Battlefield 2042 shoots onto Game Pass with a new map, specialist and nippy tank
Get murdered in the swedish wilderness
War never changes, but sometimes it arrives on a generous games subscription package. Battlefield 2042 is now available on Game Pass, along with a new map, specialist, weapons and Battle Pass gubbins for Season 3. Most folks seem to regard 2042 as a misstep compared to the triumph of Battlefield 1, but hey, Game Pass is a great way to check if they're right. You can't shoot railguns in the swedish wilderness back in WW1, can you now.
The new map is called Operation Spearpoint, and it features "two fully automated megafactories and an untamed terrain". The map's very own trailer goes into more detail here, where a man runs through all the different capture points in his best subdued bombast voice. They're billing it as a close-quarters focused map, though it looks like most of the squabbling actually happens outdoors across a river and some nice-looking hillocks. I do like how you can get into one of those factories by switching off a big fan.
The new specialist, Rasheed Zain, comes packing a semi-automatic airburst launcher that's designed to flush enemies out of cover, as well as a passive that lets him recover health faster after taking down an enemy. He's got his own trailer too, look.
The two new weapons are the Rorsch Mk-4, "which uses electromagnetic forces to launch projectiles at preposterous speeds", and the NVK-S22,a semi-automatic shotgun. The new EMKV90-TOR tank, meanwhile, lets you swap between a swift-moving mobility mode and a siege-mode that ups the damage from its turret. You can see them in action over on the update page.
I enjoyed hopping into 2042 back when it first launched, though it only took a few weeks for most of my pals to fall away from it - as opposed to the months we spent with Battlefield 1. It's not just us - two weeks ago ten times as many people were playing Battlefield 1 as were playing 2042.
If you do want a go on the newer one, you can now grab it on Game Pass. It's also currently 67% off on Steam, and thus nabbable for £16.50/$20/€20.