The Pre-Order Bucket List: These Upcoming Names Are Set to Take the Gaming World by Storm

by Ali Farooqi

2025 was a memorable year in gaming. From sequels like Hollow Knight: Silksong to new IPs like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, there was something for everyone to enjoy! However, the coming year is set for some titanic releases of its own. So, if you’re a gamer and like slots in the UK, prepare to take a shot at one of the titles that we think will steal the show!

The Blood of Dawnwalker

Do you like medieval fantasy? What about vampires? And classic CDPR games? If you said yes to all three, you’ll love this title. 

Rebel Wolves is a new studio, but it’s composed of ex-CDPR employees who wanted the freedom to make their own games. Having worked on The Witcher games as well as Cyberpunk 2077, they know what they’re doing. Though not many details are known about the release date yet, this title looks enticing based on the trailers. 

As a daywalking vampire, you have many choices before you. The tone is grim, the aesthetic is gothic, and the gameplay and graphics are sublime. Published by Bandai Namco, this is not a debut game you want to miss.

Crimson Desert

Skyrim came out in 2011, and no other game since has been able to quite get the formula of an open-world sandbox right. However, working out of Seoul, Pearl Abyss may have done just that. Its newest game, Crimson Desert, was first shown to the world six years ago, and it has been turning heads ever since.

Making use of its new in-house engine, BlackSpace, Pearl Abyss has combined elements that don’t go together into a neat little formula: 

  • Pro wrestling moves? Check. 
  • Techno-dragons? Got it. 
  • Web-swinging like Spider-Man? Done. 

Kliff, the MC, seems like a man of many talents! He needs to be to survive in this sci-fi fantasy world. If it ships stable, it could single-handedly redefine the open-world genre.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV

“War… War never changes…” or so a wise man once said. And that can be said of this title, too. More than twenty years ago, the first Dawn of War arrived and provided a new dimension to the popular tabletop wargame already beloved by thousands. Now, Dawn of War IV seeks to do it again. 

Two hundred years have passed in-game. With the Imperium stretched thin, the Blood Ravens have decided to make a heroic last stand on the planet of Kronus, facing off against Orks and Necrons, with all sides having access to unique units and features. For fans of real-time strategy games, returning to the world of Warhammer 40k is always a treat, but things are different this time.

The game is being developed by King Art Games, the guys behind Black Mirror and Iron Harvest, two good titles. However, will the finished product do the Warhammer name justice? We can definitely have hope!

Grand Theft Auto VI

We’ve all seen the memes. Getting something done before GTA6 has been one of the most enduring jokes on the internet. This is born of both frustration and anticipation, and it’s not difficult to see why. GTA5 was released in 2013, thirteen years before GTA6. Entire generations have grown up waiting to play a new GTA game, and even when it was announced, it wasn’t smooth sailing. Here’s how the release dates kept changing:

Initial teaser 2025
Official trailer  May 2026
New press release November 2026

This is par for the course now, hence all the memes, but make no mistake: when it does come out, it’ll change the world.

This is the first time we’ve been back to Vice City since we played as Tommy Vercetti all those years ago. Now, we’ll have to take the city by storm again with the series’ first female protagonist, Lucia Camino. Keep your calendars clear for late November, because this behemoth will consume all your free time once you get your hands on it! That’s a Rockstar promise.

A Few Words in Closing

Pre-ordering is always a gamble, but these are some of the best titles to bet on. You have games and creators with a long legacy of smash hits, so why wouldn’t you go for it? After long years of microtransactions and games-as-a-service rhetoric, these devs are returning to a tried and tested single-player formula, which has been seeing more and more demand after God of War was released in 2018 and changed the industry forever.

Which titles do you think will do the same next year? Let us know in the comments!

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