New Games 2026: January Week 1 Spotlight

Welcome back to our weekly gaming roundup!

The new year wastes no time delivering an impressively diverse lineup that caters to practically every gaming preference. Whether you're craving wholesome caravan adventures, mind-bending horror, or acrobatic platforming action, this week has something calling your name. Before we explore this week's new games 2026 releases, don't forget to check out our esports predictions and analysis for the latest tournament coverage. Let's dive into what dropped this week and see which titles from 2025 earned the gaming community's highest honors at the Steam Awards.

Game Releases

Cozy Caravan

Platforms: PC

Release Date: January 8, 2026

Sometimes you need to step away from the chaos and just help some friendly townsfolk prepare for a countryside fair. That's exactly what Cozy Caravan delivers. Playing as a fresh Guild Rookie alongside your best friend Bubba, you'll traverse the picturesque landscapes of Harvestvale in your trusty old caravan, spreading kindness one handcrafted item at a time.

The gameplay loop centers on crafting a variety of goods, from hearty meals to stylish outfits, then setting up shop at your market stall to share your creations with locals. Each community you visit brings its own eclectic cast of characters with unique stories and needs. Building these connections across the region becomes the heart of the experience as you uphold the Guild's mission of helping those in need.

Character customization stands out as a major feature. Choose from dozens of animal species with even more color variations to create your ideal protagonist. Mix and match countless outfit combinations to express yourself however feels most comfortable. Your caravan serves as home, transportation, kitchen, and crafting station all in one customizable package.

The open-ended exploration encourages you to discover hidden nooks and crannies throughout Harvestvale and beyond. Pick up hitchhikers, gather crafting resources, and participate in local activities like stone-skipping, fishing, hide and seek, or even helping cafes during their lunchtime rush. Every small interaction generates happiness, which becomes the currency for upgrading your caravan and learning new recipes. The annual Whizz Bang Fair provides the narrative throughline, but everything has gone wrong and the townsfolk need your help to set things right before the big day arrives.

Pathologic 3

Platforms: PC

Release Date: January 9, 2026

Developer Ice-Pick Lodge returns with another nightmarish journey into their plague-stricken steppe town, this time putting players in the shoes of Daniil Dankovsky, a physician and prodigy researcher obsessed with conquering death itself. Your investigation into immortality brings you to this remote settlement, but instead of answers, you find catastrophe. A deadly contagion sweeps through the streets, the supposedly immortal man you came to study lies dead, and you failed to prevent any of it.

Now comes the twist. You must return to the beginning, armed with knowledge of your mistakes, and attempt to save the town across 12 harrowing days. This psychological horror experience demands you examine patients face-to-face, working through their lies and omissions to deliver accurate diagnoses. Each patient presents a unique medical mystery where separating fact from fiction becomes essential to developing a vaccine that could change everything.

Beyond medical duties, you'll need to assert control over the town itself. Fight for every new day by imposing your own rules: enforce quarantines, confiscate precious medicine, vaccinate the population, suppress riots, deploy patrols, and declare curfews. Gain the trust of the townsfolk and the three ruling families while making impossible decisions. You'll make mistakes, face their consequences, and unlock new decrees as you progress. Your actions will shape the town, even if the people grow to hate you for it. Power is in your hands, and it's up to you whether the streets will see gunfire or fireworks.

The time manipulation mechanic serves as your primary tool for navigating this branching narrative web. Made a wrong choice? Rewind and try a different approach. Time is your tool for navigating a narrative web filled with moral dilemmas and branching paths. The challenge lies in keeping your eye on the ultimate goal, even if the road there is paved with sacrifices. Every minute counts as you race to save them all and discover the secrets of immortality without going mad in the process. Your mental state directly affects how you interpret events, with apathy and mania both offering dangerous new insights that could lead to breakthrough or death. How far will you go to find the truth?

Big Hops

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5

Release Date: January 12, 2026

This ambitious 3D platformer has been six years in the making, and the scope shows in every system. You play as Hop, a young frog kidnapped from home by a trickster spirit named Diss who needs help with a mysterious mission. Your goal is simpler: get back to your family. A wiry old Raccoon offers to build an airship home if you can recover the necessary parts. To build your airship, you'll need to infiltrate the Gulley Gang's Hideout at the edge of a vast Red Desert, become a Bucko and save DrillCO's Rigs Workers out on the Open Ocean, and sneak past Haven cultists by spelunking under a Shattered Mountain.

Each world offers a self-contained story where you'll meet a huge cast of characters and learn the conflicts unique to each region. The narrative raises compelling questions about morality and motivation. Will your help be altruistic or purely selfish to secure those precious airship parts? Why did Diss really kidnap you? What's the purpose behind the Dark Drips he keeps asking you to collect? And if you collect them all, will Diss really let you go home? The game keeps its mysteries close while inviting speculation about the true nature of your journey.

The movement system goes remarkably deep. Roll, dive, crouch jump, wall run, free climb, swim, belly slide, walk tightropes, pole swing, grind rails, and ride minecarts through environments clearly inspired by Mario, Sonic Adventure, Breath of the Wild, and A Hat in Time. The developers claim their player controller stacks up against genre legends, and the variety of traversal options suggests they might be right.

What sets Big Hops apart is the frog tongue mechanic combined with a vegetable-based path creation system. Your tongue is how you interact with the world. Use your tongue to pull items to your hands, hookshot up walls, and tongue-swing your way to ridiculous speeds. Doors, switches, corks, plungers, flowers, flingers, levers, and lick-picking are all quick work thanks to Hop's versatile tongue. You'll keep finding novel, goofy tongue interactions even ten-plus hours into your playthrough.

The vegetable system adds strategic depth. Mushrooms become bounce pads, acorns grow climbable vines, balloons create temporary platforms, oil balls generate hookshot points that maintain momentum, apples place tongue swing anchors anywhere, and cacti launch tightropes across gaps. Since Hop can only hold one item at a time, your backpack becomes essential for storing discovered vegetables. Opening it during gameplay slows time, letting you plan your next moves under pressure.

Four main worlds await exploration: Forest, Desert, Ocean, and Mountain, each with surprising offshoots like the Boneyard, Bucko Cove, Hydro Plant, and Gulley Gang HQ. The collectible system ties directly into gameplay progression rather than arbitrary completion metrics. Earn Dark Drips to help Diss and unlock secrets, collect Dark Bits to acquire gameplay-modifying trinkets, purchase vegetables and upgrades at Drilson's Depot, customize Hop's appearance with outfits, hats, and dyes at Odette's Outfitters, find and identify real bugs for Bugsy's Conservatory, uncover blueprints to build totally normal and not-at-all busted gadgets, and find mixtapes to play on your in-game Boombox or Hop-man. Equipping trinkets means decorating your backpack, adding both function and personal flair.

The developer started Big Hops in 2019 with a singular goal of modernizing the 3D platformer genre and bringing emergent gameplay to their favorite gaming category. Since then, the project has evolved into a maximalist game drawing inspiration from an impressive range of sources. Mario (64, Odyssey, Sunshine, and Galaxy) and Zelda (Breath of the Wild, Wind Waker, and Ocarina of Time) provide foundational influence, while Sonic Adventure, Spelunky, Kingdom Hearts, Psychonauts, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Spongebob, and Steven Universe all contribute to the game's mechanics, story, vibes, and humor. Character designs come from Steven Sugar, background designer for Steven Universe and The Owl House, giving the game a distinctive visual identity that matches its ambitious scope.

Happenings in the Gaming World

The 2025 Steam Awards: Community Favorites

The beginning of the year brings few major industry developments, but the Steam Awards results offer a fascinating snapshot of what resonated with the gaming community throughout 2025.

Hollow Knight: Silksong claimed the coveted Game of the Year award after years of anticipation finally paid off for Team Cherry. The sequel's immersive gameplay, gripping narrative, and immaculate design convinced voters it deserved instant classic status.

Interestingly, it also won Best Game You Suck At, described as a game that rewards persistence and is not for the faint of heart. The community deemed it the toughest game they've ever loved, proving players appreciate punishing difficulty when execution and design justify the challenge.

Baldur's Gate 3 took home the Labor of Love award, recognizing Larian Studios' continued support and content updates long after launch. The dedication to nurturing their creation years after release demonstrates the kind of post-launch commitment that builds lasting player loyalty.

Hades II earned Best Game on Steam Deck, with voters praising how the roguelike's addictive loop translated perfectly to portable play. What worked at the desk became even better on the go, making it the ideal showcase for Valve's handheld.

Silent Hill f won Outstanding Visual Style for its distinctive aesthetic approach that prioritized artistic vision over photorealistic graphical fidelity. The horror title's unique look suffused every aspect of the experience.

ARC Raiders claimed Most Innovative Gameplay, rewarding the developers' creative experimentation and fresh perspective that delivered surprises the community had never experienced before. These designers pushed boundaries and succeeded in delighting players with genuinely novel mechanics.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 secured Best Soundtrack, finally giving an unsung hero the recognition it deserved for outstanding musical composition. The voters deemed it the OST with the most.

Finally, Dispatch won Outstanding Story-Rich Game for packing a wallop with its narrative delivery. The storytelling hits as hard as prestige television and is as gripping as any soap opera, with well-tuned pacing that makes players feel genuine emotions. The award recognized that games can tell stories as compelling as any other medium when crafted with this level of care.

That wraps up our first weekly spotlight of 2026! Which release caught your attention from this batch? And if gaming takes a backseat to competitive esports, we've got you covered with tournaments for Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2! Check out our analysis and predictions, or try it yourself. Our Pick'ems system lets you predict match outcomes with chances to win expensive items and skins from the Steam marketplace. Interested? Give it a shot.