To kick off Summer Game Fest 2026, Geoff Keighley showed a graph of previous years' releases on Steam by quantity, showing an outrageous increase of scale in past years with a staggering peak: already in 2026, Steam has seen more new game releases than any previous year, and we're not even halfway through.
How does one plan their gaming calendar around such an abundance? When there are SO many games, including over 200 new game announcements between Sony's State of Play, Summer Game Fest, Nintendo Direct, the Xbox Games Showcase, and similar Indie Showcases, how do you pare a list down into what you can reasonably afford, financially and on a time-budget?
You have to be incredibly, insanely picky, which I am.
At the top of my list for most anticipated games coming soon is Castlevania: Belmont's Curse. When I was in middle school and got my first Game Boy Advance (atomic purple, duh), I was obsessed with Metroid Fusion, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, and since then I've only become more enamored with the Search-Action (a.k.a. "Metroid-vania") genre. After a languishing eighteen years since Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - I don't count the Lords of Shadow series - we're finally getting a new mainline title from the developers of Dead Cells, which paid homage to the genre-creating series with a branded content expansion in March of 2023.
I couldn't care less about the chronology of the Castlevania games, but Belmont's Curse is set right in the middle of Paris in the year 1499, and features striking art direction not similar to anything we've seen in the series so far. From the trailers, the combat seems snappy, diverse, with loads more combat and mobility techniques that we've seen from prior installments. Surprisingly, there are returning characters from prior games as well including Isaac, last seen in Castlevania: Curse of Darkness for the PS2 (don't confuse him for his Netflix-series counterpart).
In the hands of whatever new Konami is resurrecting these lost series and Evil Empire, this new Castlevania already looks to swing amongst the best-of-the-best, featuring a striking and vibrant new art direction and decades of lessons learned, I can't wait to get my hand back on the Vampire Killer, and kill some vampires.
I've never been a tremendous fan of the third-person shooter as a format. Something about the over-the-shoulder camera with aiming always felt imprecise to me, but for whatever reason Control really gripped me. I hadn't played Remedy's previous titles, including the in-universe Alan Wake, but the imaginative, creepy, world and the fantastical powers gripped me and held on until I finished. Oh, that sounded different in my head.
Control: Resonant looks to be everything I loved about Control with a delicious swirl of Devil May Cry in the mix - my favorite game series for those who don't know. Taking the role of Dylan Fayden, the derelict brother of Federal Bureau of Control Director Jesse Fayden, who you piloted in the last game, you're tasked with unraveling the weirding that rules Manhattan. The previous game was contained within the "Oldest House," a supernatural building in New York City, vast beyond its appearance, but in Resonant, opening up to the greater city has me wondering if we're in for a bigger game world than the last one. Pairing that with a strange new weapon with the ability to morph into different forms, not unlike the Service Weapon in the predecessor, Dylan engages with his foes using melee combat rather than from a distance. Much more my speed.
I love the strange, weird, unsettling, and unexplainable, so Resonant is going to be an early buy for me. My biggest dilemma is whether to play it on my base PS5, where I am concerned about keeping a steady 60fps, which I find essential for action games, or on my PC, where I'll be relegated to the small(er than my 70" 4k OLED) screen than my living room. I'll be looking forward to the DigitalFoundry video detailing the performance.
The Character Action genre is beloved to me, including games like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, and NieR: Automata put you in control of one or multiple characters with multiple weapons, skills, and other methods of dispatching a wide range of enemies, including highly vertical combat, combos, and a diverse approach to dealing death. I've been eating good in the past few years with new titles such as Stellar Blade, which blends the genre with souls-like elements, but it seems like there's a new market for games that put you behind the wheels of incredibly formidable protagonists. Among these is Tides of Annihilation, which despite being announced in early 2025, has been mostly quiet with only a few trailers released.
Not much is known about the full scope of Tides, but the story follows Gwendolyn, a survivor of some otherworldly attack on London, who has the power to summon Knights of the Round Table. Developed by Chinese studio Eclipse Glow Games and backed by Tencent, I'm interested to see a Chinese interpretation of the classic Arthurian legend.
From the few trailers, the gameplay is incredibly flashy and very responsive, with flashing lights and particle effects left and right. I've had friends tell me that Character Action games are more similar to fighting games, but I draw a lot of parallels to anime-inspired titles like Kingdom Hearts 2, where the protagonist can just kinda do whatever the story needs him to; teleporting behind enemies, blasting energy beams out of swords, and imbuing attacks with all kinds of elements. From what I can tell, Tides of Annihilation is going to be closer to a Kingdom Hearts 2 than a Devil May Cry, with a heavy dose of whatever magic made Stellar Blade such a smash-hit winner. I'm not sure when we'll get more news on it, but I cannot wait.
This list could go on and on, but I'll finish with two indie games with upcoming chapter updates: no longer a dark horse, Toby Fox's Deltarune has me completely gripped, as well as the eclectic ENA: Dream BBQ, which I think surprised everyone who played it. Deltarune, like its companion piece, Undertale, has me totally on pins and needles waiting for more; it is a game I can truly not put down. Something about the mystery of the world, the constant breaking of the fourth wall, the divergent plotlines depending on the choices you make (and how difficult it would be to line up all of those choices without a guide!) all contribute to one of, if not the most compelling story I've ever played in a video game. With Chapter 5 less than two weeks away, the clock is ticking and the fan theories are already pouring through the internet from what little we saw in the trailer. It's safe to say we're in for another spooky time in the Dark World.
As for ENA - no news from what I can tell, but the game is developed from what I believe is a relatively unknown and small team, lead by auteur Joel Guerra, who created the ENA youtube series which debuted in 2020. The first chapter follows a bifurcated entity known as ENA through the afterlife, in a series of truly absurd environments and interactions with hilarious and unsettling characters as they chase down "the boss." Nothing really makes sense about the character motivations at face value, but you still get to enjoy the incredibly well-delivered voice acting and the truly silly banter as ENA seeks to complete their mission. I'm hoping the confirmed Chapter 2 brings the same amount of humor that I was able to enjoy with my friend when we played through on stream.
All said, it's a truly glorious time to be a gamer and it really feels like there's at least something for everyone, especially as indie developers spin off their own studios to make their passion projects and resurrect dead genres. Please join us in the NoGameOvers Discord server so we can talk about the games you're excited for and why you're wrong to be excited about them!