I find that a good pair of stereo headphones will give a surround sensation. I was playing Battlefield 1 a few months ago and I remember hearing an enermy sneaking up behind me, as well as the sensation of gunfire happening around me.
Not by themselves they can't. I've seen people say this before, so just assumed it was the case that some headphones could give positional sounds without the need for anything else; but as Esat pointed out to me not long ago; the game being played must have some surround sound placement built into it's engine. After thinking about it, it makes sense.
Headphones can't do anymore than just plain side to side stereo unless they receive a signal which has cues enabling the listener to place sounds. Headphones with a good sound stage is not enough by itself.
Someone could point out that when listening to music with headphones that have a good sound stage, they can place different instruments in different locations; but what must be remembered is that when recording, band members with different instruments will be in different positions in relation to the microphone/s. If the listener can place a person playing a guitar further to the left than someone playing a keyboard, it's because they were in those positions when the music was recorded.
If you listened to the same band playing the same music using the same headphones, but this time the microphone recorded it coming from stereo speakers (rather than a live band), you wouldn't be able to place the different instruments (other than just left or right), as all sounds are coming from two fixed locations; the speakers.
It's no different when playing a game with nothing more than basic stereo, because all sounds are generated on the fly and there are only the two fixed locations; left and right. Just as it would be if a microphone recorded music from stereo speakers, rather than a live band. Unless there is something than can give specific cues as to where that sound is coming from; it's just basic left and right.
Just a quick search brings up people talking about the positional sound in Battlefield 1, which is what you are hearing; not the ability of the headphones to place sounds by themselves.