It's the weekend, which of course means many things - a chance to bask in the sun and/or mourn the loss of it, a little bit of extra time to catch up on games, books or that Westworld finale and, most importantly, a brand new roundup of the very best deals from the week. That last one is the very article you're reading, so let's cut to the chase and check out some of the fun things you can treat yourself to this week.

As a heads up, don't forget that Amazon Prime Day 2018 is creeping ever closer and we've got our own guide to finding the best deals and generally surviving the faux-holiday itself, which we'll be keeping updated all the way through.

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.

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There's something magical about video games set in the real world. At the intersection of the fantastical and the mundane you get to become the hero of our very own world while taking in some of the most beautiful vistas our planet has to offer, all from the comfort of your couch.

For a long time, I had no particular feeling on the topic, since I had as much of a connection to contemporary Hong Kong or Seattle as I had to Skyrim and Mordor.

That changed on an overcast day in March 2012, when I was living my best life as an exchange student in Japan. I had flown to Okinawa with two friends to escape the surprisingly persistent, wet cold of early March, and on our first day, while we were idly exploring the town of Naha, it began to rain and we ducked into a roofed shopping district.

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FIFA 19 will include pack odds disclosures, EA has confirmed to Eurogamer.

Speaking to our reporter Robert Purchese at the Gamelab conference in Spain, EA Sports vice president and COO Daryl Holt said FIFA Ultimate Team Packs will show odds from FIFA 19 on.

Here's what Holt told us:

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It's launch morning for The Crew 2, and I've logged in to do a final network test. The always-online racing game's predecessor had serious network issues on release, so I want to see if the new game is holding up. It's been stable playing with early access players this week, but would the influx of new people cause problems? So far, all is well (unless you're on Steam.) Players are popping up nearby, rather than halfway across the map as they have done during the sparsely populated early access period. They crawl their Lamborghinis up to my stationary 1993 Porsche and rev in wordless invitation to a drag race. They don't need to ask twice and we roar off up the Pacific coast road out of Malibu.

It's a fun moment, but then we just peel off and go our separate ways, because there is hardly anything for us to do together in this game.

The Crew was a scrappy but ultimately lovable open-world racing game with unrealised massively multiplayer aspirations. It was made by Lyon studio Ivory Tower, itself formed by veterans of Eden Studios, makers of the Test Drive Unlimited games, which were scrappy but ultimately lovable open-world racing games with unrealised massively multiplayer aspirations. Things have changed, a little: The Crew 2 doesn't feel so scrappy. It is almost polished (though my PS4 version crashed three times during review). But those aspirations are still unrealised, and the game is underdeveloped in other areas than its network code and bug fixes. There's a sense that it will be much better in six months to a year's time than it is at launch - just like The Crew was. Plus a change.

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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.

RPS spotted the issue earlier, 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 a member of the Ubisoft team taking to Reddit with a brief update. 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.

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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".

Entertainment Weekly 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".

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Finland has provided its fair share of 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. Kalevala 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?

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Last October, EA shut down Visceral Games, which had been working on a secretive under-wraps Star Wars project led by Uncharted creator Amy Hennig. The game - codenamed Ragtag - was said to be too linear by EA bosses and development was instead "pivoted" to EA Vancouver. Since then, while reports have emerged of its troubled development, we've heard nothing about the aftermath: what had happened to Hennig, or what the future might still hold for the game under its new guise.

Today, at the Gamelab conference in Barcelona, Hennig revealed to Eurogamer's Rob Purchese that she had actually parted ways with EA as of January this year and was in the process of starting up her new, independent studio - but had not yet had the chance to announce the change or set the record straight.

As for that exciting-sounding Uncharted-inspired Star Wars game she had been creative director of - it's not good news. Read on for her full response.

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UPDATE 18/7/18: Wrecking Ball the hamster will roll out to all Overwatch players on Tuesday 24th July, Blizzard has now confirmed.

Announced three weeks ago to surprise and some delight, the mech-suited rodent has since found a legion of fans. No word yet on when Jetpack Cat will be available, however.

ORIGINAL STORY 28/6/18: Blizzard has seemingly unveiled its latest Overwatch hero, Wrecking Ball. It is a hamster in a mech suit.

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Sea of Thieves' second time-limited event, Gunpowder Skeletons, does exactly what it says on the tin.

Rare's swashbuckling pirate simulator has added skeleton enemies which carry gunpowder kegs. Naturally, you'll want to stop the buggers before they can get too close and blow up.

Blow them up first and you'll gain renown from the Bilge Rats - Sea of Thieves' new faction who look after the game's time-limited events. Like the last event, which saw you tracking down Skeleton Thrones, you'll gain Doubloons for your trouble which you can then use to buy limited edition outfit items or trade in for reputation with the game's permanent factions.

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