Good Day Gamers! While Valentine’s day was over a month ago, I decided that instead of flowers, dates, and all that usual noise for Valentine’s day, I’ve got something better—violence, horror, chaos, and a lineup of games I’ve been obsessing over. While I’m still skeptical about a lot of what’s coming out this year, a few titles actually broke through the noise and grabbed my attention in a real way.

So no love letters this time—just a short list of the games I can’t stop thinking about and absolutely need to get my hands on in 2026.

1. Resident Evil Requiem

By now if you’ve read my blog before, you are probably not surprised by number one on this list. Resident Evil is one of my favorite survival horror games and this latest title looks FANTASTIC. When trailers first dropped for this game I was very curious about the new protagonist Grace Ashcroft. It seemed like the game was going head first into its dark horror roots with Grace being chased by some grotesque zombie creature in a home.

This more brutal survival tone felt like this game was going to be taken into deeper darker territory with much more emphasis on the horror aspects, but as time went on, Capcom released another teaser trailer revealing Leon Kennedy will be returning to the stage as a second main character. This is what drove up the hype factor to new heights.

After learning that Leon would be returning, my interest and hype for this game skyrocketed into heavy anticipation and I’ve been dying to get my hands on it ever since. I even tried to play the demo back during Comic Con 2025 a few months ago, however, I had no chance of surviving that line that went all around the venue entrance to play it. Thankfully we don’t need to wait any longer as RE: Requiem just launched a few weeks ago on Feb 27, 2026. *At this time I have already beaten the game but I’ve been late to publish this post, so please check out my full experience in my Resident Evil Requiem review post.

2. Into The Fire

Ok, so this game is something that caught me by surprise when I first saw the trailer. The premise is simple. You play as an emergency rescue worker trying to save people from a raging volcano eruption. Sounds simple enough right, however, within that challenge comes a supernatural element. As you heroically risk your life to save people, there are also strange creatures that are in the homes of the locals and you must contend with them while trying your hardest to save as many lives as you can.

Personally, I am so excited to play this game. It’s unique visuals and concept caught my attention the moment I saw it in action and I’ve been hoping to play it ever since. It seems to offer this grounded super hero experience but also a sense of mystery and possibly horror into the mix as you see weird spirits / entities while you navigate the homes of the survivors. This is going to be unique title for sure. Into The Fire will be out later this year.

3. Wolverine

All right gamers so you may also know I’m a huge fan of Marvel Comics and Insomniac games, so this one is kind of a no brainer. However, I am still very concerned about some of the inner workings going on within Insomniac, especially after the hack they had a while back.

Because of that hack, some information got leaked about the production of the game in its early stages and it was made apparent that the game was starting to look “woke” in its uglified depictions of female characters like Jean Gray and Rogue. This information wasn’t final at that time, but it still concerns me because we have previously noticed they did something similar to Mary Jane in their Spider-Man series as well, in addition to adding questionable side missions that seemed to highlight social and political standings from the developers.

Personally I don’t care what way the developers are leaning in real life, I just don’t want any ideology, politics, or beliefs being reflected in video games or in the depictions of iconic characters. These characters are staples and should look ideal and over the top, not “realistic” in the sense of emulating the look of modern day people.

Wolverine is one of my personal favorite characters. His brutality, his dark past, his rage, and internal struggles as a character all resonate with me and I truly hope to get lost in this game’s story and comic accurate FICTION. I want to be able to live out my Wolverine fantasy and rip apart all the enemies that come my way in this game, and honestly Insomniac has the opportunity to make this one of the best comic book video games of all time. Let’s just hope there are no political stories, reflections of real life, or altered artwork for the sake of the non-existent “modern audience” and the art work and designs remain ideal.

4. ILL

Now this particular game has been on my radar since I’ve seen the tech demonstration from Team Clout way before it was even in talks of being a true game. These developers were messing with the maximum potential of Unreal Engine 5 and what was possible regarding body horror and creating hyper realistic monsters. What caught my attention here was how gripping the visuals are, from the super wet slickness from enemy blood, to the in game physics of torn apart limbs ILL was set to be an insane visual project no matter what it was going to end up as.

Eventually Team Clout ended up pushing the envelope with the concept and building shooter mechanics into this project and some more time after that, the developer and publisher Mundfish (creators of Atomic Heart) caught wind of the project and picked them up to support the game’s development. Pictures don’t do this game justice, so I included the official trailer – but please be warned this game is not for the faint of heart or the squeamish, so keep that in mind before watching or searching more about this game.

After learning the game was being backed by Mundfish I had much more faith that this game was going to become a reality to experience. At this point the game currently has been wish listed more that 1 million times and I believe the game will be a truly next level horror shooter experience. If you’re a fan of ultra horror, video game gore, and physics based combat (like Dead Space or Gears of War) ILL may be right up your alley, and could potentially be one of the best games out this year.

5. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls

Here we are at number 5 on this list. And once again we have another Marvel Comics focused game with Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls. This game has been in the back of my mind since I first saw the super short announcement trailer. It is being developed by PlayStation Studios, Marvel Studios, and Arc System Works and together they’re making a this insane looking 4 v 4 tag team style fighting game.

The game will feature iconic characters from the Avengers and X-Men (see the Unbreakable X-Men trailer below) and some deeper characters like Dr. Doom, Ghost Rider, and Magik. At this time the full roster has not been announced yet but it seems to be very diverse and expanding as they continue pulling in characters from across the timelines of Marvel’s history.

Personally, I cannot state how hyped I am for this game. The artwork is phenomenal, the graphics and gameplay look outstanding and buttery smooth. Marvel Tokon is looking to be one of the highest quality fighters Arc System Works has ever put out, and with PlayStation Studios as well, it appears this will be a potential candidate for best fighter of 2026.

Final Thoughts For 2026

This year is looking jam packed with new titles that are both exciting and equally confusing because it seems some developers are still trying to figure themselves out and who their target audience is. While they continue to go through that process and re-learn that making truly meaningful quality fantasy experiences is what drives sales and passionate fans, I will continue to take notes on upcoming titles that stand out above the rest.

Because you were able to stay with me all the way till this point, I have a little bonus for you guys. Here are some notable mentions of upcoming games that didn’t make the top 5, but still look extremely promising:

• Marathon (Bungie’s return to the helm – extraction shooter)
• INVINCIBLE VS (A low key potential fighting behemoth)
• John Wick Game (With franchise director Chad Stahelski behind the project… if all goes well, this will be one of best movie action games ever made)

• Phantom Blade 0 (This is my favorite souls like so far this year)
• Pragmata (Capcom is on fire these days and hopefully this sci-fi concept will continue to elevate their portfolio)
• 007 First Light (I am not the biggest fan of James Bond, but this young bond game looks like it can deliver the best parts of what made the franchise so special)
• Death Stranding 2 PC (DS2 is such a gorgeous and unique game, it will be even better on PC with better performance and visuals)
• Crimson Desert (This game looks to be something like Dragons Dogma 2 and Witcher 3 combined and I am excited to see how this game shakes out and the end of this month)
• Kingmakers (This indie game was one I was going to include on the list – however it has been delayed indefinitely as the developer wished to make a fully polished experience – The concept here is incredible, over the top, and silly, but mechanically speaking, it looks the be one of the most fun third person shooters I’ve seen in a long time)

Finally, if you’ve made it all the way down here, as always thank you so very much for your time reading my posts. I love writing these but they are getting increasingly difficult for me personally as I am still trying to find my way forward as a writer, and balancing time with work, so thank you again for spending time with me here. I was recently asked what I’ve been playing these days and if you’d like to keep up with me, I’ll be including my current games at the bottom of each post as I go forward.

***Currently Playing: Resident Evil Requiem (2nd Playthrough in Classic mode), Marathon (Currently level 20, but still need to figure this one out), John Carpenters Toxic Commando (this one is a smaller niche title that I am trying out to fill that co-op zombie survival need, only played for an hour, but its pretty straight forward and generally fun so far.