The Top Games to Play in October 2026

As expected, September turned out to be one of the busier months of the year, with Marvel’s Wolverine, Control Resonant, Silent Hill: Townfall, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered all arriving within a few weeks of each other, and we’re still working through September’s list. October doesn’t let up, with another packed release schedule in the last full month before Grand Theft Auto VI arrives on November 19. Gears of War: E-Day opens the month as an XBOX console exclusive, Kingdom Hearts Collection [I~III] brings the collections through Kingdom Hearts III to Switch 2 for the first time, Final Fantasy Resonance gives the series its first HD-2D game, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and Phantom Blade Zero close things out.

Personally, Final Fantasy Resonance is my most anticipated game of the month, and we’ve been covering The Wolf Among Us since the original episodes were rolling out in 2013 and 2014, so that remaster is on the list as well. I’m also planning to check out Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, Gears of War: E-Day, possibly Phantom Blade Zero, and eventually we’ll go through Enshrouded 1.0 as a group.

Check out FullCleared’s picks for the top games to play in October 2026 below.

End of Abyss

October opens with End of Abyss, a sci-fi action horror game from Section 9 Interactive, the Swedish studio founded by veterans of Little Nightmares developer Tarsier Studios, with Epic Games Publishing handling the release. The game was revealed at Summer Game Fest 2025 and takes place in an isolated research facility where players have to fight to survive and uncover what happened there. Section 9 has kept most of the story details under wraps since that first showing.

End of Abyss releases on October 1, 2026 for PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, and PC.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve

Bandai Namco’s Project Aces returns with Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, the first new mainline entry since Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown in 2019. The game locked in its October 2 date at June’s State of Play, and Sony’s own blog recently detailed how the campaign uses first-person sequences to tell a more personal story alongside the cockpit and third-person dogfighting the series is built on. It’s also the first entry in the series built for current-generation hardware.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve releases on October 2, 2026 for PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, and PC.

AION 2

NCSoft’s AION 2 brings its MMORPG sequel west on October 5 through Steam and the publisher’s Purple launcher, a few weeks later than the September window originally announced at Summer Game Fest. Built in Unreal Engine 5, it follows up the 2008 original and launched in Korea last November ahead of the global rollout. The Western version carries over the aerial combat, the two-faction setup, and the open-world PvP the original was known for.

AION 2 releases on October 5, 2026 for PC.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer

Fuse Games, a studio staffed by Need for Speed and Burnout veterans, is behind Star Wars: Galactic Racer, which got its October 6 date back in April. The campaign follows a new character named Shade, a lone racer chasing glory and revenge, and uses run-based progression where the vehicle you start with, the upgrades you pick, and the events you enter all shape the path to becoming champion of the League. Racing isn’t limited to pods, either, with landspeeders and speeder bikes on tracks that include Jakku and Ando Prime, and online multiplayer supports up to 12 racers. The game is already up for Best Audio Design at this year’s Golden Joystick Awards.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer releases on October 6, 2026 for PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, and PC.

Gears of War: E-Day

The Coalition’s Gears of War: E-Day is set 14 years before the original Gears of War and follows younger versions of Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago through the first days of the Locust invasion, with People Can Fly co-developing. We called it one of the most anticipated games of the year ahead of its Direct, and XBOX CEO Asha Sharma confirmed it as a console exclusive at June’s XBOX Games Showcase. It arrives day one with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Premium Edition buyers get up to five days of early access starting October 1, and The Coalition announced on September 17 that the game had gone gold, alongside final PC specs requiring a GPU with hardware ray tracing support and 115GB of SSD space. Multiplayer brings back 4v4 Versus and adds Horde Siege, a new 12-player PvE mode where three squads defend Kalona across larger maps.

Gears of War: E-Day releases on October 6, 2026 for XBOX Series X|S and PC.

Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival

Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival arrives just in time for Halloween, with Saber Interactive and Boss Team Games bringing Pinhead back in a first-person action horror game and Doug Bradley reprising the role. Players take on the role of Aidan, who’s pulled into the Cenobites’ world after his girlfriend is taken. The game leans on the puzzle-box mythology of the films with a mix of melee combat, gunplay, and the series’ signature body horror.

Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival releases on October 8, 2026 for PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, and PC.

Kingdom Hearts Collection [I~III]

Square Enix announced Kingdom Hearts Collection [I~III] alongside a new Kingdom Hearts IV trailer at June’s Nintendo Direct, and it gathers Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts III with the Re Mind DLC into a single bundle. The bundle brings native versions to PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, and Switch 2, along with a new PC release through the Microsoft Store. For Nintendo players in particular, it’s the first time these collections have been playable on a Switch system without cloud streaming. Kingdom Hearts IV is set for 2027 and currently sits on the Golden Joysticks’ Most Wanted list. As I said when the D23 panel was announced, it’s one of the most highly anticipated games of the decade, so the collection gives anyone who wants to catch up something to play while they wait.

Kingdom Hearts Collection [I~III] releases on October 8, 2026 for PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, Switch 2, and PC.

Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen

Capcom detailed Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen at June’s Capcom Spotlight, and it’s a paid expansion that sends the Arisen to Norgan, a long-abandoned northern region, alongside a new companion named Eir on the trail of an undying Fallen Dragon. The expansion adds a relic appraisal system for obtaining new weapons and armor, 12 Lost Rites dungeon challenges, and new hairstyles and tattoos for the character creator, with the base game also picking up extra weapon skill slots and save slots through free updates. On PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, and PC, the expansion is $29.99 as DLC, while Switch 2 gets Dragon’s Dogma 2 for the first time as a $49.99 bundle that includes both the base game and Dark Arisen.

Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen releases on October 9, 2026 for PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, Switch 2, and PC.

Planet Zoo 2

Frontier Developments’ Planet Zoo 2 arrives seven years after the original, and the headline additions are aquariums and aviaries. The sequel also lets players build and manage wildlife reserves in addition to traditional commercial zoos. Those reserves put the focus on conservation, giving players somewhere to release the animals they’ve raised.

Planet Zoo 2 releases on October 13, 2026 for PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, and PC.

Valor Mortis

One More Level’s Valor Mortis is a first-person soulslike set in an alternate-history version of the Napoleonic Wars, and it moved from September to October 13 to get clear of a crowded month, although it might be in an even more crowded month now. Players control a resurrected soldier from Napoleon’s Grande Armée who fights through a corrupted Europe with sabers, muskets, and supernatural abilities. The game features stamina management, bonfire-style checkpoints, and dropped resources that players can recover after dying.

Valor Mortis releases on October 13, 2026 for PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, and PC.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2

Auroch Digital and publisher Big Fan Games follow up 2023’s retro-styled shooter with Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2, which keeps the pixelated sprites and ’90s-inspired level design of the original while expanding the arsenal and enemy variety. Sternguard Veteran Malum Caedo returns alongside a second playable character, Sister of Battle Nyra Veyrath, with each offering different weapons and abilities. The sequel also adds a branching campaign with different levels to explore, along with more of the over-the-top gore that defined the first game.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 releases on October 14, 2026 for PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, and PC.

Enshrouded 1.0

Keen Games’ co-op survival action RPG Enshrouded leaves Early Access on October 15, nearly three years after its January 2024 debut, and the 1.0 launch brings the game to PlayStation 5 alongside PC. The game has already sold more than five million copies during its Early Access run. XBOX players will have to wait, though, since that version slipped to spring 2027 when the date was announced.

Enshrouded 1.0 releases on October 15, 2026 for PlayStation 5 and PC.

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse

Konami’s first new mainline Castlevania in over a decade is Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, a 2D action-exploration game developed with Evil Empire, the studio behind Dead Cells’ updates and DLC, with advisory support from Motion Twin. It’s set in Paris in 1499, 23 years after the events of Castlevania III, and follows Rose Belmont, Trevor Belmont’s daughter, as Dracula’s castle manifests in the heart of the city, with a nonlinear map that spans both the castle and the surrounding streets. The game received a gameplay presentation with developer commentary at the Triple-i Initiative showcase in April and headlined Konami’s Press Start showcase in September. For anyone who came to the series through the Netflix show, this follows the next generation of the Belmont family.

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse releases on October 15, 2026 for PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, Switch, and PC.

Ratatan

Ratatan is the spiritual successor to Patapon from series creator Hiroyuki Kotani and his studio Ratata Arts, developed alongside TVT, and it reached its Kickstarter funding goal in a matter of hours back in 2023. The game keeps Patapon’s rhythm-driven command inputs but turns them into a roguelike with up to four-player co-op, where each player leads a squad of Cobun through procedurally arranged stages while drumming out commands to the beat. Its full release was delayed to October 15 in June, with bonus DLC available for preorders. This marks the console launch and the end of its PC Early Access run, making it one of the few games on this list that has been on our radar for three years running.

Ratatan releases on October 15, 2026 for PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, Switch 2, and PC.

Tales of Eternia Remastered

Bandai Namco continues its run of Tales remasters with Tales of Eternia Remastered, bringing back the 2000 PlayStation game that North America originally received as Tales of Destiny II in 2001. The story follows Reid Hershel and his childhood friend Farah as they take in Meredy, a mysterious girl who speaks an unknown language. Their search for her origins carries them from the world of Inferia across a dimensional boundary to Celestia, and they discover that the two worlds are on a collision course. Like the Graces f and Berseria remasters before it, this one adds modern conveniences on top of the original’s 2D battles, and it’s the oldest game in the series to get the remaster treatment so far.

Tales of Eternia Remastered releases on October 16, 2026 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, Switch, Switch 2, and PC.

Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 4 (Switch 2)

Capcom is bringing the remakes of Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 4 to Switch 2 on October 16, as Resident Evil 2 Deluxe Edition, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 4 Gold Edition, with the Deluxe and Gold versions carrying over their extra content. These are native RE Engine versions, which matters for anyone who remembers the original Switch getting Resident Evil 2 and 3 as cloud-only releases. Preorders are open with an early adopter discount, at $29.99 for Resident Evil 2 Deluxe Edition, $19.79 for Resident Evil 3, and $39.99 for Resident Evil 4 Gold Edition. Once these arrive, every numbered mainline Resident Evil is playable on Switch 2 ahead of Resident Evil Veronica. All three arrive digitally on October 16, with physical editions following on January 29, 2027.

Resident Evil 2 Deluxe Edition, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 4 Gold Edition release on October 16, 2026 for Switch 2.

Final Fantasy Resonance

Final Fantasy Resonance is the series’ first HD-2D game, and it rebuilds the first story arc of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, the mobile RPG that ran for roughly eight years before its global servers shut down in 2024, into a full console RPG. As I noted when it was revealed, Octopath Traveler 0 pulled off the same trick with Champions of the Continent last year and worked out pretty well, so I’m looking forward to seeing what Square Enix does with Brave Exvius. Resonance uses a strategic turn-based battle system, brings back chocobos, espers, and airships, and features crossover characters including the Warrior of Light, Cloud, Tidus, Firion, Lightning, and Noctis, plus Sephiroth as an opponent players can track down and challenge. A free demo covering the first chapter is out now, and save data carries into the full game.

Final Fantasy Resonance releases on October 22, 2026 for PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, Switch, Switch 2, and PC.

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort takes the series to Wuhu Island, the setting familiar from Wii Sports Resort, with 12 sports built around motion controls and playable with either a custom Sportsmate or a Mii. The lineup runs from leisure activities like Prop Plane and Power Cruising to competitive events like Boxing, Archery, Bowling, and Thumb Wrestling, with a round of Jump Rope available as a warmup. It’s also getting its own Switch 2 bundle on launch day at $529.99, which includes a three-month Nintendo Switch Online membership. It’s one of two bundles Nintendo announced ahead of the console’s price increase to $499.99 on September 1.

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort releases on October 22, 2026 for Switch 2.

ONE PIECE: Grand Gourmet

Bandai Namco’s ONE PIECE: Grand Gourmet turns the Straw Hats into chefs, trading the usual pirate brawling for a cooking and restaurant game. Luffy’s crew gathers ingredients, prepares dishes, and serves customers across the Grand Line. The game was announced at June’s Nintendo Direct and arrives on Switch, Switch 2, mobile, and PC, which makes it one of the few October releases built around something other than combat.

ONE PIECE: Grand Gourmet releases on October 23, 2026 for Switch, Switch 2, Android, iOS, and PC.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4

Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 takes the campaign to Korea, and it’s coming to Switch 2 alongside the other platforms. The multiplayer side brings back DMZ as a reworked mode after the extraction mode sat dormant following Modern Warfare II. This is also the first Call of Duty since XBOX changed its Game Pass structure in April, so it won’t be a day one Game Pass release the way Black Ops 7 was.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 releases on October 23, 2026 for PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, Switch 2, and PC.

Minecraft (Switch 2)

Minecraft has been playable on Switch 2 through backward compatibility since the console launched, but the native version arriving October 27 is built to take advantage of the hardware, with Vibrant Visuals enabled by default for the directional lighting, volumetric fog, and reflective water the original Switch never supported. The Super Mario Mash-Up Pack gets the same visual overhaul, and Mojang has confirmed a digital upgrade path for existing owners. It arrives four weeks after Minecraft Dungeons II, giving the best-selling game of all time a version built specifically for Nintendo’s latest console.

Minecraft releases on October 27, 2026 for Switch 2.

Phantom Blade Zero

S-GAME’s Phantom Blade Zero was originally set for September 9 before its delay was announced at June’s State of Play, moving it to October 28 in the U.S. and October 29 in other regions. The studio said it wanted to ship the strongest possible version on day one rather than rely on post-launch patches. The wuxia action game has drawn Black Myth: Wukong comparisons since its 2023 reveal as the next big Chinese action title, and it plays faster than a typical soulslike, with difficulty options, a semi-open structure, and a campaign estimated at 20 to 30 hours. Preorders opened in August ahead of a dedicated State of Play breaking down the combat systems.

Phantom Blade Zero releases on October 28, 2026 for PlayStation 5 and PC.

The Wolf Among Us Remastered

The Wolf Among Us Remastered brings Bigby Wolf back two days before Halloween. The remaster includes all five episodes of Telltale’s noir thriller based on Bill Willingham’s Fables comics, reworked with enhanced visuals, an updated interface, improved accessibility, and technical upgrades to animation, audio, resolution, and framerate. It also debuts Noir Mode, which renders the entire game in black and white, and packs in more than an hour of bonus content, including behind-the-scenes videos and cast interviews. With The Wolf Among Us 2 now promised for 2027, this is a chance to revisit the original before the sequel, which was reannounced in 2019.

The Wolf Among Us Remastered releases on October 29, 2026 for PlayStation 5, XBOX One, XBOX Series X|S, Switch, Switch 2, and PC.