23 games that deserve your autumn evenings (before GTA 6 takes them all)
From claws-out brawls to a Witcher 3 refit, here’s the pile of blockbusters, scares and slow-burn epics filling the weeks before 19 November.
Publishers have spent months tiptoeing around GTA 6, which lands on 19 November, and the result is a September and October so crowded that some of the best releases are already out. We’ve sorted the lot by mood rather than genre, flagged the delays, and checked every price we could on 21 September. Dates and prices move, so glance at the store page before you commit. If you only have time for a handful, we’d start with Control Resonant, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse and the free Witcher 3 upgrade.
Jump to:
- For when you need to hit something with style
- Lights off, doors locked
- Squad up and log on
- Long nights, big worlds
For when you need to hit something with style
Six action games with very different ideas about what a satisfying hit feels like, and two of them are already out.
Marvel’s Wolverine
Insomniac has swapped web-swinging for a tight, linear brawl, and after Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and two Spider-Man games, the unrelenting violence is a proper change of pace. Logan rejoins Team X to stop Bolivar Trask’s mutant hunters, Omega Red lurks among the villains, and the berserker combat is as bloody as you’d hope. It’s a PS5 exclusive that’s been out since 15 September, so the spoilers are already circling, and we’d get in first. At £69.99 it’s a full-fat price for a linear adventure, so wait for a sale if you’re wavering.
£69.99 / $79.99, PlayStation Direct
Onimusha: Way of the Sword
Duelling is the entire pitch. Capcom drops you into Edo-era Kyoto as Miyamoto Musashi, armed with an Oni Gauntlet that soaks up the souls of the Genma demons you cut down, and the RE Engine gives the whole thing a grim polish. Critics are averaging a score in the mid 80s out of 100, and it has passed a million sales since the 4 September launch on PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2 and PC. Capcom even pulled the date forward from 25 September, which reads as confidence in a crowded month. If Soulslikes have worn you out, this is a good place to swing a sword instead.
$69.99 (UK price unconfirmed), Steam
Phantom Blade Zero
You have 66 days to live, and S-GAME wants you to spend them tinkering. More than 30 primary weapons pair with more than 20 Phantom Edges, so two players can reach the same boss with completely different toolkits. It’s a wuxia action RPG built in Unreal Engine 5, with Donnie Yen consulting on the combat, and it’s digital only. The pre-order outfit and accessory can also be earned in play, so there’s no need to rush for them. It arrives on 29 October on PS5 and PC.
£54.99 / $59.99, PlayStation Store
Control Resonant
Remedy has handed the story to Dylan Faden and turned the series into a proper action RPG. His shapeshifting melee weapon, the Aberrant, sits at the heart of a deep skill system, and we’re curious how far it stretches. The Hiss have spilled out of the Oldest House into a Manhattan on the verge of paranatural collapse. It launches on 24 September on PS5, Xbox Series and PC, and PlayStation buyers who splash on the Digital Deluxe Edition get 48 hours of early access. At £49.99 the Standard Edition undercuts Wolverine by a clean £20.
£49.99 / $59.99, Steam
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve
Ace Combat finally has somewhere to hang out. The online mode debuts a virtual air base where up to 100 pilots mingle as custom avatars before heading into co-op and competitive missions with crossplay, while the campaign hands you one of more than 30 aircraft. It’s the first mainline entry in over seven years. Pre-orders include the F-14A and a port of Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, and the £84.99 Deluxe Edition adds three days of early access. It takes off late on 1 October UK time on PS5, Xbox Series and PC, and PS5 owners need PS Plus for online play.
£64.99 / $69.99, PlayStation Store
Minecraft Dungeons II
Loot, levels and a boss at the end of a very blocky corridor, now with four-player co-op both local and online. Mojang and Double Eleven send you across two worlds this time, and it lands on 29 September on PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2 and PC. The price is the surprise, a good deal lower than most of this pile, and it’s on Game Pass from day one. An early eShop listing estimated a 6.8GB download, tiny by modern standards. Diablo-style looting for the whole household.
$29.99 (UK price unconfirmed), Xbox Store
Lights off, doors locked
Four flavours of dread, from a foggy Scottish island to a burning medieval Paris.
Silent Hill: Townfall
A pocket television is your only real protection. The CRTV tunes into unstable signals and lets you peek round corners, which gives this first-person Silent Hill the tension of a stealth game rather than a shooter. Screen Burn, the studio formerly known as No Code, sets it on the fictional Scottish island of St. Amelia in 1996. Look for it on 24 September on PS5 and PC, with the Deluxe Edition unlocking 48 hours early. It’s the third Silent Hill release in as many years, following Silent Hill 2 in 2024 and Silent Hill f in 2025.
£44.99 / $49.99, Steam
Hellraiser: Revival
Pinhead’s puzzle box doubles as your weapon. The Genesis Configuration absorbs fire and throws it back, summons impaling chains and launches sawblades, but only after you’ve built up Suffering through gruesome execution moves. You play Aidan, who has to drag his girlfriend out of the Labyrinth, and the tone is squarely for Clive Barker fans (the unrated trailer is age-restricted for a reason). The Standard Edition sits well below the usual blockbuster price. Expect it on PC, PS5, Xbox Series and Switch 2 from 8 October.
£34.99 / $39.99, Steam
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse
The whip is the star. Evil Empire, the studio behind Dead Cells, has built a 2D Castlevania around swinging Rose Belmont through a burning Paris in 1499, with her father Trevor alongside. Katsuya Terada’s illustrations give it a look all its own, and Motion Twin advised on the project. At £24.99 it’s priced like a game that wants you to give it a chance, and it lands on 15 October. The £34.99 Midnight Edition adds two costumes, a relic and a sound gallery for anyone who wants the extras.
£24.99 / $29.99, Steam
End of Abyss
Ex-Little Nightmares developers have traded helplessness for a shotgun. Section 9 Interactive drops combat technician Cel into an underground facility, as a top-down twin-stick shooter with Metroidvania backtracking, a scanner for finding hidden routes and enemies that respawn. Note the PC catch: it’s Epic Games Store only, not on Steam, and it lands on 1 October alongside PS5 and Xbox Series versions. Dedicated save points take the sting out of dying, though the co-founders say the structure and difficulty owe something to Dark Souls.
$29.99 (UK price unconfirmed), Epic Games Store
Squad up and log on
Seven games built for company, whether that’s a Discord full of Vikings, a couch with a spare controller or a lobby of strangers.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds
Jagex held the price at £24.99 when Dragonwilds left early access after 17 months and more than a million sales, a small kindness in a market that loves a post-launch hike. Version 1.0 arrived on 15 September with the game’s first raid, crossplay across PC, PS5, Xbox and Switch 2, and day one access through Game Pass and PS Plus Extra. One PC warning: the Jagex Launcher copy is separate from a Steam purchase, so buy where you’ll play.
£24.99 / $29.99, Steam
Valheim
Five years of early access ended on 9 September with the Deep North, a frozen final biome full of blizzards, Gammeltrolls and a new enemy called the Elakingar. Valheim also debuted on PS5 and Switch 2 with full crossplay, which is the moment to finally recruit your console-only friends into the longboat. Steam’s player count leapt from about 26,000 to 116,000 in the day after launch, which tells you people were waiting. The price rose from $19.99, though anyone who already owns it keeps it.
$29.99 (UK price unconfirmed), Steam
Dune: Awakening
Solo players finally get an invitation. Funcom’s Arrakis survival game reaches PS5 and Xbox Series on 22 September with a full single-player mode, adjustable difficulty and a finale that wraps up Book One. Consoles get a 60fps performance mode, PvP is optional throughout (Deep Desert included), and Game Pass subscribers play from day one. PlayStation owners don’t need PS Plus for the single-player mode. Cross-play only links Xbox with the Microsoft Store version on PC. The $49.99 Standard Edition is the base price, with Deluxe at $69.99 and Ultimate at $89.99 if you want a head start.
$49.99 (UK price unconfirmed), PlayStation Store
Gears of War: E-Day
Marcus and Dom, fourteen years before the first game, with the Locust erupting from below. The Coalition has rebuilt Gears in Unreal Engine 5 as a cover-based campaign for up to four online (two in split-screen on console), plus a reworked horde mode called Horde Siege. It launches on 6 October, with up to five days of early access on the Premium Edition, and it’s on Game Pass from day one. Xbox has also announced a limited edition controller at £84.99 for the completists.
From £49.99 / $69.99, Argos
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4
A war on the Korean Peninsula, a returning DMZ mode for extraction-shooter fans, and multiplayer built on the weighty foundations of Modern Warfare 2. It’s out on 23 October on PS5, Xbox Series, PC and Switch 2, and digital pre-orders unlock the campaign a week early, on 16 October. It isn’t on Game Pass at launch, so budget accordingly. The reveal trailer pulled in 58 million YouTube views in two weeks, so Activision’s confidence isn’t hard to understand.
£62.99 / $69.99, Argos
Star Wars: Galactic Racer
Leave the Jedi at home, because this is a dirty racing circuit in the Outer Rim. Fuse Games, a Guildford studio stuffed with Burnout and Need for Speed veterans, has built a takedown-happy arcade racer with a story campaign, three types of customisable repulsorcraft and podracers for the nostalgic. Up to 12 players can race online when the green flag drops on 6 October on PS5, Xbox Series and PC. The $79.99 Deluxe Edition adds three exclusive vehicles.
£49.99 / $59.99, Steam
Hot Wheels Infinite Rush
Toy cars, an open world and a very small sense of scale. Milestone, the studio behind the Hot Wheels Unleashed games, sets you loose across four islands (city streets, parks and resorts, neon canals, a desert) with more than 150 vehicles to collect, a track builder, four-player split-screen and crossplay online. It’s been out since 10 September on PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2 and PC, so you can judge it for yourself: early Steam reviews are mixed, at roughly two thirds positive, but the price sits well below most of the blockbusters here.
$49.99 (UK price unconfirmed), Steam
How to survive the pile-up without emptying your wallet
Check your subscriptions first
Game Pass covers Gears of War: E-Day, Dune: Awakening and Minecraft Dungeons II from day one, and Dragonwilds turns up on both Game Pass and PS Plus Extra. Work out which subscription already owns the game before you pay full price.
Mind the PC storefront
End of Abyss is Epic Games Store only, Dawn of War IV is Steam only, and Dragonwilds has its own Jagex Launcher version. Check where you’re buying before you click, because ownership on one PC store doesn’t carry to another.
Know your refund window
On Steam, refunds generally cover purchases from the last 14 days with under two hours played. Console stores work differently, so read the small print before you download on day one.
Think twice about the head start
Gears of War: E-Day offers up to five days early on the Premium Edition, Ace Combat 8’s Deluxe Edition gives you three, and Silent Hill: Townfall and Control Resonant (on PlayStation) both give Deluxe buyers 48 hours. That’s a paid queue jump, not a better game, so only pay if a spoiler-free week matters to you.
Long nights, big worlds
Six games that reward patience, whether you’re replaying an old favourite, starting a new saga or building a zoo, and two of them are already out.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered
Already own Geralt’s biggest adventure? Then this costs nothing. CD Projekt Red is upgrading the 2015 classic on 29 September with a reworked skill tree, transmogrification, new finishers and better horse handling, and both expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, come free to anyone with the base game. New buyers pay more, though: the Complete Edition on Steam rose by $10 to $49.99 after the announcement. Songs of the Past, a paid expansion, follows in 2027. We’d reinstall it for the new finishers alone.
Free for owners; $49.99 for new buyers (UK price unconfirmed), Steam
Final Fantasy Resonance
Pixel art and turn-based battles, finally with a Final Fantasy badge on the front. The first HD-2D entry rebuilds the story arc of the mobile game Brave Exvius for consoles, and the free Chapter 1 demo, out since 3 September, carries your save into the full game on 22 October. There’s even a Sephiroth challenge encounter waiting. It’s on PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, Switch and PC, and the price is the same number in pounds and dollars, a small miracle.
£49.99 / $49.99, Steam
Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter
Estelle’s search for Joshua continues in a remake that plays like it was built this year. Battles blend real-time movement with turn-based combat, the cast is fully voiced in English and Japanese, and it launched on 17 September for PS5, Switch 2, Switch and Steam. Play the first chapter first, because this sequel spoils it freely. A cosmetic Season Pass costs $24.99 extra, which you can happily ignore.
£59.99 / $59.99, PlayStation Store
Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave
Four heroes, one gladiatorial contest, and a creature called the Pale Raven that lets you follow all their stories in parallel. Cai, Dietrich, Theodora and Leda compete in the Heroic Games for a chance at one wish, with shopping, dungeon crawls and recruiting between the matches. It’s the first new Fire Emblem since Engage in 2023 and a Switch 2 exclusive, and it launched on 17 September. Physical copies run to £66.99 against £58.99 for digital, so decide early which shelf you’re buying for.
£58.99 / $69.99, Nintendo eShop
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV
Four factions, more than 70 campaign missions, and the Adeptus Mechanicus making their series debut alongside Space Marines, Orks and Necrons. Developer KING Art pushed the launch from 17 September to 3 December for polish, which beats a broken day one. It’s a Steam-only release on PC, and Commander Edition buyers get in from 30 November. A year of free updates is planned, including the return of the Crusade campaign mode.
£49.99 / $59.99, Steam
Planet Zoo 2
Sharks and toucans finally get their own real estate. Frontier’s zoo sim adds aquariums and aviaries for the first time, with walk-through aviaries for guests, plus Wildlife Reserves where you restore habitats and release animals into the wild. The Frontier Workshop returns with blueprint sharing across platforms, so console builders get the same community creations as PC from day one. It lands on 13 October on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series, and at £39.99 it’s one of the cheaper ways to lose a whole evening. The Deluxe Edition adds six species for £54.99.
£39.99 / $49.99, Steam
How to get your setup ready before release week
Clear space now
Valheim needs roughly 4GB, while Ace Combat 8 lists 125GB as its PC minimum. Check the store page and clear space before release day, not on it.
Try the demo first
Final Fantasy Resonance and Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter both have free demos that carry your save into the full game. Twenty minutes tells you more than any trailer.
Wishlist, then wait a week
Launch weeks mean patches, server wobbles and the odd surprise. Dawn of War IV slipping from September to December is a reminder that a date isn’t a promise, so let the first reviews land before you spend.
Prices and dates were checked on 21 September 2026 and will keep moving, so treat any UK figure marked unconfirmed as a prompt to check the store before you buy. GTA 6 lands on 19 November, so consider this your window.
