Alien: Isolation 2 (Nintendo, PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
The sequel to a revered 2014 horror game from British developer Creative Assembly: this time you must evade the xenomorph on the surface of a storm-ravaged colony world.
Bad Magpie (2027) (PC, Xbox)
A little magpie with a broken wing and a lost flock makes its way alone, enthralled by a fallen piece of star.
Resident Evil Veronica (2027) (PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
The latest of Capcom’s zombie games to be raised from the dead is 2000’s Code: Veronica, presented here in first-person rather than the original’s third-person view. Every RE remake so far has been a banger, so expectations are high.
Mighty Cuphead Adventure (Nintendo, PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
An extremely 1980s platform shooter that looks straight off the NES/Mega Drive, from the makers of the notoriously difficult 1920s-animation tribute Cuphead. (Fans of that game will also be delighted to know that development has finally begun on another new Cuphead game, and that the announcement was made by a Cuphead puppet in a business suit.)
Apple Crumble (PC)
It’s your grandma’s birthday and your family is here – to murder her. This Knives Out inspired British locked-room mystery comes from the makers of Duck Detective.
God of War: Laufey (PlayStation)
The first blockbuster action game in which we play an extremely angry mother: Kratos’ wife, Laufey, trapped in the afterlife with a whole pantheon of other gods and demigods. Co-starring a talking sword and a gelatinous cube.
Magicians: The Devil’s Deal (PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
A sort of extended violent vaudeville production in which a magician has to escape hell, mocked at every turn by a very dapper Satan and his minions. Notes of Bioshock and Dishonored.
Gen Atlas (PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
The first game in a decade from Fumito Ueda, designer of landmark PlayStation games Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian. It has those games’ trademark sense of scale, as you pilot gigantic robots from within their detachable heads. I’m expecting Pacific Rim but with delicate emotional nuance.
Crossfire (PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
A military sci-fi narrative action game in the Last of Us mode, from developer That’s No Moon, in which two opposing operators must form an alliance to survive.
Control Resonant (PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
In this paranormal action game, you are an operative from the Federal Bureau of Control, a shady US government agency tasked with keeping supernatural threats imprisoned in a brutalist building in Manhattan. Except everything from the parallel realms that they were trying to contain is now loose, and you’ve got to deal with it.
Guild Wars 3 (2027) (PC, PlayStation)
It’s high time someone tried to evolve the massively multiplayer online role-playing game in which World of Warcraft still has a near monopoly. The glimmering high-fantasy setting of Guild Wars makes a pleasing contrast to the ravaged worlds of many online games.
Virtua Fighter Crossroads (PC, Xbox)
From Yakuza/Like a Dragon developers RGG Studio, this resuscitated Sega series sees you running from the Chinese mafia – half fighting game, half story adventure, with shades of Shenmue (which itself started out as a Virtua Fighter game).
1666 Amsterdam (PC)
French designer/director Patrice Désilets presents this impossible-to-describe game about witches set in early modern Europe, but these robed women are battling demons rather than consorting with them.
Final Fantasy VII Revelation (2027) (Nintendo, PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
The long-awaited final part of Final Fantasy VII Remake, in which Cloud and his painstakingly assembled crew of allies finally face off against Sephiroth. The conclusion of a six-year project to breathe new life into a seminal role-playing game.
Into the Wind (PC)
Seemingly inspired by both Kiki’s Delivery Service and Pixar’s Luca, in this game you inherit a family delivery service and must fly/zoom around an island community on a scooter or in a plane to get the goods to their destination.
Fable (2027) (PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
Man, this fantasy game has had quite the glow-up. It appears to have ditched the fairytale vibe and fart humour of the classic games for a more ambitious (but no less irreverent) tone.
Gears of War: E-Day (PC, Xbox)
Now back to being an Xbox exclusive, this long-awaited prequel covers the day when subterranean aliens arise to wipe out humanity.
Clutch (PC, PlayStation)
It’s been so long since we had a driving game with a story! This is a new cinematic open world driving game, set in Monaco and the French Riviera, a story about a young driver in a seemingly extremely dangerous racing competition run for the entertainment of the super-rich. The opulence of the surroundings matches the cars. Featuring Peter Serafinowicz and Little Simz.
Until Dawn 2 (PlayStation)
A bunch of young idiots are on a very haunted tropical island making a documentary about horrible things that happened there. Unsurprisingly this does not end well: your choices determine who lives and who dies.
The Lost Wild (PC, PlayStation)
The dinosaur survival game of every young kid’s nightmares – it looks like you’ll spend a lot of time avoiding extraordinary beasts while cowering underneath things that provide very little protection from their jaws.
Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis (2027) (PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
A remake of the very first Lara Croft adventure, starring Alix Wilton Regan as the next iteration of the storied action-hero. A classic globe-trotting adventure film of a game.
Threads of Time (PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
I was very charmed by this stunning-looking indie tribute to Chrono Trigger and the other Japanese RPGs of the 90s, which its developers obviously revere. Its band of heroes ravel through the eras of human history, from prehistory to the far future.
Red Kiss (PC)
Vampires are running amok in 1989 Berlin – and you are one of them, running a house of sexy undead misfits. A counterculture-inspired underground/underworld game with a soundtrack to match.
Exodus (PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
From some of the key people behind the sci-fi opera Mass Effect comes a new space-game that looks… well, a lot like Mass Effect. You’re a traveller venturing across worlds abandoned by an ancient race of aliens, looking for tech that can save your homeworld. It’s difficult to tell at this stage whether it will be as colourfully written as its inspiration, but one of the characters was a sentient octopus and another was an elephant, so there’s hope on that front.
Silent Hill: Townfall (PC, PlayStation)
Possibly the most promising of all the many, many horror games shown at the summer showcases, this psychological horror game is set on a Scottish island and looks profoundly (and interestingly) horrible.
The Wolf Among Us (PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
After many, many years of development hell, this comic-book adaptation returns from a re-formed Telltale Games.
Crazy Taxi: World Tour (2027) (Nintendo, PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
Sega’s colourfully insane driving game returns after a long, long hiatus – complete with its original theme track from the Offspring. It’s truly 1999 again.
Wardogs (PC)
A 100-player battlefield game for those who appreciate online shooters the old way – ie, not an extraction shooter or a battle royale, but a tactical war game. Old school Battlefield vibes.
The Lift: Supernatural Handyman Simulator (2027) (PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
Turn screws, assemble modules, rebuild furniture, clean things and find out what on earth went on in a vaguely post-communist-looking facility that it’s your job to renovate.
Clockwork Revolution (2027) (PC, Xbox)
InXile’s new game looks really fun, like Peaky Blinders except steampunk – another game in the Dishonored tradition. Time-travelling rogues flit back and forth in time to mess with the balance of power in their corrupt city.
Persona 6 (PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
There was just the merest glimpse of this upcoming entry in Atlus’s impeccably stylish series of role-playing games, in which teenagers harness manifestations of their psyches to battle (usually adult-controlled) evil. But the previous games’ pedigree is enough to inspire excitement.
There Are No Ghosts at the Grand (PC, Xbox)
Restore a crumbling old grand hotel in a dilapidated British town, befriending the local hapless policeman and meeting all the local residents. Also: there are giant shadow-spiders to shoot, and everything gets very weird after dark.
Vivarium (2027) (PC, Xbox)
A game about summertime memories that looks like a 1970s children’s manga, set in a rural community where humans intermingle with fantastical creatures. The Ghibli comparisons are inevitable, but appreciators of niche Japanese PlayStation games will also notice notes of Boku no Natsuyasumi.
Penguin Colony (PC, Nintendo)
Horror from a new perspective. This adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s novellas At the Mountains of Madness and A Shadow Out of Time has you observing through the eyes of a penguin, as humans come to the Antarctic in search of a cosmically powerful entity.