The fall game-release calendar has briefly stopped throwing major titles at everyone. Enjoy the silence while it lasts: November is expected to bring both Nintendo’s remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and the long-anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI. Those are not exactly the sort of games people finish between making dinner and remembering where they put their phone.
For anyone looking to fill the lull before Hyrule and Vice City commandeer the schedule, The Verge’s roundup highlights recent games that offer a change of pace, including several designed to fit into a few sessions. Here are five of its picks, spanning old-school horror, dressmaking and cooperative puzzles.
Belmont’s Curse
From the studios behind Dead Cells, this new Castlevania brings intricate levels, demanding platforming, tough bosses and secrets tucked throughout. The difficulty can get punishing, but assist settings let players adjust the challenge to suit themselves. That’s a sensible concession: a game can be tough without treating accessibility as a personal insult. Belmont’s Curse is available on PS5, Xbox, Switch and Steam.
Dressmaker
South African developer Free Lives, previously known for decidedly less soothing games such as Broforce and Genital Jousting, has made a cozy game through its small internal team, Cozy Lives. In Dressmaker, players run a village shop, take commissions, sketch designs, choose fabric and accessories, cut patterns, pin them to a mannequin and sew the finished dress.
The appeal is the freedom to fuss over details—or not. The Verge’s reviewer says it can absorb dozens of hours, but also works in relaxed half-hour sessions. In a season where gaming time is about to become a scarce resource, that flexibility counts.
Heartworm
For players missing the creaky unease of classic survival horror, Heartworm aims for the feel of a lost PlayStation-era game. It features limited inventory and offers an optional way around the old tank controls. Its central twist is a camera that serves as both flashlight and weapon, giving familiar horror conventions a distinct tool to work with. It’s available on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch and PC.
Orbitals
This Switch 2 co-op puzzle adventure doesn’t claim to reinvent its genre. Instead, it leans into the fundamentals and wraps them in a vivid ’90s anime style, with character and world designs that evoke the era’s television and science-fiction animation. It’s short enough for a few sessions, and a friend pass lets another player join without buying a separate copy. A small kindness from the games industry; presumably nobody lost a board meeting over it.
Silver Pines
Available on PS5, Xbox, Switch 2 and PC, Silver Pines blends 2D exploration, point-and-click controls, slow-burning survival horror and an uncanny Americana atmosphere. Players investigate a detective story through deliberate exploration, spend in-game money to save, and can drink coffee to restore stamina. It sounds like a peculiar combination because it is—and that, according to The Verge, is the point.
These games won’t make November’s blockbusters any less enormous. They do offer something the release calendar rarely does: room to finish a story before the next one arrives with a map the size of a small country.
Sources: Glitch Please! and The Verge — https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/1011816/october-2026-game-reviews-dressmaker-castlevania — Source article and game descriptions
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