UPDATE: And it's fixed - Ubisoft has worked with Valve to get The Crew 2 back up and running on PC, and supplied us with the following statement: “The Steam key activation issue should now be resolved, and affected players should be able to launch the game. A Steam restart might be necessary. Thank you for your patience.”
ORIGINAL STORY: The Crew 2, Ubisoft's massively ambitious and absolutely massive open world racing game, has just launched today - although players who've bought the game on Steam are currently locked out.
, with the slightly cumbersome pairing of Steam and Ubisoft's own uPlay store seemingly the source of the problems as players are told they need an activation key that hasn't been released just yet - and it seems like the issue won't be addressed until Valve itself gets to it, with . We've contacted Ubisoft to see if there's a timeline on when the issue will be resolved, and they provided us with the following statement: “We're aware of an issue where some players are not able to access their Steam preorder of The Crew 2. We are working together with Steam to resolve this issue as soon as possible and we'll continue to keep you updated here regarding the fix.”

Nearly five years on, Microsoft has finally gotten its Halo TV series greenlit and into production.
Cable network Showtime has ordered 10 episodes of the show, which it is calling its "most ambitious series ever".
reports the show's blurb as "an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant. Halo will weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future".

Helsinki's provided its fair share of Finnish classics over the years - from Resogun to Trials through Alan Wake and Angry Birds - but here's one of a different vintage; a game that draws upon a Finnish classic from the 19th century. Kalavela is an epic that's informed much of Finland's national identity, drawing upon Finnish folklore (and proving influential to Tolkien as he built his own mythology) - and all this without a voxel in sight.
It's ripe for returning to, really, which is exactly what upstart Helsinki developer Action Squad - a team who draws experience from seemingly every studio in the area, with Remedy, Rovio, Supercell and RedLynx all making appearances on the various CVs - is doing with Iron Danger, a tactical turn-based adventure with a few neat twists of its own. You're Kipuna, an everyday villager who is granted superpowers that place her in the middle of an epic battle for the city of Kalevala.
It's something of a passion project for a team led by Sami Timonen, formerly of Rovio and Supercell, and someone who's been pushing to establish this new IP built upon the foundations of Finnish folklore through a film, comic books and, of course, a game. To help on that end, Action Squad has recruited a crack team of veterans - many of them making the leap from mobile to Iron Danger's preferred platforms of PC and console. Given the astronomical figures that games such as Supercell's Clash Royale earn, what inspired the move back to a more traditional model?

On Sonic the Hedgehog's 27th birthday (that big 3-0 is fast approaching!), Sega has detailed Team Rose for Team Sonic Racing.
The announcement was made during an event to celebrate Sonic's birthday (you can watch it in the video below).
Team Rose is made up of Amy Rose, Chao and Big the Cat. Yep, Big the Cat, the large, anthropomorphic purple cat who made his name in the Sonic Adventure series, is in Team Sonic Racing. As if there was any doubt.

This week, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds got its first ever Event Pass. The £7.49 DLC is, clearly, inspired by Fortnite's hugely-successful Battle Pass, and lets players unlock premium loot, including themed cosmetics and items. It also lets you take on exclusive challenges and gain experience points as you play.
While PUBG's Event Pass sounds like a decent addition to the game - and indeed it has freshened up the battle royale experience for many players - it has some problems, which the game's rabid fanbase has been quick to pick up on.
This has led to a raft of comments from the PUBG developer, PUBG Corp., which has clarified the Event Pass is something of an experiment, and shown to be quick to react to feedback.

Well, it's the weekend, folks. You know as well as I do that a weekend means it's time for yet another roundup of the very best gaming deals this week has had to offer. It also means I'm going to spend a couple more hours trying to continue my first playthrough of Dark Souls 2, which, let me tell you - is an odd game to come to after just finishing Dark Souls Remastered. That said, GOG's recent addition of the last of the original Monkey Island games may make for an ideal distraction, given that three out of four of those games are essentially flawless.
Anyway, onto the deals! As usual, we've got deals that'll work in the UK, deals that'll work in the US and some deals that will work in both the UK and US, as well as presumably many other places. Let's get started.
Worlds Adrift is a survival-y, build-y, floaty, flying, massively multiplayer type of game that's hit some headlines relatively recently. The folks from Green Man Gaming joined forces with our sister-site Jelly Deals to offer 40 copies of the game. To be in with a chance of winning a copy, you can enter on the link below.

The NHS is set to fund an internet addiction centre - with a focus on gaming disorders.
According to , the Central and North West London NHS foundation trust is behind the Centre for Internet Disorders, which will initially focus on gaming addiction. The idea is it will offer treatment and advice to families as well as conduct research.
after it emerged "gaming disorder" could become a proper medical condition - should a draft of the World Health Organisation's updated International Classification of Diseases manual be approved unamended roughly a year from now.

Two moments from EA's E3 2018 media briefing stuck with me long after I left the blazing heat of Los Angeles.
The first was EA's dramatic Champions League trophy reveal, up close and personal as it was for me as I sat in the tiny chairs squeezed into the Hollywood Palladium's mosh pit. It made me gasp. I knew an announcement about FIFA finally getting the Champions League after years of exclusivity on PES was coming (thanks, ). But as a football fan, seeing the actual Champions League trophy within touching distance had the hairs on the back of my neck doing a merry dance.
The second was EA boss Andrew Wilson's closing remarks, which I've struggled to shake because, well, I'm not going to pull any punches here - they stank of hypocrisy.

Updated story (June 14th): Though Trials Rising was confirmed for Nintendo Switch during Ubisoft's E3 press conference, the game's upcoming closed beta won't be coming to the platform, an Ubisoft spokesperson has confirmed to Eurogamer.
Instead, we can expect it on PS4, Xbox One and PC, with now available.
There's no word on what the closed beta will feature, but Ubisoft mentioned during the conference it will arrive later this year.