3 upcoming Xbox games I can’t wait to play – and they'll all be free with Xbox Game Pass
Xbox Game Pass members are in for a cracking time over the coming months
Video game showcase season has been and gone, and we now have a pretty good idea about what we’re going to be playing for the (ominously stacked) rest of 2026 and beyond.
The recent Xbox Games Showcase was a mix of big-hitting first-party titles we already knew about and some fun surprises, and with this year marking 25 years of the Xbox brand, Microsoft had to deliver.
It’s fair to say Game Pass subscribers are going to be very busy in the next 12 months or so, and the three games I’m most looking forward to playing on my Xbox Series X will all be on the service from day one.
Fable
A recent delay into early 2027 hasn’t dampened my enthusiasm for our long-awaited return to Albion.
This reboot of the cult favourite Xbox RPG series is being developed by Playground Games, the team behind the excellent Forza Horizon series, which has already proved that it knows how to build amazing open-world environments.
A fantasy RPG is obviously a big departure from racing shiny supercars around real-world locations, but everything we’ve seen so far suggests this uniquely British series is in good hands with the Leamington Spa-based studio.
In last week’s Xbox showcase we saw some new gameplay footage, and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’s Hayley Atwell was the latest cast reveal. She brings to life Isabel, the Hero of Wraithmarsh, and joins the likes of Matt King, Richard Ayoade and Natasia Demetriou in a game that looks certain to delight sitcom fans.
The trailer also teased the return of Jack of Blades, the iconic villain of the original Fable, whose role Playground is keeping quiet about for now. I’ve seen more than enough of the game’s combat and faithfully foul-mouthed language to know I will be playing it on day one next year.
Gears of War: E-Day
Microsoft appears to have done a bit of a 180 on its feelings towards exclusivity recently. This time last year, you might have been planning to wait for the inevitable PS5 Pro version of Gears of War: E-Day to see the game running at its gloriest, goriest best, but it sounds like Xbox is going to be the only place you can play it on console now.
Luckily, having seen the game in action, I’m more than happy to fire up my Series X for this one.
As someone who hasn’t really kept up with the Gears of War series since the Xbox 360 days, I’m happy that E-Day is a prequel. Set 14 years before the events of the first game, it won’t require me to play through every entry to date to know what’s going on, and I like the idea of experiencing Emergence Day, which is when the Locust Horde first emerged from the ground and launched its attack on humanity.
We play as a younger Marcus Fenix, with the game setting up his bond with Dominic Santiago that plays such a key role in later entries.
As you’d expect from a Gears game, it’s brutal and bloody stuff, and Unreal Engine 5 should make the series’ trademark cover-based shooting – now with added mobility – feel fresh again.
Vivarium
Xbox showcases are typically dominated by headshots and explosions, and as you can see from my previous pick, I’m all for that. But I’m also always looking for something to balance out all the uber-violence, and Vivarium fills that slot perfectly.
It’s a non-linear slice-of-life adventure in which you play as a child named Jenny who lives in a small town inside a terrarium.
There seems to be some sort of mystery surrounding this idyllic “pocket world” and you will apparently unravel it through the choices you make in the game. That is, if you can drag yourself away from tending to your garden and expanding your enviable vinyl collection.
There’s also an Animal Crossing-style real-life calendar system at play, so in-game days only end when yours do.
I’ve got two paragraphs in without even mentioning the most striking aspect of Vivarium, which is undoubtedly its stunning 90s anime-inspired visuals. Entirely hand-drawn (without, we’ve already been assured by its developer, any assistance from AI), it really does look like a lovingly crafted playable Ghibli cartoon, and I can’t wait to jump into the terrarium in 2027.
