We've reached the final month of an incredible gaming year, closing out the season with a final rush of exciting titles as the Christmas holidays quickly approach. Avatar: Borders of Pandora – now available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X – is by far the biggest launch of December, bringing players to the never-before-seen western frontier of Pandora, full of awe-inspiring creatures and luminous vegetation. It's a bit reminiscent of the James Cameron movies, in that you wake up as a Na'vi orphan and are thrown into battle against the Resources Development Administration (RDA), the company that wants to harvest natural resources from the beautiful alien moon planet.
By exploring the vast open world and hunting, you'll learn about the history of its inhabitants, which some might mistake for a virtual tour of Pandora. Others might see this as a retread of Far Cry – it depends on how you see the Ubisoft formula. Therefore, expect to unlock countless enemy outposts as you switch between both primitive and modern firearms before delving into a stealth affair, thanks to your heightened senses. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is also getting a season pass next year, with bonus story packs that would expand the 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 ever-chattering Mimir. But because the game doesn't have a large weapon pool, it rewards you with Runic skills at each checkpoint, in addition to expanding lore as Kratos faces his former demons from Greek mythology – and even wields the Sword of Olympus. God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla is now available on PS4 and PS5.
Fortnite saw a huge resurgence last month when it brought back the original Battle Royale experience with classic weapons and vehicles, giving both old and new fans a fun time again. It heralds a new phase for the game and 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 infamous for. Clumsily battle deadly creatures and chop down trees to harvest resources, which can then be used to build temporary shelters to survive the night – using the same building technology that Fortnite vanilla does, as you hope to move from one biome to the following, each with different environmental conditions. The game is now available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X.
Then there's The Finals, where you enter a virtual battle show, reminiscent of The Hunger Games, to hunt down opponents in a 3v3v3 arena and collect the most money to emerge victorious. After spending months in early access, Embark Studios made it live at The Game Awards 2023. And don't forget: Baldur's Gate 3 eventually hitting Xbox the same day, inviting a host of new players into the Dungeons & Dragons-inspired dark fantasy realm.
Here's another big one: Resident Evil 4 Remake is available today across the Apple ecosystem (iOS, iPadOS and macOS) with Universal Purchase support; so the one-time purchase app can be used on other devices. As you might expect, it's a simple haven that puts you in the shoes of handsome agent Leon S. Kennedy, who is tasked with locating and rescuing the president's daughter from a creepy Spanish village. Since this is a graphics-intensive game, you can't expect more than an unstable 30fps and have to deal with overlay buttons, which can get annoying very quickly.
With that, here is a list of all the games coming out 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 Finale (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)