Thoughts on Upcoming Games

Posted on August 31, 2026 by Tyler F.M. Edwards

Between the Gamescom announcements, other recent teases, and some upcoming releases, there’s an unusually large number of games on the horizon I’m keeping an eye on. I thought I’d do a rundown on everything I’m looking forward to, or at least willing to hear more about. Maybe some will be future favourites. Maybe some I’ll never mention again. Place your bets now!

Aion 2

Obviously this is the big one right now. I was pretty excited when it was first announced and have gone back and forth over how hyped I am since then. Right now I’m expecting it will probably be like Lost Ark: Not something I end up sticking with longterm, but something that will give me a hundred hours or so of good entertainment all the same. I hope for more than that, but I don’t expect it. It’s always good to have managed expectations.

Right now my major concerns are that the endgame seems extremely sweaty, the community seems quite toxic (both problems Lost Ark had as well), and the class design seems a bit uninspired, with little room for meaningful customization. I’m hoping we get the Brawler class with the Western launch; it seems a bit more mechanically engaging than the others from what I can see. Then again, I do like the DPS/healer hybrid role of the Chanter as well.

One thing’s for sure: I’m maining Asmodian. Azphelumbra!

Exodus

Probably the game I’m most looking forward to right now, though a bit farther off than Aion 2. It’s been a long wait for this Mass Effect spiritual successor, but we now know it’s coming April of next year. Some of the early previews looked a bit janky, but the recent Gamescom trailer focused on the intelligent octopus known as Salt was very good.

Again, I try to manage expectations. I’m not expecting a perfect game — the Mass Effect games never were either — but I am hungry for a BioWare style narrative-focused RPG right now, and the world-building looks incredibly fresh.

Warlock

Another thing we got a peak at during Gamescom. This D&D based action RPG looks a little campy, and the trailer seemed very over-produced to the point I question how representative of actual gameplay it is, but the general concept of combining magic and physical skills is appealing, I’m always up for more of Tricia Helfer in anything, and the fact it’s set in Ravenloft is a big plus (even if they picked what I’d consider to be one of the least interesting Domains of Dread — at least it’s not Barovia again).

Path of Exile 2

Having finished the original and declared it to be one of the games of all time, I’m a little lukewarm on PoE2. I’ve been waiting for it to launch and go free to play to give it a shot, but now the time for that is only a couple months away.

I’ve heard it’s going for a slower, more deliberate approach to combat with more actual rotations as opposed to spamming a single nuke, which is very appealing to me, but I’ve also heard it’s been trending away from that and more towards PoE1 combat, which is not. I like the changes to skill gems not being tied to gear, but the passive wheel still seems an exercise in quantity over quality.

I was looking at potential builds the other night, and I was thinking of going either druid or huntress with a mix of shapeshifting, companion, and necromancy skills (going for the “cycle of life and death” vibes), only to discover that the skill nodes for those three things are all in completely different parts of the wheel and thus difficult if not impossible to combine. That was pretty demoralizing. Again, PoE seems to be the champion for the illusion of choice rather than genuine choice.

It’s also a bit of a bad look that PoE2 seems unlikely to launch with all of its promised classes. Makes it hard to want to jump on board when I don’t even have the full roster to choose from.

Wolcen 2

Now here’s something unexpected. After the disastrous collapse of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, I didn’t really expect its developer to have much of a future at all, let alone produce a sequel.

I have conflicted feelings. Wolcen was in many ways the best ARPG I’ve ever played. Its combat and build system were second to none (here’s the real depth of choice PoE only pretends to). Now whenever I play similar games there’s this nagging voice in the back of my mind saying, “Why doesn’t this feel as good as Wolcen?” But its post launch support was one of the most mismanaged disasters I’ve ever seen.

If they can produce a game that’s as good as Wolcen but actually has a finished storyline in a reasonable timeframe and doesn’t light itself on fire after launch, that’s a game I’d love to play.

If.

Road 96… 2?

The folks at Digixart recently released a brief teaser for what appears to be Road 96 2. Again, not really sure how to feel here. Road 96 was one of my favourite games of the decade, but it didn’t really demand a sequel. Its prequel, Mile 0, already felt a tad unnecessary.

I’m not even sure how you do a sequel to Road 96. The endings are different enough it seems like they’d have to pick one to be the canon ending, which is likely to piss a bunch of people off.

I’d love to revisit Petria in a way that captures the magic of the original, but I just don’t know how likely that is.

Fable

I did play the original Fable a long time ago, and I remember mostly liking it, but it was never a franchise I had much attachment to. Still, the reboot looks very pretty, and a classless RPG with lots of choices to make is always an appealing prospect.

Can’t see myself buying it at full price, though.

Blood of the Dawnwalker

I’m not a big vampire fan, but this looks like it has the potential to be a good “choices matter” RPG. Another one I’m definitely not going to pay full price for, though.

Cinder City

After how The First Descendant turned out, it’s hard to have much optimism for another Korean looter shooter, but the Gamescom trailer did make it seem intriguing. Will keep an eye on it.

1001 Threads of Mizan

The Gamescom trailer for this really impressed me, but the more I read about it, the more I got the vibe it may not be for me. The massive boss battles seems like it will be echoing the Soulslike formula I dislike, and while they say it’s possible to play solo, it sounds like it will be inadvisable to do so.

Still, maybe one day. The magitech Arabic mythology flavour is super cool.

Tarae: The Unbound

Not much information about this so far, but a Diablo-like ARPG based on Eastern mythology seems like an appealing prospect in theory. Worth keeping an eye on.

Marvel’s Wolverine

I just want to say I was really looking forward to this, and I resent Sony for not doing a PC port. Bold strategy, Cotton, we’ll see if it pays off for them.

Silver Palace

This was a trailer that caught my eye during the Gamescom reveals. I’m not big on anime-style stuff as a rule, but the Victorian noir vibe was intriguing, and some of the fight moves looked very cool (though I’m not sure if that’s representative of gameplay or just trailer fakery).

Is it just me, or does a lot of the promotional material for this game feel very sapphic coded?

I’m not really sure what it is, though? It looks like a Genshin style gacha game. The official website is frustratingly unclear, but this site seems to confirm it’s a free to play gacha title. I’ve avoided gacha games until now. Partly because they don’t seem super appealing (bhagpuss’ gushing over Neverness to Everness notwithstanding), but mainly because they all seem to be Chinese, and I’m trying to avoid supporting Chinese games on ethical grounds. Silver Palace’s developer, though, is Singaporean, which I have no objection to.

Miracle

I don’t have anything new to say about this. I just wanted to mention it again because it’s so exciting.

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Guild Wars 3

This one’s still aways off, and I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t get delayed. Not really sure how I feel about it. Guild Wars 2 is a great game in many ways, but it’s just never been able to hold my attention for that long, and one of the biggest factors in that — its poor story writing — is one of the things least likely to change in a sequel.

Overall it’s too early to form any strong opinions. I am hyped for playable Kodan, though. Bearfolk is an underrated archetype. Bears are cool.

Vindictus: Defying Fate

I don’t have anything to say about this I haven’t already said over on Massively, but no list of upcoming games I’m looking forward to would be complete without it. I really like what I’ve played so far, despite being pretty bad at it, and I hope we get a release date soon.

Life Is Strange: Reunion

This is actually already out, but I’m waiting for a discount. I never played Double Exposure and was kind of writing off the franchise for dead until they said they were bringing back Chloe.

Here’s the thing: This is shameless, cynical fan service. But it’s shameless, cynical fan service aimed directly at me and my interests.

It’s a kick in the teeth they didn’t get Ashly Burch back to play her, though. Her performance was absolutely iconic.

And more

I’ve already written about my thoughts on the next round of Age of Empires DLC. I’m eager for AoE4’s Raiders of the North to finally arrive so I can delve into the Crucible. I’m a bit concerned about its replay factor if it’s going to continue to be just wave defence scenarios, but AoE4’s bones are so good hopefully that won’t be an issue. AoE2’s Viking Sagas is, as I’ve said, something I want to play but probably not at full price.

There’s also Godsworn. Still no date for it to finally leave early access, but I believe they’re targeting early next year. I can’t be mad at the developers — there’s only two of them working on the game full-time — but I am impatient to finally sit down and play through the completed campaign.

Then there’s BlizzCon. We don’t know what will be announced for sure, but all signs point to a StarCraft shooter. My money is on “Destiny 2 with a StarCraft skin,” with smaller odds on “Warframe with a StarCraft skin” or “Helldivers 2 with a StarCraft skin.”

As I’ve written elsewhere, I think a StarCraft shooter could be good, but probably won’t be, so I’m not super enthusiastic. StarCraft II was such a near-perfect game I kind of wish they’d just let the franchise lie. There’s nowhere to go but down.

Gaming Round-Up: What Horrors Await

Posted on June 12, 2026 by Tyler F.M. Edwards

Time for another rundown of what I’ve played over the last few weeks. By purest happenstance, a lot (though not all) of this has been games that are at least horror adjacent.

Path of Exile:

I did finally get around to finishing the story in Path of Exile. My final judgment is that playing PoE on ruthless mode felt about equal in difficulty to my first playthrough of Diablo III on normal difficulty. I only really struggled on the final bosses of acts five and ten, mirroring D3, where I only struggled with Belial and Diablo. I’ll also note again the act five boss was mostly so hard because it was bugged out when I did it. The statues I was supposed to hide behind never spawned.

I only briefly sampled PoE’s endgame offerings, doing one “map.” It was a complete faceroll until I got to the final boss, at which point I was one-shot halfway through the fight by I have no idea what. The whole thing felt like the perfect microcosm of the PoE experience, and I decided I’d had more than enough at that point.

Some will say I haven’t really experienced PoE without getting into its endgame properly, but if you think you can’t form a fair opinion of a game after finishing a fifty hour story campaign, I think you’re a silly person.

Scars Above:

This is a horrorish sci-fi shooter I picked up for 90% off on Steam. Scars Above is pretty much your standard 7/10 AA jankfest, and I do mean that as a compliment.

Pretty much every part of the game is rough to some degree or another, but overall I had a lot of fun with it. I quite enjoyed the main character, Kate, who felt like a great example of competence porn. She shows enough vulnerability to feel human while also meeting every challenge with courage and wit.

There’s an interesting combo system around elemental status effects that can be triggered by both your weapons and the environment. It’s simple, but satisfying, and it helps strengthen the fantasy of Kate as a character who fights smarter, not harder.

The game’s greatest flaw is probably its difficulty. I’d read in the Steam reviews it was a very hard game, so I played on easy, but even so I almost gave up in the first hour because it was such a slog. However, once I leveled up a few times and unlocked some perks, it became a pretty effortless journey.

I was also a bit disappointed the final boss is just a buffed up version of a standard mob you’ve been fighting throughout the game, but otherwise, Scars Above was a good time. Given its apparent lack of recognition, I doubt a sequel is forthcoming, but I’d probably buy one if it does get made.

The Chant:

Another low to mid budget horror title I got for 90% off, but a less impressive one. I found the character movement, animations, and combat all felt painfully sluggish. Maybe authentic to the classic Resident Evil style experience they were going for, but certainly not for me, and the story was also less compelling than I’d hoped, so I bounced off after about an hour.

Amsterdam 1666 and other Summer Game Fest news:

One of the previews that most impressed me during the Summer Game Fest show was Amsterdam 1666. When they said it already had a demo live, I downloaded it immediately.

Unfortunately the demo ratcheted down my hype for the game considerably. The camera and character movement felt extremely awkward. That might be fixed before launch, but even more concerningly, the story didn’t seem that good. I kind of checked out when the father’s letter to his daughter started waxing poetic about his weird freaky BDSM sexscapades. Awkward…

It’s also concerning how little actual gameplay was in the demo. From the trailers, there will be combat in the main game, but the demo had none, which feels like a bit of a red flag.

Aside from that, there were a few other trailers at SGF that caught my eye, but nothing that immediately blew me away, more just things that might be worth keeping an eye on. Crossfire, Last Harbor, Haex…

I thought that the trailer for the Stellar Blade sequel looked really cool until I realized it was a Stellar Blade sequel, and now I just feel deeply conflicted and slightly gross.

Aion 2 setting a Western release date was probably the biggest news for me. Given my long history of bouncing off Korean games, my expectations are fairly managed, but it’s still probably the game I’m most anticipating, at least in the near future.

While not part of the main SGF show, around this time we also got news of the next expansion for Age of Empires IV, Raiders of the North. I’m disappointed by campaigns being neglected once again, but the expanded Crucible mode at least means there’s something for single-player, and I do think both the new civilizations look fun. It’s frustrating they’re calling them “Vikings” instead of something more accurate, but otherwise what we’ve seen so far seems like a fairly accurate and historical depiction.

Overall I’m looking forward to the DLC. I’m definitely rioting if the next civilizations aren’t from Africa or America, though. Those are way overdue for more representation.

Tides of Tomorrow:

I’ve already covered this on Massively, so I’m just adding it for completionism’s sake. I mostly enjoyed Tides of Tomorrow, and I would recommend it, but it wasn’t as special as Road 96, and I did have an issue with the ending (spoiler-filled elaboration on reddit for those interested).

New World:

I dipped back into New World a little bit. I made yet another alt, as I wanted to replay Monarch’s Bluffs (thankfully the game cooperated and landed me there). Since I feel like my time in New World has contributed to my success with Brigitte in Overwatch, I decided to make a character modeled after her. Made her look as similar as I could and gave her a flail/lifestaff build.

Funny thing: New World’s character limit for names isn’t big enough to fit “Brigitte Lindholm.” It cut me off at “Brigitte Lindho.”

WELCOME
LINDHO

I ended up going with “Brigitte Lind.”

Had a lot of fun revisiting Monarch’s Bluffs, but wasn’t sure what to do after that. I do want to play more New World while I still can, but I’ve always struggled to motivate myself in games without clear goals to chase. I’ve already done all the stories in the game, often at least twice, and I don’t really need better gear on my high level characters, especially with the shut down looming.

The Secret World:

My returns to TSW are becoming ever shorter and less frequent, but I did pop in for a couple hours recently. The Dragon alt I have been very slowly leveling since the maintenance mode announcement is closing in on the end of Transylvania. She’s already super OP from all my GM perks, so I’ve started skipping most missions outside the main story.

I did have to do Last Dance of the Padurii. Wasting a gear manager slot on a hinder build you literally only use for one mission is an essential part of the TSW experience.

When the maintenance mode news first came down, I thought the servers would be shuttered before too long, and for whatever reason one of the things that made me saddest was the thought this character would never see Tokyo. I’m now within striking distance of achieving that goal at long last, which feels kind of surreal. There’s still a decent chunk of Transylvania left, but maybe one day soon.

World of Warcraft:

I wasn’t planning to be back in WoW until the next major content patch, but I really wanted the May and June Trading Post stuff, so I ended up burning a WoW Token. I’m not treating it as my main game, though. As this post attests, I’m still playing lots of other things.

There just isn’t much for me to do in WoW right now. I’ve done all current content, and I don’t like most of the tier sets this time around, so there’s not much transmog to chase. I am still enjoying my characters at least. Rogue, monk, and paladin all feel great right now.

Once again I lament WoW’s forced subscription. I honestly quite like having it as a background game I can just pop into now and then, but with the sub it’s just not financially justifiable long term.

Overwatch:

I continue my love/hate relationship with Overwatch. My problem is I really do love the setting and the character design (in all respects — lore, visuals, gameplay), but I’m just not much for competitive games. I don’t really mind losing as long as I don’t feel like I’m the main cause of the loss… but I very often am.

It’s especially frustrating that most of my favourite characters are the ones I’m bad at. After a strong start, Ramattra seems to have turned out to be another character I’m no good with, with my win rate on him having fallen below 50%.

The weird thing is unlike other characters I’ve struggled with, I don’t feel like I’m doing badly when I play Ram. I get lots of kills, don’t die that much, am frequently the MVP by Stadium cash, and get PotG often. The other day I hit 80K cash by round five, which is by far the best I’ve ever done with any character and near double what most of my teammates had (we still lost). By every metric other than the win rate, I’m doing great with Ram, but I guess the win rate is all that matters.

Weirdly I have the opposite issue with Vendetta. I feel like I do nothing but flail and die when I play her, but I have a win rate well above 50% with her… though admittedly I haven’t played her enough to have a strong sample size of matches.

I may still try a few more matches with Ram to see if I can turn things around, but I’m not optimistic.

I’m still over 65% win rate with Brigitte after around 150 games, which seems absolutely insane to me. I never had anywhere near a win rate that high after so many games on any character in Heroes of the Storm. I usually settled around 52-55% for my mains.

As much as I like Brig, though, I don’t want to be stuck just playing her. I do have good win rates on a few others, but they’re usually characters I’m just not super passionate about. It’s fun playing Sigma now and then, but I’d much rather be D.Va or Ramattra if I’m going to tank. Doesn’t seem fair to my teammates, though, when I have win rates around 48% with those two but over 60% with Sigma.

Het universum zingt voor mij, I guess.

You’d think after a year I’d be getting better at this game, but no. It’s hard to get excited about new characters when it’s so unlikely I’ll be any good at them. Shion looks awesome, but gods know when she’ll make it to Stadium, and when she does I’ll probably just suck at her, too.

At least I’ve still got faithful Brigitte. If no one got me, I know mace to the face got me.

Superior Realities

Tag Archives: Path of Exile

Thoughts on Upcoming Games

Gaming Round-Up: What Horrors Await

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