The Video Games You Should Play This Weekend – January 9

 Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora released in 2023 (and was a Game Informer cover game), but I only spent about an hour with it around launch, even though I have to admit to myself that I am an Avatar fan. I was turned off by the first-person perspective, but thought the game looked great and I like the conceptual idea of Far Cry: Avatar, though I admit there is more nuance than that. With the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash, I was eager to spend just a little more time on Pandora after leaving the theater, but rather than start from the beginning (or near-beginning), I decided to jump straight to the DLC, which I am grateful was an option.

Narratively, it places you after the events of the main game, which means you do not need to unlock your flying steed. It does, however, strip you of your weapons, so you do have to rebuild your arsenal. That’s a good thing. You are incentivized to unlock new attacks and find new things. There is an upward ramp, which is exactly what I wanted. Also, a recent update allows you to play in third-person, so you can finally see your Na’vi leaping between floating tree limbs, which makes a big difference.

Ultimately, finally spending time with the game didn’t convince me I had missed out on some phenomenal 2023 experience, but as an extension of the film and a chance to explore more of that world, I had a good time. And if you liked the film, I recommend you do the same. Wes is right though in that the game is missing one crucial detail from the film.

Nintendo added another game to its Switch Online retro offerings this week, and it’s a big one. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is on its GameCube services, meaning you won’t have to pay $300+ just to experience the first 3D Fire Emblem.

This Fire Emblem’s notable for quite a few reasons, though. Notably, it’s just a darn good Fire Emblem. For as big of a shift as moving to 3D and the GameCube was, Intelligent Systems managed to transpose the tiles and tactics to a new production quite well. Riding the surging wave of international visibility thanks to the GBA entries and – oddly enough – two Fire Emblem fighters in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Path of Radiance quickly became a prized addition to GameCube libraries.

Personally, I can’t wait to dip back in. I’ve always liked this shift towards the mercenary Ike for Path of Radiance’s story, and characters like Soren and Titania were fast favorites, alongside the neat designs around the Laguz animal-warriors. This is a classically styled Fire Emblem that I’m hoping stands the test of time, and worth dipping back into if you’ve ever been interested in the history of the franchise.

If you’re unfamiliar, Fear Effect is a 2000 PlayStation 1 game from the height of competing developers trying their best to make their own Resident Evil. It was ported to contemporary platforms with only a handful of added frills back in September, but I was happy to make some time for it recently.

This particular flavor of Resident Evil-like came from Eidos and it is a weird one. It’s less a horror game (though there are demons and zombies if you make it far enough) and more of a cyberpunk, noir thriller with some misguided attempts to also be sexy and adult. I have fond memories of playing it, though only after finding it in a discount bin in the mid-2000s. It was an early example of cel-shading and it sets itself apart from Resident Evil by making all of its pre-rendered backgrounds dynamic and moving. It is a game that absolutely looks old by today’s standards, but even playing it again now on my Switch 2, it feels like it cost a lot of money at the time with its impressive production value. It also lets you shoot in two directions at once, which was unheard of for the genre.

I love it as a bizarre time capsule of the year 2000. It’s a game that was shooting for the moon, and did not hit it (though it did well enough to receive a sequel, which will also be ported soon). If you miss the days of classic Resident Evil gameplay, and happened to miss Fear Effect, I would give it a look.

I finished Death Stranding 2 during my holiday break after 66 hours (absolutely loved it, especially that bonkers ending and also, maybe one of my favorite performances from Troy Baker and proof we need him as a villain in more games). Looking ahead to January, I realized I had the rare opportunity to dive into my backlog because the month is so chill for new releases. I whittled my options down to Yakuza 0, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, and Metroid Prime Remastered… and Samus Aran’s big round shoulders won.

I’m roughly halfway through it now, and I am enjoying it, but I’m not so sure it works as well for someone who hasn’t played the original. Of course, this game originally launched more than two decades ago and this is not a remake; it’s a remaster. Its visuals hold up well, especially given the remastering work that has upgraded what I’m seeing on screen. I can’t lie, though – the 2002 of it all is making it an annoying experience to interact with. Fortunately, I’m enjoying it more than I am becoming frustrated by it but, man, I would have killed for some quality-of-life updates like auto-save and reworked controls.

I don’t mind visiting save points to save my progress, but sometimes, the sequences I must endure are extensive and packed with enemies, making it easy to die and lose upwards of 45 minutes of progress (looking at you, Thermal Visor runback). It’s also frustrating switching between visors, weapon types, and more using Remastered’s control scheme. I can’t point to a specific aspect I dislike, but it just doesn’t feel great when I’m pressing buttons, doubly so when playing handheld on Switch 2 with Joy-Cons.

Anyway, I’m fresh off losing 45 minutes of progress this morning because of that dang Thermal Visor, so I’m feeling more jaded on it than not, but I do think it’s a great game. It’s nice to revisit a classic and experience where a game that has so clearly inspired countless others began; I’m just not so sure it holds up as well as other classics, especially as a first-time player.