Believe it or not, the summer months are almost behind us. The official beginning of the fall season is exactly one month away, and with autumn comes the annual barrage of games as developers, publishers, and retailers eye the holiday season. As usual, we have a ton of games to choose from as the busiest shopping months of the year approach, but we whittled down the release list to 15 games that we're most anticipating.
For the sake of this article, we're defining the fall months as September, October, and November. Unfortunately, that means that anticipated releases like World of Warcraft: Legion (August 30) and South Park: The Fractured But Whole (December 6) narrowly miss the cut. Check out our 15 most anticipated games of fall 2016 below, and if we missed any that you're looking forward to, add your picks in the comments section.
Destiny: Rise of Iron – September 20
Bungie's wildly popular shooter is back with its first expansion since The Taken King. In addition to new content and chances to level, Rise of Iron brings with it new artifacts, a new raid, and the ability to play private matches in PvP. For more on Destiny: Rise of Iron, head to our cover hub.
NBA 2K17 – September 20
The NBA 2K series has stood head-and-shoulders above the competition for several years now, but even more than that, it's the franchise that all other sports games measure themselves against. To see a trailer showcasing the legendary Dream Teams in NBA 2K17, head here.
FIFA 17 – September 27
As the best-selling sports franchise in the industry, EA Sports' FIFA franchise has enjoyed long-term success thanks to polished gameplay and a well-rounded feature suite. This year, however, the series is stepping it up with an all new story-based career mode called The Journey that looks to bring a whole new demographic into FIFA's target audience. To learn more about this new mode, head here.
Forza Horizon 3 – September 27
The Horizon Festival returns yet again, but this time it's taking place in the open-world environment of Australia. This more casual take on Microsoft's long-running racing sim franchise has a solid history of strong releases, and there's no indication that this third entry is going to slow down the Horizon spin-off series. To see a few videos of the game in action and learn more about Horizon 3, head here.
On the next page, we dig into October's offerings.