Gamescom 2026 brought more than 350,000 attendees to Cologne, Germany, for a week of game demos, hardware reveals and booth tours. Tom's Guide's team walked the show floor, playing early builds of upcoming titles and testing new gear, then compiled a list of standout products across categories including handhelds, monitors, controllers, furniture, sim racing gear and retro consoles.
On the hardware side, the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 was named best of show, with an OLED panel, ergonomic redesign and a $1,299 price tag that changed initial impressions of the device. The Alienware 39 5K2K OLED (AW3926QW) monitor earned a full 5-star rating for its four-stack, three-subpixel RGB stripe tandem OLED panel, switchable 5K/165Hz and 1080p/330Hz modes, and $1,099 price. Nvidia's upcoming RTX Spark machines impressed with 1440p gaming at over 100 FPS using DLSS, while the Genki Manta Controller stood out for its fully customizable analog buttons and triggers adjustable via an onboard display. Ikea and Xbox also showed off YXSTABY gaming furniture, including a joystick-inspired stool and a lounge chair set, and Asetek expanded its Initium sim racing ecosystem with new rally-driving accessories, a hydraulic brake kit and a 10 newton-meter force feedback hub. Evercade unveiled the Nexus, a cartridge-based retro handheld with dual analog sticks, a 5.89-inch display and a launch bundle featuring Banjo-Kazooie. Separately, iiyama showed two new monitors: the 49-inch curved G-Master GCB4986DQSNP-B1 Gold Phoenix with a 240Hz VA panel, USB hub and 90W Power Delivery (around €800, launching in September), and the 27-inch G-Master GOB2701QSC-B1 Titan Falcon OLED monitor with a 280Hz refresh rate, 0.03ms response time and 1500 cd/m² peak brightness (around €500, also launching in September).
Among playable games, Tom's Guide ranked Alien: Isolation 2 as the standout of the show after a 30-minute hands-on with its prologue, which keeps the original's survival-horror formula but shifts the setting from a spaceship to a planet's surface and ties its Xenomorph back to the first game's story. Silent Hill: Townfall was called a pleasant surprise after a 90-minute session set in a fictional Scottish resort town in 1996, ahead of its September 24, 2026 launch on PC and PS5. Metro 2039, developed by Ukraine-based 4A Games, impressed with its gunplay in a hideout-assault demo ahead of a February 2027 release. Hellraiser: Revival drew notice for its graphic violence and Resident Evil-inspired, first-person survival-horror gameplay, launching October 8, 2026. Persona 4: Revival was praised as a visual overhaul of the 2008 RPG, set for a February 18, 2027 release, while an extended look at The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Songs of the Past drew a reported five-hour booth wait on one day of the show, despite offering few surprises beyond more of the existing game. Crazy Taxis: World Tour returned the arcade racing series after more than 20 years but showed early signs of repetitive gameplay, and is set for a 2027 launch.
Wizards of the Coast used Gamescom's Opening Night Live to reveal Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons, a single-player, third-person RPG from Invoke Studios. The game follows warrior Kaatri, who makes a pact with Tasha, The Witch Queen, granting her access to forbidden magic and weapons as she explores the world of Darkon. An eight-minute gameplay reveal showed Kaatri's abilities in combat, traversal and puzzle-solving; the game has no confirmed launch date but is planned for Steam, Xbox Series consoles and PS5.
Nvidia also used Gamescom to detail expansions to GeForce Now, including new DLSS 4.5 controls—covering Super Resolution, Dynamic Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction—for Ultimate members this fall. The service is adding support for Steam Machine with Steam Controller, GOG single sign-on for one-click game launches, official Firefox browser support, and expanded compatibility with additional Amazon Fire TV devices, including the Fire TV Stick 4K Select. Five newly announced games are coming to GeForce Now at launch: Control Resonant, Gears of War: E-Day, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, The Blood of Dawnwalker and Star Wars Zero Company, with a limited-time offer bundling Control Resonant with a 12-month Ultimate membership. Nvidia also ran a Gamescom community giveaway of more than 40 prizes, including hardware paired with GeForce Now memberships.