We’ve reached the last month of an incredible year in gaming, closing the season with a final rush of exciting titles as the Christmas holiday period fast approaches. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora — out now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X — is easily the biggest launch in December, transporting players to the never-seen-before Western Frontier of Pandora, teeming with awe-inspiring creatures and luminescent vegetation. It’s a bit reminiscent of the James Cameron movies, in the sense that you awaken as a Na’vi orphan and are thrust into battle against the Resources Development Administration (RDA), the corporation looking to harvest natural resources from the beautiful alien moon planet.
By exploring its large open world and going out on hunting trips, you learn about the history of its inhabitants, which some might mistake for a virtual tour of Pandora. Others might see this as a reskinned Far Cry game — it depends on how you see the Ubisoft formula. As such, expect tons of enemy outposts to unlock, as you swap between both primitive and modern-day firearms before delving into some stealth affair, thanks to your heightened senses. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is also getting a season pass next year, adding bonus story packs that would expand on its infiltration missions. Follow that up with a free new DLC for God of War Ragnarök, which throws you into a roguelite setting accompanied by the always-jabbering Mimir. But since the game doesn’t have a large weapon pool, it rewards you with Runic abilities at every checkpoint, in addition to expanding on the lore as Kratos begins facing his past demons from Greek mythology — and even wields the Blade of Olympus. God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla is out now on PS4 and PS5.
Fortnite saw a huge resurgence last month when it brought back the original core battle royale experience with classic weapons and vehicles, allowing both old and new fans to hop back in for a jolly good time. Heralding a new phase for the game, it has now launched a new experience called Lego Fortnite, which adds an element of survival-crafting on top of the block-building toy sheen the brand is notorious for. Clunkily fight off deadly creatures and hack down trees to harvest resources, which can then be used to build temporary shelters to weather the night — leveraging the same building technology that vanilla Fortnite does, as you hope from one biome to the next, each hosting different environmental conditions. It’s out now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X.
Then there’s The Finals, launching you into a virtual combat show, reminiscent of The Hunger Games, to hunt down opponents in a 3v3v3 arena and stack up the most cash to emerge victorious. After spending months in early access, Embark Studios made it live during The Game Awards 2023. Not to mention, Baldur’s Gate 3 finally made it onto Xbox, the same day, inviting a host of new players to its Dungeons & Dragons-inspired dark fantasy realm.
Here’s another big one: Resident Evil 4 Remake is out today across the Apple ecosystem — iOS, iPadOS, and macOS — with support for Universal Purchase; so, the one-time-purchase app can be used across other devices. As you’d expect, it’s a basic port that puts you in the shoes of the pretty-boy cop Leon S. Kennedy, tasked with locating and saving the President’s daughter from a ghoulish Spanish village. Considering this is a graphics-intensive game, don’t expect anything more than an unstable 30fps and having to deal with overlay buttons, which could get annoying really fast.
With that, here’s a list of all the games releasing in December 2023.
- December 1 — SteamWorld Build (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch)
- December 1 — Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince (Nintendo Switch)
- December 1 — Batman: Arkham Trilogy port (Nintendo Switch)
- December 7 — Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X)
- December 7 — Lego Fortnite (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X)
- December 7 — Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X)
- December 8 — Baldur’s Gate 3 (Xbox Series S/X)
- December 8 — The Finals (PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X)
- December 12 — God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla (PS4, PS5)
- December 13 — Ready or Not (PC)
- December 14 — House Flipper 2 (PC)
- December 14 — Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising (PC, PS4, PS5)
- December 15 — Cookie Cutter (PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X)
- December 20 — Resident Evil 4 remake port (iOS, iPadOS, and macOS)