The Games I'm Most Excited For In The Back Half Of 2026

[00:00] What's going on, everybody? Mortem here. This time bringing you some of the games I'm excited for in what is left of 2026 as we

[00:13] kind of hit the half way mark there. Now I wanted to make this video in particular because I was hoping to focus on something a little more positive after, honestly, a rough couple of weeks in the video game news cycle.

[00:26] Because June started off pretty optimistic with some interesting reveal showcases, announcements, all that stuff, only for that to immediately be followed by impending studio closures, a game that was shown at the Xbox showcase, the Hellblade one that is in all likelihood

[00:42] not looking great in terms of it actually making it too released, as they were already talking about potentially shutting that studio down. And then that was followed on by the, I would say, honestly, inevitable pricing for the steam machine.

[00:54] Putting all of that together, I kind of wanted to just talk about something that was enjoyable. And at least so far, I have no reason to believe the games I'm about to talk about will be delayed or canceled or anything, and most of them have firm release dates, only one of them does

[01:09] not. But like I said, I mostly just wanted to talk about the stuff I am most excited for in what is left of 2026. So with no further ado, let's dive into it and start off with the one that should be the

[01:21] most obvious, which is Star Wars Zero Company. I say this is obvious because I honestly think I have covered this more than almost every other game on this list up to this point. Zero Company is basically XCOM but with a Star Wars skin, you'll be able to make your own

[01:35] character that you'll bring into battles. There are companions, however there is some player friction via things like permadeath and while there are companions, there's also going to be like the generic soldiers and things that you would expect.

[01:48] Something they've shown off about this game actually looks pretty cool so far and with a release date of August 27th, we really don't have to wait too much longer for it and hopefully it actually manages to stick to landing. Star Wars games are admittedly very touch and go.

[02:03] Sometimes you get a really great one, a lot of them are so so, but this one caught my attention as soon as it was launched and I'm genuinely looking forward to playing it. Now at a very, I would say almost frustrating time in terms of playing all these games, less

[02:16] than a week later we get the release of the Blood of Dawn Walker on September 2nd. This game being from the studio, Rebel Wolves, which consists of some of the people that worked on the Witcher 3. This time bringing us to the medieval Carpathian Mountains as the Black Plague rages, isolating

[02:33] this veil which is promptly taken over by vampires who have your family and you as a damn peer of some description has to of course fight back and take the fight to them. And all of that is interesting enough on its own.

[02:47] What I am admittedly extraordinarily curious here is if some of the things they are doing with that soft timer as well as the replayability that should theoretically go along with that and just how well that is implemented and if it's done in a way that is going to be compelling

[03:02] because certainly I would say the most controversial part of it leading up to release and I can't wait to dive into it and find out for myself if that is actually any good or not because I'll also be the first person to tell you that from everything I've seen via the previews

[03:16] and whatnot, the combat in particular the melee combat does not exactly look like the top of the line experience some people might be hoping for but personally if the rest of the game

[03:28] is really good then that's just not a huge deal to me but the rest of the game does need to be good you know. So we'll see what happens with it but I am cautiously optimistic. Next up we've got an interesting one via a remake in the form of Trails in the Sky

[03:42] 2nd chapter. Now I've been looking forward to this basically since I finished the first remake the first chapter if you would believe it. Now that was such an interesting experience to me overall because if you watched my impressions

[03:54] and in the review video first chapter to me going into that series blind did not make the best first impression and yet shockingly so even over the course of that game I think they managed to justify some of the setup, recontextualize some of the stuff from the beginning that actually

[04:11] gave it some impact that made it a little less silly and while it's certainly a series that is a little prone to being over the top anime I can see why people were into it just from playing that original game and I've been looking forward to addressing the big cliffhanger

[04:26] at the end of the first game as well with this second title basically since I finished it in fact I wound up enjoying the first game so much that I said that I was going to commit to finishing the initial trilogy there's like 9 or 10 games something like that at this

[04:38] point but it's been a while and I'm ready to both dive into this system see what's new which changed and of course address the story and how that ended from that initial title and I'm just kind of ready to pick it up and see what goes on there.

[04:50] That game is coming out on September 17th so just a couple months away and then coming at number 4 at the end of September we have control resonance releasing on September 24th taking

[05:02] part and of course the sort of remedy universe this time putting you in the role of Dylan Faden Jesse Faden from the original control's brother and I'm looking forward to this so much that I committed to playing Alan Wake 1 and 2 before it released Alan Wake 2 is coming

[05:16] up pretty soon but I had already played control control after seeing some of the previews and stuff for it back before I was doing YouTube full time I jumped into control back then and it was one of my early reviews before again this was my full time job and I had a blast

[05:31] with control overall it was just a lot of fun to play a lot of interesting mechanics the story was super interesting and I knew that it was set in the same universe as like Alan Wake and everything and with the announcement of control resonant I was like okay I've just finally

[05:45] got to make time and go back and play all of these other ones which I have done and Alan Wake 1 was a fantastic game it's pretty much immediately apparent where that game became such a weird cult classic I'm looking forward to 2 so I can jump into control resonance

[05:59] mostly ready to go I think there's that quantum game that is not technically part of the universe but some people recommend and I'm not sure whether or not I'm gonna bother there but either way I'm pumped for control resonant which is putting you in like a warped version of Manhattan it looks like

[06:13] combat this time is gonna be a little more melee oriented from what they've shown off but it looks cool and I hope this storytelling throughout the series remains strong in that entry but I suppose we shall see a concept timber but that does bring us to our final entry and I left this one for

[06:29] last purely because it's the only one on here that does not have an official release date but it is none other than bolt gun 2 because I am itching to purge some heresy via a more straightforward boomer

[06:41] shooter and especially so after having already checked out the demo for this game which is where the footage you're seeing is almost certainly from and I've got to say the new character Naira in particular is fun to play and on top of that the flamer in this one is just incredibly satisfying to use

[06:56] so even just on that it's looking to be a good time but as I always say I love to play these types of games to relax and chill and if you didn't notice from all the games I just mentioned and a couple that I have not mentioned here September in particular is absolutely packed it's gonna be a busy fall

[07:13] for me as I'm going to college which I've mentioned in a few places so September in particular is gonna be crazy and then October has quite a few releases I want to check out as well and so somewhere in all of that mess in between all of those RPGs I want to play something a little simpler a little more

[07:28] mindless and I can think of no better way to do that than granting the Emperor's peace to the enemies of humanity which is why I'm looking forward to bolt gun 2 but there are still plenty of other games

[07:40] coming out this year that I'm looking forward to they're just not at the top of the list I want to check out the new only musha game Valor mortis entropy which was releasing into early access so it won't be a full release there's beast of reincarnation phantom blade zero mortal shell to the

[07:55] sinking city to so there's just tons of stuff coming up but I just wanted to kind of talk about the ones that have me the most excited personally and to that end I would very much love to hear the games you are most excited for down in the comments section below which naturally means like comment subscribe

[08:11] all that youtube jazz but regardless of any of that truly just thank you so much for watching I really do appreciate it may you wander in wisdom and have an amazing day