing a particularly hazardous distraction. | © One More Level
Subtlety has been declared heresy again. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 expands its predecessor’s retro shooting with returning Ultramarine Malum Caedo and playable Sister of Battle Nyra Veyrath, sending both against the daemonic machinery of Vashtorr. More weapons and new enemies support the familiar business of strafing through carnage. Mick Gordon also contributes a track, because this particular religious dispute could always use louder accompaniment. | © Auroch Digital
Rose Belmont inherits a family profession with dreadful working conditions: hunting monsters with a whip. Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse takes the action to medieval Paris, with Konami, Evil Empire, and Motion Twin collaborating on its 2D return. The Vampire Killer doubles as a traversal tool, while defeated bosses supply Arcana abilities. Familiar gothic ingredients gain room for experimentation beyond simply whipping everything until it stops moving. | © Konami
Those little pixelated monsters become considerably less charming when real actors have to face them. Tenebris Somnia switches between retro 2D survival horror and live-action cinematics, making its visual contrast part of the unease. Puzzles and creature encounters draw on Resident Evil and Silent Hill, but the abrupt shift into filmed sequences threatens to strip away the comforting distance of its old-fashioned graphics. | © Saibot Studios
Davy is a timid zombie who falls for a frozen human woman, which gives Stupid Never Dies a romantic setup with several immediate complications. His answer involves dungeon crawling, eating enemies, stealing abilities, and modifying his undead body. GPTRACK50 builds its action RPG around rapid growth, turning a monster society’s bottom-rung resident into something much more dangerous. Dating advice probably won’t cover any of this. | © GPTRACK50
Final Fantasy Resonance gives the first story arc of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius a substantial second life as a standalone RPG. Square Enix rebuilds the adventure in HD-2D, pairing turn-based battles with airships, espers, and guest appearances from familiar heroes. For anyone who missed its mobile incarnation, there’s an appealing proposition here: discovering that story through a format closer to the series’ console roots. | © Square Enix
Captain Price’s retirement plans remain nonexistent. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 follows his revenge mission alongside a South Korean squad caught in an invasion, bringing two perspectives to its expanding conflict. Beyond the campaign, competitive multiplayer returns alongside DMZ’s extraction-based operations. That last mode supplies a different sort of tension: deciding whether another objective is worth risking everything you’ve already managed to collect. | © Activision
Sixty-six days to live, a murder accusation, and an entire martial world on your trail: Soul has plenty to be upset about. Phantom Blade Zero channels that predicament into a dark wuxia action RPG, with motion-captured martial arts and flowing weapon combinations driving its fights. S-GAME’s elaborate choreography is the attraction here, making each confrontation look like a film sequence you’re responsible for surviving. | © S-GAME
Your backlog probably didn’t need another fifteen games, but October has other plans. With the holiday release season underway, deciding what to play can take almost as much thought as deciding what to buy. These October 2026 video game releases are competing for both your money and your evenings—and a Halloween discount on your wishlist might have to wait.
