Feeling like E3 2016 has passed you by with nary an interesting tweet? Look no further: just like the event itself, we're here to roll everything into a big, noisy, footsore ball and let you sort out which games you'll be waiting in line for this fall.

These games are getting DLC

  • The Division: Underground will attempt to make NYC's subway system more mildly terrifying than it already is. Arriving on June 28th.
  • Doom gets three new maps (if you haven't tired of drag-and-drop building your own little Cacodemon zoo). Arriving on all platforms later in 2016.
  • Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition offers graphical enhancements to make you waste 1,000 hours all over again. PC players who are up-to-date on their DLC buying will get it free, and console players will get mods at long last. Things get warmer and fuzzier in Fall 2016.

  • Grand Theft Auto V: Finance and Felony will take budding street criminals to Wharton, then plant them behind corner office cocobolo desks 100 floors up for some real anti-societal behavior. This is the one DLC that launched prior to E3 (June 7th), in typical rebellious GTA fashion.

These games are now mechanized

  • Dead Rising 4 will soon duct tape itself into an exoskeleton, maybe because it's the one way to kill zombies in the local mega mall you couldn't previously craft. This one's a timed exclusive: 90 days on Windows 10 starting December 7th, subsequently launching on Xbox One, and giving PS4 the old weaponized chicken suit teddy bear cannon until late 2017.

  • Why does the sandboxy bionic grappling hook simulator Just Cause 3 need mechs? Maybe modern military hardware like hang gliders and flying squirrel suits are so 2015. Or maybe, just 'cause. In any case, you won't have to wait: the Just Cause 3: Mech Land Assault DLC drops this week.
  • You've probably heard of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon; Ubisoft's long-running back burner franchise is only on its 13th game. This one is Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands, and will send your co-op enabled, vehicle-sporting spec ops guys to correct the cocaine situtation in South America's third most popular punching bag, Bolivia. Wildlands releases on all major platforms on March 7th, 2017.

These games are sequels

  • Dishonored 2 will be 2016'a feelgood father / daughter steampunk stealth game, as Corvo will join a youthful Emily in Karnaca, a new setting for the series. You can become dishonored all over again on November 11, 2016 on all major platforms.

  • Injustice 2 will attempt to do what no successful eSports game has ever really wanted to do: spawn a sequel. Look for it in 2017, specifically TBA.
  • Titanfall 2 is the next iteration of the landmark scaling shooter, and should be a grappling hook and laser cannon driven blast. That is, unless you're still waiting for a match in the original. Stand by for titanfall on October 28th.
  • Watch_Dogs 2 will take Marcus to sunny San Francisco, making a ballcap and balaclava even more improbable. You'll need a secure connection on any major platform by November 15th.

These games are FPSs

  • Battlefield 1 - If you're feeling centennial, it's a great time to remember the Great War. Dice and EA tackle this particularly underserved war of horrors with full access to machine guns, tanks, biplanes, mustard gas, and even zeppelins. Look for it on all major platforms on October 21, 2016.

  • Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare cancels out your 360 no-scope on a gravity-free interplanetary scale, as players move seamlessly from ship to FPS combat in space. Even if you got tired of CoD a decade ago, the gameplay trailer is something of a tech marvel.

These games are RPGs, Action RPGs, or close

  • Final Fantasy XV - Ten years of research into how not to make another maudlin, soul-withering,  bromantic extended cutscene may well yield the epic fusion of everything RPG and good that used to characterize Final Fantasy. We'll find out on September 30th, but not on PC (only last-gen consoles).
  • For Honor - Ubisoft's medieval melee mashup pits Knight, Norse, and Samurai styles against (and, in single-player, with) each other against a rising foe. The one on one combat looks spot on, boasting meaningful single encounters reminiscent of Bushido Blade, Soul Caliber, or Blade Symphony. PC, Xbox One, PS4 - available on Feb 14, 2017 as the perfect Valentine's Day gift for your sweetheart.
  • Mass Effect Andromeda - Ryder is the new Shepherd as Mass Effect moves to the next galaxy over in early 2017. Details are thin on the ground as of yet, but we know that BioWare seems to want things much more open ended this time around.
  • Oxygen Not Included - Klei, makers of Don't Starve, teased us with a 30 second trailer of their new space colony simulation game. No release date announced yet.
  • ReCore is a stylish motion combat game reminiscent in some ways of Mirror's Edge, but with an arsenal of fun robot pets to play off of. (Xbox One, PC - September 13th)
  • Tyranny - Revealed at GamesCom in March, Paradox's dark new Pillars-ish RPG will let you plumb the depths of your corrupted power-hungry soul. Being the good guy? Nope. Tyranny will be released on PC, but no date announced yet.
  • Vampyr - From the makers of Life is Strange comes something a little darker. Vampyr looks to be a wrenching anti-hero story set in 1918 London where players will have to choose who they'll live off of. With Dontnod's storytelling chops and intense atmospheric design, this one might help fill a Vampire: The Mascarade sized hole in our hearts. At least a little. PC only, no release date yet.

These games are getting (or have) VR

  • Star Trek: Bridge Crew - Aboard the USS Not-The-Enterprise, everyone will be calling dibs on captain and tactical, but you'll have to fill out helm and engineering stations too. Beam aboard in Fall 2016 on the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR. No word on the Tea Earl Grey Hot, Sexy Holodeck, or Tribble Trouble DLCs yet.

  • Giant Cop totally kind-of stole my idea of Rampage-style VR game, but instead of Godzilla and Mothra you're, well, a giant cop hovering over the city, solving crimes, snooping around, and maybe tossing the occasional gasoline truck at a rioting crowd. Giant Cop will launch first on the Oculus Rift later in 2016, followed later by HTC Vive support.
  • In case you ever wanted to carry out dogfights as discordantly homicidal eagles above a post-apocalyptic Paris, we'll soon have a VR game for just that. Eagle Flight (PSVR, PC) will take to the skies this fall.
  • As if you didn't look ridiculous enough, Just Dance 2017 will let you throw on an HMD and block out the scornful laughter of family members completely. It'll also be on PC sometime this fall.
  • Doom and Fallout 4 will get VR support, a big deal for a platform currently stuffed with tech demos and one-off experiences, but not many graphically compelling AAA game experiences to really sink your teeth into. That will change when Fallout 4 VR arrives in 2017.

These games are... holy crap! look at all the PS4 exclusives:

I don't have a clue about 3/4 of these games so I'm not even going to try. But, just look at it... it's like 1996 all over again!

Microsoft got in on the act a bit too, but these games (with the exception of Dead Rising 4) are both Xbox One and Windows 10 compatible:

  • Dead Rising 4 - Releases December 7th.
  • Forza Horizon 3 - Forza gets dusty down under on September 27th.
  • Gears of War 4 - Like Dishonored 2, Gears is getting generational. Releases October 11th.
  • Sea of Thieves - Open world multiplayer piracy with a bonu1s: drunkenness a la old-school EverQuest. Releases early 2017.

These games are also being made

  • Firaxis will continue its quest to properly remake Civ IV with Sid Meier's Civilization VI (PC, October 21st). Changes include making workers limited-use, making improvements instant and cities devour the outlands that support them (just like in real life!), making wonders take a tile a piece, and letting Montezuma finally have that city he splattered so many stone age units against.
  • The reveal for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was last year, so no news on its story is good news. At this year's E3, the focus was on the multiplayer game - centered on hackers using VR to control places ostensibly rich in killer droids. Releasing on major platforms on August 23rd.
  • Halo Wars might be the one spinoff that I enjoyed more than the franchise it was spawned from... don't hate me too hard, Internet. Creative Assembly looks to be doing the sequel Halo Wars 2 (PC, Xbox One) the right way - making maps bigger, grittier, and more multiplayer friendly. Look for it on Feb. 21, 2017.
  • Lawbreakers (PC) is a jetpack-heavy redux of Overwatch, which was a remake of Team Fortress 2, later in 2016. Who will be the next major eSports team shooter? Fight!
  • Quake Champions hopes to join Doom 2016 in emancipating FPS fans from the cover shooter. We won't know more about this one until QuakeCon in August.
  • Ever wish you could jump into the drug addled dystopian UK of A Clockwork Orange? How about the Victorian cannibalistic penny dreadfulness of Sweeney Todd? We neither, but there's something BioShock-ishly appealing about We Happy Few. If you aren't a complete downer, that is. Escape from the escapists on Xbox and PC - July 26th.

This is the one MMORPG we found at E3

  • Conan Exiles (PC, PS4, Xbox One - Q2 2016) looks like the game Funcom always wanted PvP in Age of Conan to be, from building strongholds and (eventually) adding mounted combat, to sensationalist marketing chestnuts about probably nudity and player sacrifice on the altars of the gods.


Now that your release date calendar is up-to-date and your vacation requests have been filed, what did we miss?

Tell us in the comments!


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Last Updated: Jan 20, 2019

About The Author

Jeff joined the Ten Ton Hammer team in 2004 covering EverQuest II, and he's had his hands on just about every PC online and multiplayer game he could since.

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