Here are six of our favourite games of 2026… so far

They never stop, do they, the games? It’s relentless. There you are, still trying to finish Witcher III with absolutely no idea where you are on the map or what this active quest is about, and the games industry dumps a massive pile of delectable content onto your lap.

Before you give up entirely and just go back to hotlapping in LMU, consider these six titles that represent the cream of 2026 so far. You’ll laugh, you’ll… well, probably not cry exactly, but at the very least you’ll become uncomfortably sweaty at the sights Resi Requiem wants to show you.

Feeling brave? No, but seriously – Capcom’s latest instalment of this legendary survival horror series has some moments in it that teeter right on the verge of unbearably tense and nightmarish, even to veteran players. It’s a smart marriage of old-school third-person shooter and Resi 7-style first-person sequences, divvied up between Leon “the hair” Kennedy and new character Grace Ashcroft, with a story that feels personal and pacey.

Grace may have become the unfortunate poster girl for Nvidia’s – ahem – controversial DLSS 5 tech since the game’s release, but let’s not forget she’s first and foremost the star of a slick, gorgeous-looking and gripping adventure into the origins of the Raccoon City Destruction Incident.

Who had ‘a meditative climbing game will be among the year’s best output’ on their 2026 bingo cards? Nah, sit back down. You’re fibbing. We all suspected Cairn might be good, but nobody saw its GOTY potential until they started climbing.

As hard-headed mountaineer Aava, you set off to climb the highest peak in the land, the fictional Mount Kami whose summit no human has previously reached. You do that by controlling her, limb by limb, picking the exact placements of her hands and feet in a remarkably granular system that makes you feel like you’re the expert mountaineer, not Aava.

And then you find a cosy spot to set up camp, cook some food for the next day, and rest up until dawn. That climb-and-camp gameplay loop is so much more immersive than if you were simply scaling endless rockfaces, and that makes Cairn feel like a bona fide adventure, unique to you and your choices.

Yes, we’re cheating with this one. AC Rally entered Steam Early Access in 2025, but its ongoing development and meaty 0.3 update are sufficient grounds for us to look you dead in the eye and tell you it’s one of 2026’s best games thus far. Got a problem with that? Come argue with us. We’ll be in that soggy Welsh ditch over there.

Truth be told, we still haven’t completely mastered the demands of its unprecedented handling model, which removes all sugar-coating applied by arcade rally titles with a stiff bristle brush and then dares you to take the next “left five over bump, caution logs” flat-out. But that’s the beauty of it. It’s a sim that brings you intrinsic joy just from driving, figuring out the intricacies, and levelling yourself up just marginally with every run. We can’t wait for the full release, which will surely be the game of the year… whenever that year is.

It’s very nearly an instant classic. We didn’t gel with Screamer’s twin-stick handling, but there’s still an awful lot to love about this narrative-led and anime-infused take on arcade racing. Frankly, after 20 years of Need For Speed dominance in that area, it’s just nice not to play a story about undercover cops or slighted street racers.

The characters get under your skin, and their customisable cars are each written to a bespoke design language that seems to speak to their disposition. Inspired little touches like active upshifting are scattered throughout the racing, which is even more tactical and boost-focused than a weekend at Formula E.

2025 was the year of ambitious but flawed hardcore driving sims; if 2026 is all about heroic arcade projects, we’re completely on board.

Bungie, that lot wot made Halo and Destiny, are about as safe a pair of hands as one could find in the first-person shooter domain. Nevertheless, it took all the studio’s experience to pull off a reimagining of a ‘90s corridor shooter in PvPvE extraction shooter finery.

Marathon is slick and stylish. It looks like it went to art college and then got really into Philip K. Dick books. The shooting and movement feel wonderful – obviously, it’s Bungie – but it’s the way this game cherry-picks the best bits from recent extraction hits like Arc Raiders and blends them into such a stylish world, that has you thinking about it when you should be doing your work or checking it’s safe for your kid to cross the road.

Making a fine case for nominative determinism, Esoteric Ebb is indeed driven by pretty idiosyncratic passions, namely dice rolls, D&D rules and fantastically flowery writing. It’s an RPG, really, but one that gives you enough license to make a real mess of things. Don’t be perturbed if Dungeons & Dragons isn’t your thing – really this is an improv comedy that just happens to be wearing a medieval breastplate and carrying a goblin sidekick in tow.