One of my favourite soulslike shoot-'em-ups—Remnant 2—just quietly dropped on PC Game Pass, and it's a really good time to subscribe anyway

Remnant 2 is an absolute banger. We gave it a solid 84 in our Remnant 2 review, and I've personally been an ambassador for this thing since day one. It's a multiversal romp with some weird builds and creepy monsters to shoot, and it's also received some really solid post-launch support.

Now you can play its standard edition for the price of a good burger. Remnant 2 has dropped along with its previous entry, Remnant: From the Ashes, onto PC and Xbox Game Pass. The only downside is you won't be getting access to the DLC (unless your mate has it, of course). 

As it stands, Remnant 2's standard edition is $50 (£42) on Steam. Meanwhile PC Game Pass is $10 (£8) a month, or $1/£1 for 14 days if the trial's available for you. You could pick this thing up and blast through it in a couple of weeks for the price of a chocolate bar. I don't need to tell you that's a good deal.

Contrary to how we felt about Game Pass back in May, there are actually some other really solid offerings online right now. Persona 5 Tactica got a 90 from reviewer Lewis Parker, and it's a new release too, having dropped earlier this month. Spirittea, which I'm told is the cosiest of cosy, is also available to download and play. Warhammer: 40k Darktide is also in much better shape nowadays. All in all, it's a good time to drop some dosh on it.

The only caveat I'd add here is that it's probably not worth it to play Remnant: From the Ashes, not because it's a bad game by any means, but because Remnant 2 is pretty much the first game, but better. 

While Remnant 2 shoves you into weird, alien landscapes about an hour in, From the Ashes makes you slog through a ruined brown city for a few hours before you get into anything really interesting, and unfortunately suffers for it. Remnant 2 only has you wading through brown town for like, an hour, tops.

Remnant 2's build diversity is just also a lot better, upping the number of rings you can equip from two to four, letting you have two whole classes (archetypes) equipped at any time, and getting even zanier with the mods and special equipment.

But hey, if you've already torn through Remnant 2 and want to check out the series' history, who am I to stop you. Either way, if you enjoy soulslikes, difficult RPGs, or third-person shooters at all, you should absolutely pick this thing up. You will not regret it.