Destructoid Checkpoint: The year ahead

2026 is here, which gives the average human being 365 days of potential. That’s a lot of small slivers of consciousness to either get stuff done or distract yourself from the uncaring void of space that we are all being carried through on Spaceship Earth.

If distraction is your preferred way of living, then the news is good. 2026 has plenty of games that are interesting, exciting, or just worth watching from afar to see what happens. Here is a random selection of things I am looking forward to at the start of the year.

Highguard

Highguard arrives in late January, which means we will all get to find out if our sneaking suspicions about the game are correct. Revealed at the Game Awards, it is hailed as being from folks who worked on Titanfall and Apex Legends, but the game looks far more inspired by Paladins and Valorant than either of those titles.

I’ll be honest, I am struggling to find out where games like this fit in the modern landscape, and I see it as something that will likely have fallen out of the public consciousness before the end of the year. I never want to be right when it comes to such predictions, but the modern gaming market is ruthless, and you need to be lucky just to find an audience that will keep your project alive, let alone help it thrive.

Code Vein 2

Code Vein slapped, and I feel bad for anyone who missed out on the fun. While it wasn’t the greatest game ever, it was a fun time, and that’s all I ever need. Code Vein 2 has the chance to take that foundation and build upon it in a way that catapults it to the heights of “genuinely good”. Let’s hope that Namco can pull it off.

Nioh 3

For fans of the Soulsborne vibe, Nioh 3 will likely offer the very best combat you will see in that genre all year. The series has proven to have exceptionally tight and rewarding combat over the years, stepping up the brutality of punishment in an effort to explore greater heights of reward.

Nioh has been responsible for some of my favorite boss fights within the third-person action genre, and I expect Team Ninja to deliver a highlight of the gaming calendar. 

Pokemon Pokopia

I once had a nightmare that an old boss was secretly a Ditto, so while I am unsure if Pokémon Pokopia is supposed to invoke a degree of existential crisis in players, it likely will for me. 

On a more serious note, this game just looks fun, a weird mix of Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon with a Pokémon paint job. Games like this are either an absolute disasterpiece or the greatest thing in human history, so I am eager to see which side of the coin lands for this one.

Control Resonant

If you are a big fan of New Weird literature, you should likely read stuff like the Southern Reach Trilogy, Perdido Street Station, An Orchid in my Belly Button, and many more. Fans of SCP will find a lot to love, and we can all sit around and hope that Control Resonant really pushes its narrative into the area of the truly weird. 

Saros

Saros is the follow-up to Returnal for Housemarque, and it looks to explore their traditional bullet-hell vibes while sticking with Returnal's third-person perspective rather than the top-down view of previous efforts like Nex Machina. 

Where things get fun is that you need to block attacks to absorb their energy, flinging it back at the denizens around you. This looks decidedly eldritch in inspiration, so I am hoping for a seriously challenging narrative that takes us to weird and unexpected levels of understanding.

Witchbrook

I am fiendishly excited for Witchbrook, a cute life-sim that will allow four players to take on the roles of witches. It’s another game that looks warm, chill, and inviting, and exactly the kind of thing that I plan on getting more of in 2026. There is no set release date for this charming little adventure yet, so keep your eyes peeled for announcements later in the year. 

007 First Light

A Bond game! It has been a while since we’ve been able to really step into the shoes of the world’s worst spy, and I am eager to play a man who is great at killing, fantastic at jumping through windows and off buildings, and absolutely terrible at not telling people exactly who he is. 

I know people are saying they would be happy for IO Interactive to put a Bond skin on their luscious Hitman series, but I want more. I want something that is uniquely, unambiguously Bond. 

GTA VI

Now, whether GTA VI hits its current target launch date of November 19, 2026, remains to be seen. I’m of the opinion that we will see the game slide a little further into 2027 than most people would like, but for now, it’s down for this year, so I shall be excited. 

I’m excited to see how GTA’s traditional satire holds up in a world that is, frankly, far closer to the one that Rockstar’s series presents than ever. Twenty-five years ago, GTA portraying famous people hitting themselves in the faces with hammers to change their jawlines would have been the butt of several jokes in the game, but now your young cousin is probably doing it because some influencer told him to. 

We haven’t fallen. We have plummeted. 

Slay The Spire 2

I would hope that little needs to be said about Slay The Spire, the monstrously addictive deckbuilding roguelike that has sent folks who don’t like either of those words running. But, if you do like those words, you are positively salivating at the idea of this thing releasing, as am I.

As I said, this is just a tiny slice of what's coming our way, and you’d better believe there will be a lot of surprises coming, too. 2025 was a wonderful year for fantastic games, and I am expecting the same this year.