Digital Trends Best of Gamescom 2026 Awards: The 12 showcases that wowed us

Gamescom has been a fever dream. Following a strong opening night, everything from gaming gear to cosplay and demos has kept us running around for hours. So after hitting 20,000 steps every day, it’s time for the Publisher Awards. Video games are definitely still the highlight, but there’s a lot more that deserves your attention here.

So here are our picks for the best of what we saw during Gamescom 2026, including everything that was worth waiting for in those hour-long queues.

Nvidia DLSS 5: Best graphics technology

Can’t have the gaming awards without mentioning one of the biggest supporting technologies behind it. The initial reveal of DLSS 5 might have been less than ideal, causing gamers to take up arms against the company for fear of AI slop ruining games — worse yet, ruining the artistic integrity of the original work from the developers and artists.

Even my first impressions weren’t great, and Nvidia definitely had an uphill battle ahead. During our time at Gamescom, we finally got to see the tech in action. It showed a lot more promise this time around and, more importantly, reaffirmed that control remains in the hands of the studio. So unless you or the developers actively want the image to be AI-yassified, you’re good on that front.

The technology can use geometry, textures, motion information, and other game-engine data while letting developers control things such as structure, tone, and semantic masks. Seeing those tools demonstrated helped address one of my biggest concerns from the original reveal.

DLSS 5 has since debuted with NBA 2K27 on RTX 50-series GPUs, and I can’t help thinking about its potential across the rest of the industry. It is still far too early to sing its praises, but after Gamescom, I’m considerably more interested in seeing where developers take it.

JBL Quantum 520X and QuantumENGINE: Best gaming audio

“Whether we are making a $400 headset or a $45 headset, we use the exact same driver — a 50mm carbon dynamic driver,” Gordon Tong, Senior Director of Product Strategy and Planning, Gaming at JBL, told us during a recent interaction. The point he wanted to establish was simple: getting into JBL’s gaming ecosystem shouldn’t mean accepting significantly weaker audio hardware.

JBL is committed to its gaming lineup, and the new Quantum 520 Wireless, Quantum 520X Wireless, and Quantum 120 carry that idea forward. Even the $49.95 Quantum 120 gets the same 50mm carbon dynamic-driver concept found farther up the range, alongside JBL Quantum Spatial Sound, Hi-Res support, QuantumENGINE customization, and a detachable 6mm cardioid microphone. The $129.95 Quantum 520X adds wireless connectivity, including 2.4GHz and Bluetooth, with up to 37 hours of battery life.

What makes them even cooler is the new QuantumENGINE technology and upcoming AI Footstep Booster. The feature continuously analyzes game audio to identify important sounds, including footsteps, voices, gunfire, and explosions, then works to make directional footstep information clearer. It arrives in Q4 2026.

If you’ve played a fair amount of competitive shooters like Rainbow Six Siege, as I have, you already know sound can decide a round before you ever see the person shooting at you. QuantumENGINE can also be controlled from a phone on the same network, meaning you can change EQ, spatial sound, microphone levels, and game/chat balance without tabbing out of whatever you’re playing.

Tripo AI: Best AI creator tool

AI demos can become very vague very quickly. Tripo AI was the complete opposite because I could immediately understand where someone would actually use it. The basic workflow lets you take a text prompt or a flat 2D image and turn it into a 3D model. From there, the model can be edited and exported into workflows involving tools such as Unity, Unreal Engine, or Godot, while Tripo also offers different mesh options depending on whether you’re making game assets or something with much denser geometry.

Its image-generation pipeline can also call models from Google and OpenAI before that image becomes the basis for the 3D stage. So a rough idea can become concept art and eventually a usable 3D object without requiring you to manually model every surface from scratch.

I’m sure you’re already seeing the obvious value it gives small game teams, prototyping, and 3D printing. If you ask me, it isn’t replacing real skilled artists anytime soon. Though the thing that impresses me is how it can shorten the distance between having an idea and visualizing it to build the groundwork.

Epomaker HE75 V2 TMR: Best keyboard

I’ve been enjoying’s products for a while now. The GX1 gaming headset is genuinely one of the best sub-$50 gaming audio gear that I’ve used. But that’s not the only thing the company has going for it. Outside of the headsets, there are also gaming mice and keyboards, and one of the new keyboards is what I’m looking forward to the most.

Epomaker’s HE75 V2 TMR was the highlight. The 75% board uses TMR magnetic sensing with adjustable actuation and Rapid Trigger precision down to 0.01mm, plus an 8,000Hz polling rate over wired or 2.4GHz connections. It also has a huge 8,000mAh battery and a gasket-mounted construction with multiple layers of acoustic dampening.

With a hybrid hot-swappable PCB and support for magnetic switches and regular 3- or 5-pin mechanical switches, it’s the dream nerdy keyboard, without locking you into one keyboard style.

Samsung Odyssey G6: Best monitor

I don’t know who asked for 1,100Hz, but Samsung decided more is good, and a lot more is what we got. The new 27-inch Odyssey G6 can hit 1,100Hz at HD resolution, while Dual Mode also lets it run QHD at up to 600Hz. Samsung had originally shown a 1,040Hz version earlier in the year, so apparently it found another 60Hz lying behind the sofa before Gamescom.

While it might look like overkill, there is an argument for its existence. Competitive shooters keep pushing farther into extremely high frame rates, and the ability to swap between sharper QHD and fast HD gives esports-focused players an actual choice depending on what they’re playing. At Gamescom, where practically everything is trying to get your attention, a four-digit refresh rate still managed it.

1001 Threads of Mizan: Best co-op fantasy

I saw plenty of fantasy games at Gamescom, and yet, 1001 Threads of Mizan immediately looked different. Its world draws from Arabic folklore and One Thousand and One Nights, and the setting gives it an identity you don’t often see in a large action RPG. The trailers show giant supernatural creatures, sprawling deserts, ornate cities, and magical carpets that aren’t simply there to get you from point A to point B.

The game is designed for one to three players, and those flying carpets can become part of combat as you move around larger enemies and attack from the air. The scale and a Middle Eastern fantasy world gave me shades of Prince of Persia without looking like a generic “inspiration”. Gamescom had no shortage of medieval castles and gloomy forests. Mizan was a very welcome change of scenery.

CONTROL Resonant: Best hands-on demo

We spent roughly an hour with CONTROL Resonant, and that was just not enough. Remedy is putting Dylan Faden in the lead this time, moving the supernatural mess out into Manhattan while Jesse is missing and a new resonance begins warping reality. The change in protagonist also comes with a more aggressive style of combat, and controlling Dylan immediately made this feel different from simply replaying the first Control with prettier graphics.

The gameplay flows differently now, and that’s to be expected from what Remedy is calling its most expansive title yet. Launch is set for September 24, and the visual spectacle has me waiting impatiently for that date. Lighting remains a massive part of Remedy’s atmosphere, and the ray-traced reflections and effects looked impressive once the environments started getting stranger.

Rainbow Six Tactics: Best tactical spin-off

I’ve played Rainbow Six Siege for around nine years, so Ubisoft announcing a turn-based Rainbow Six game wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for the series. Still, Rainbow Six Tactics basically takes the planning mentality behind Siege and gives you as much time as you need to think through it. You’re playing as Six, managing missions from HQ before deploying squads of up to four Operators into turn-based encounters. Ubisoft has confirmed 15 Operators, more than 45 locations, and familiar objectives including Hostage Rescue, Bomb Disposal, and Target Elimination.

The immediate comparison with XCOM is pretty easy to draw, but the foundation of this title already has some solid tactical roots. Combining destructible environments with unique operator gadgets (and their interactions) and the big focus on info gathering makes this feel like a refreshing take of the same game I’ve played and loved for nearly a decade.

ANANTA: Best open-world wildcard

I’ve called ANANTA “anime GTA” before, but that’s dumbing it down a little too much. Sure, it has driving, web-busy cities and side activities, but you’re also web-swinging in a world that has a completely different tone from the get-go. The game is scheduled to hit the shelves early next year, and during Gamescom, the freedom given to players in-game is what helped it stand out.

Grand Theft Auto titles might have played quite linearly with their overarching plot, but the freedom in expression during gameplay was always top-notch. This seems to be a new take on the same formula. The big question is whether all these ideas can coexist once we’re actually playing for dozens of hours. That’s exactly why ANANTA deserves the wildcard award. I still don’t completely understand how NetEase is going to pull this off, and I really want to find out.

PUBG: DED.NET: Best new chaotic multiplayer

PUBG in a title painted a pretty distinct picture in my head about what DED.NET was going to be. But 10 seconds into the trailer, I saw more of XDefiant, and then even more of roguelites as the video went on. It’s a multiplayer FPS with roguelite progression set in a very strange version of 1990s Cascadia, with persistent progression encouraging different builds across runs. PUBG Studios describes it as a place to experiment, adapt, and build your own approach. So you’re not just dropping everyone into another battle royale.

Where the depth really starts playing a part is with the characters and their abilities. Recent details point to more than 70 abilities and a smaller, denser map designed to encourage aggressive fights. While gamers are getting tired of the constant influx of live-service games, PUBG has some experience in making games that have broken the charts before. So we might be in for a surprise with this one.

The Witcher 3 Remastered and Songs of the Past: Best comeback

I can’t believe that it would be possible, but an 11-year-old remastered game was somehow one of the more fun things revealed at Gamescom. CD Projekt Red is bringing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered out on September 29 with improvements across visuals, performance, and gameplay, and existing owners on qualifying platforms get the upgrade free.

And the part that really has gamers excited is that Geralt’s journey still has one more tale to tell. Songs of the Past brings him to Letten in 2027 for a new paid expansion filled with new characters, quests, monsters, and an entirely new region. CD Projekt describes it as Geralt’s final adventure, while all existing Witcher 3 owners have also been given Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine for free.

SPINE: Best action showcase

When I first saw SIFU, I couldn’t believe that such a game took so long to be realized. It made perfect sense right from the start. A few years later, and I’m having that same feeling with SPINE. Gun fu is a term that has existed in media for decades, but only now am I seeing it used to its full potential in video games.

You play as Redline, a street artist with a sentient combat implant called Spine, fighting through a cyberpunk city controlled by an authoritarian AI regime (so basically just our immediate future). Camera work is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Every dodge, gunshot, takedown, and hand-to-hand exchange is framed to make combat look choreographed rather than like two separate systems pulled together.

The Gamescom footage leaned hard into that spectacle, and it’s difficult to watch without immediately thinking about John Wick. There are plenty of cyberpunk games and plenty of third-person action games. SPINE has figured out a visual language that makes it instantly recognizable, and that’s worth an award by itself.