August 27, 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most expensive Thursdays of the gaming year. Three major releases are all hitting on the same day: Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, and Star Wars Zero Company. Buying all three at launch would set a PS5 player back roughly $170 before tax — but given the calibre of each release and how long fans have waited for some of these, it’s money that’s going to be very easy to justify spending.
If you only have budget for one, this breakdown will help you work out which one is worth prioritising first.
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 — $49.99
The headline addition in Vol. 2 is the one that’s been considered practically impossible for years. The headliner is Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and the HD Collection version of Peace Walker. MGS4 never left the PlayStation 3 after 2008, so this is its first port to any other hardware. Nearly two decades of PS3 exclusivity — driven largely by the complexity of the Cell processor architecture the game was built on — finally ends on August 27.
The full collection includes:
- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots — Solid Snake’s final mission, set in a near-future world where PMCs have turned war into a global industry. The game was considered one of the PS3’s greatest technical achievements and its cinematic storytelling remains unmatched in the franchise. Peace Walker runs at up to 60 FPS on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2, and PC. Switch 2 targets 1080p in both handheld and TV modes. Performance specs for MGS4 specifically haven’t been fully detailed, but similar optimisations are expected.
- Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD Edition — Big Boss’s critically acclaimed PSP adventure, based on the HD Collection version. Peace Walker supports online multiplayer for up to six players. The co-op campaign — one of Peace Walker’s most beloved features — is back, though cross-platform play is not supported.
- Metal Gear: Ghost Babel — A forgotten chapter in the franchise, a non-canon spin-off that acts as an alternative sequel to Metal Gear 2. Included as bonus content, this Game Boy Color title is the series’ first handheld game and is making its return to current hardware for the first time since 2000.
Beyond the games themselves, each game includes a Scenario Book containing the text from the respective title, plus a Master Book offering detailed insights into the story and characters. The digital version also includes Metal Gear Solid: Digital Soundtrack Vol. 2.
Pre-order and Day One Edition bonuses: Pre-orders unlock the Day One Edition, which adds the Cardboard Camouflage uniform in MGS4 and the Love Box uniform in Peace Walker. Anyone holding Master Collection Vol. 1 save data on the same system also unlocks gold camo for Snake in both games.
One important caveat for collectors: The Nintendo Switch 2 physical edition is distributed as a Game-Key Card and requires the game data to be downloaded before play. Xbox Series X|S and PC are digital-only platforms for the collection. PS5 gets a standard physical disc.
The community’s reaction to the lineup has been largely positive, though some fans were hoping for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Portable Ops, or the Metal Gear Ac!d games to be included. Those appear to be held for a hypothetical Vol. 3. At $49.99 for two full campaigns plus archive material and Ghost Babel as a bonus, the value is solid — and if MGS4 is the primary draw, the math works comfortably.
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy — $59.99
The third entry in Asobo Studio’s acclaimed A Plague Tale franchise takes a sharp turn from the series’ established formula — and that’s intentional. Resonance follows the young and fierce Sophia on her own journey, determined to uncover the secrets of her past. At the crossroads between the Middle Ages and the Minoan era, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is also supported by the soundtrack of critically acclaimed music composer Olivier Derivière.
Set 15 years before A Plague Tale: Requiem, the standalone action-adventure stars a younger Sophia as she flees Venice following a failed heist with her late father’s crew. Stranded on Minotaur Island alongside her companion Leni, Sophia must navigate ruins inspired by Minoan myth while uncovering the origins of the Macula. That setting — ancient Crete, Minoan mythology, the Minotaur’s island — is a dramatic departure from the medieval France of Innocence and Requiem, and it gives Resonance a visual identity that’s entirely its own within the series.
The gameplay shift is the most discussed aspect of the game heading into launch. Building a game around a character like Sophia gave us the opportunity to explore a different approach to gameplay to what we’ve seen from the previous Plague Tales games, with a more direct and dynamic combat system. Because Sophia fights in close quarters, the team spent a lot of time thinking about how to make combat feel fluid, impactful, and satisfying, while still remaining accessible. Resonance’s gameplay builds on the series’ signature light-based puzzle solving, pairing environmental traversal with a more aggressive combat toolkit that includes chain sword strikes, parries, and daggers.
Preview coverage has been mixed-to-positive. With the Uncharted series on ice and Tomb Raider only now making its comeback after a lengthy hiatus, Sophia’s solo outing is one to keep an eye on for those who have missed this flavour of third-person action-adventure games. However, some hands-on previews flagged that the shift away from stealth and rats — the two defining mechanics of the previous games — creates an experience that feels like a different franchise wearing the Plague Tale skin. Whether that’s a feature or a drawback depends entirely on why you loved the first two games.
Resonance is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store. It will also be available day one on Xbox Game Pass and supported Xbox Play Anywhere. Pre-orders include the Heritage Pack DLC with the Minoan Sword, Alec’s Pendant, and an exclusive digital artbook.
Star Wars Zero Company — $59.99
For anyone who’s been mourning the void left by XCOM in the modern gaming landscape, Star Wars Zero Company is the most direct answer available in 2026. Developed by Bit Reactor and published by EA and Respawn Entertainment, Zero Company is a turn-based tactical strategy game set in the Star Wars universe — specifically between the events of Revenge of the Sith and the original Star Wars — and it borrows heavily from XCOM’s blueprint while adding its own Star Wars-specific mechanics.
You play as Hawk, a clone commando who assembles and leads an elite squad called Zero Company. The tactical loop is classic: position your squad members with complementary abilities, use cover, manage resources, and make decisions that carry real consequences. Permadeath is confirmed — just like XCOM, losing a squad member means they’re gone permanently. The customisation system lets you build and personalise your team across the campaign, and the choices you make in the strategic layer affect which missions become available and how the story develops.
The Star Wars setting opens up faction diversity that XCOM can’t offer: you’ll deal with Separatists, early Imperials, criminal syndicates, and other threats that existed in the turbulent years following Order 66. Force-sensitive squad members bring unique tactical options to combat, and the ground-level perspective — playing as clones and mercenaries rather than Jedi heroes — gives Zero Company a grittier, more grounded tone than most Star Wars games.
Zero Company is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam and EA App. Given how much attention and positive preview coverage this game has received from the tactics community, it’s positioned as one of the year’s sleeper hits for players who aren’t typically drawn to Star Wars games but love the genre.
The Full Upcoming Release Calendar
August 27 is a landmark day, but the rest of 2026 stays busy. Here’s the major upcoming release window to plan around:
- The Blood of Dawnwalker — PC, PS5, XSX — September 3
- Halloween: The Game — PC, XSX, PS5 — September 8
- Phantom Blade Zero — PC, PS5 — September 9
- Marvel’s Wolverine — PS5 — September 15
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 — PC — December 3 (delayed from September 17)
- Dragon Quest 11 S: Echoes of an Elusive Age Switch 2 Edition — NS2 — September 24
- Star Wars: Galactic Racer — PC, PS5, XSX — October 6
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 — PC, PS5, XSX, NS2 — October 23
- GTA 6 — PS5, XSX — November 19
For more on gaming news this week, check out the Krispy Kreme Pokémon donut collection launching August 18, the Discord free upload limit increase to 20MB now live, the Oblivion Remastered PC and console patch confirmed after Switch 2 exposed its performance issues, and important details on the Pokemon Bank shutdown in February 2027.
