Far Cry 5 battles spiders from Mars (sans Bowie) July 17

Good news: We're getting away from Far Cry 5's daft cults to battle alien spiders on Mars using zappy laser weapons.

Bad news: Far Cry's increasingly tedious Hurk is coming along for the ride. Ah well, you can't win them all.

Next week, Far Cry 5 receives its second (and perhaps most interesting) piece of DLC from its season pass. Lost On Mars is enough of a change of scenery it could pass for another game entirely, even more distanced from its source material than earlier spinoff Far Cry: Blood Dragon. It's out on July 17th, and is included in the season pass for anyone with the Gold edition of the game.

Originally intended to be the third and final piece of Far Cry 5 DLC, Lost On Mars has been bumped up a little, pushing the upcoming Dead Living Zombies back to August. Probably for the best - zombies are so played out that they didn't even appear in Dying Light 2's debut trailer. Alien bugs are perhaps an old cliche, but haven't seen as much screen-time in recent years as they used to.

You'll be shooting them with a fun-sounding range of guns, too, such as the Blaster of Disaster (no, really) and Hellfire. Most fun of them all looks to be the Morphinator, which transforms your target into a highly volatile, explosive cow that is irresistibly alluring to bug-beasts. I've got the feeling that this particular adventure might not be the most serious of space adventures.

Far Cry 5's first, Vietnam war-themed DLC was far too brief considering the number of new elements it added. I've hopes that Lost On Mars will be a little beefier, giving its entirely new set of enemies and weapons room to breathe. If not, at least they can be used in Far Cry 5's level editor. I'm hoping that you'll be able to cram every enemy group into a single map and have them fight it out, although even if that fails, the thought of alien spiders joining a pseudo-christian doomsday cult has some appeal.

Far Cry 5's Lost On Mars DLC is out on July 17th, and can be purchased separately for £10/12€/$12 or as part of the season pass.