And here’s how to find it, courtesy of DailyVideoPicks:

Bundled into the service will also be new camos and exclusive in-game items – all we need now is definite confirmation that this service is indeed going to go ahead. Apparently Battlefield Premium will be unveiled at the E3 conference on June 4th.

Thanks, Eurogamer

Included in this sale are the following titles:

• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter – now just £1.74
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 – now just £2.49
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon – now just £1.49
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Desert Siege – now just 0.74p
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Island Thunder – now just 0.74p
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Complete Pack which includes all of the above titles – now just £6.24 which saves you 0.96p compared to buying them all separately

All throughout this promotion, gamers can get at least 33% off the entire Ubisoft catalogue and each day there will be specific titles on offer at even lower prices so keep your eyes peeled for more fantastic deals.

Based in a time before any of the Elder Scrolls games are based, ESO will focus on a four-way war for the imperial throne of Tamriel between three alliances and the Imperials who have made a deal with Daedric prince, Molag Bal. Players will not only be dealing with Imperials and the undead army of Molag Bal but will also be fighting other alliances for supremacy.

There are three alliances to choose from in The Elder Scrolls Online and so far two have been detailed. Beginning with the Daggerfall Convenant, three races are incorporated to create this group – Bretons, Orcs and Redguards. Hailing from Hammerfell, High Rock and Orsimer, these three races each bring different skills to the mix and in their own way can be formidable foes or strong allies. Orcs are known for their fearless nature in war, their skill in smithing and for being fudging ugly, if we’re honest. Bretons are skilled weavers of magic and Redguards are famed for their physical skills and hardiness. Described as a “more democratic faction” by game director Max Firor, these three races tend to get along with one another rather well by comparison to other races.

“There is a lot of historical friction between the Redguards and the Bretons. There have been a lot of little wars between them, and there has been as much internal fighting in High Rock as there has been with external provinces, but it’s a much more settled area and a little more peaceful. The Bretons have given the orcs their own homeland within their territory, and all three races like and respect each other. This faction is a lot more democratic than the others.”

The second alliance to be discussed is that of the Aldmeri Dominion. Anyone who has played Skyrim for more than three seconds will know that those who come under this banner are more than a little intolerant of, well, everyone who isn’t them. If you’re not with them, you’re not only against them but most likely about to die as a result. Charmers that they are, the Aldmeri Dominion is made up of Altmer, Bosmer and Khajiit – all hailing from Valenwood, the Summerset Isle and Elsweyr respectively. Altmer are also known as High Elves and their skill with magic and their fierce intellect is arguably unmatched by any other race. Whilst they are more vulnerable to magical attacks they have a high resistance to disease. Bosmer are referred to as Wood Elves more often than not and are quick, agile and more in harmony with nature and peace than their power-hungry Altmer cousins. Khajiit are not even slightly related to either of the previous two races but are feline in appearance and naturally agile warriors. Not to mention they’ve created one of the most powerful narcotics known to Tamriel: Skooma. Together, these three races make up an alliance which seeks to take all at the expense of anyone who gets in their way.

“The name says it all. The Aldmeri Dominion wants to dominate the world. They plan on taking over the world. Submit or die. The Aldmeri Dominion is like, ‘we’re going to kill everyone that isn’t us. You people are going to help us or else.’”

The third alliance players can choose from in the Elder Scrolls Online, known as the Ebonheart Pact, should be detailed in the very near future.

But who cares about that, right? What you want to see is the actual trailer in all its glory – in which case I would strongly suggest you keep the telly on during half-time on Saturday to get a glimpse of what Black Ops 2 intends to wow you with later on this year. If you don’t know which channels to watch then it’s either ITV 1 or Sky Sports 1 HD, depending on your viewing preference. It’s unlikely to give very much away other than a nice cinematic but no doubt people will be practically vomiting with excitement nonetheless. Just be considerate and clean up after yourself, ok?

So long as you have an active Steam client running on the remote PC or Mac, you can log into the Steam website or mobile app (if that’s your thing) and then you can start managing your library, download pre-loads, get new releases, buy games and then when you get back home your games are installed and ready to play. Pretty cool, huh?

Here’s how to get stuck into this new feature:

1. Make sure you’re logged into Steam on your home PC/Mac and that the application is running (naturally only do this on a private secure computer)
2. Log into your Steam account online from either a computer or mobile device at www.steampowered.com
3. Visit your Games list by navigating to the Community and then clicking GAMES in the secondary navigation bar. If you’re logged into the Steam client, the games list will reflect the installation state of your library on that machine.
4. Locate your game and tap the install button to initiate your remote download.
5. You may choose to refresh the page to check the current status of your installation. When you return to your active client session, your game will be ready to play!

If you are still stuck even after following all those steps then you can get in touch with Steam Support at any time to get more help and advice.

Borderlands 2 definitely fits into that second category and for those of you who are itching to get your mitts on something – anything! – to do with Gearbox’s co-op shooter, this will certainly brighten up your day. Ok, so you can’t actually physically have any of this stuff yet but just being able to read about it might tide you over a bit better until Borderlands 2 hits the planet in September this year.

In a press release statement, 2K Games and Gearbox announced two special editions of the game for fans to freak out over and they’re looking pretty awesome. First up is the Deluxe Vault Hunter’s Collector’s Edition which includes the following items:

• A copy of Borderlands 2
• An authentic Marcus Kincaid bobblehead
• Inside the Vault: The Art & Design of Borderlands 2 hardbound book
• Collectable sticker set
• A map of Pandora
• A digital comic download code
• Bonus downloadable in-game digital content

The alternative to this, if you have the cash and the burning desire for more stuff, is the Ultimate Loot Chest Limited Edition which includes all of the above items plus the following:

• Cloth map of Pandora
• Replica red loot chest as found throughout Pandora in Borderlands 2
• Steel book case
• “Creatures of Pandora” wide-format ID chart
• Lithograph postcard set
• Field notes from Sir Hammerlock
• A numbered certificate of authenticity
• Vending machine bobblehead box

So between now and September all you have to decide is which one you’re going to go for. The Deluxe edition will set you back about £63, give or take, and the Loot edition will cost you around £94. Both look like rather attractive options but even if you choose not to splurge this time around, you can still get something from pre-ordering regardless of whether you go for the standard or collector’s editions. Everyone who pre-orders from participating retailers will get access to the Borderlands 2 Premiere Club. This means they can download the Gearbox Gun Pack, Golden Key, Vault Hunter’s Relic and the Mechromancer character class when the game’s out. Roll on September!

So without further ado, check out part two of the Death CGI trailer for Darksiders II – see how Death takes care of business and observe how utterly awesome his horse is. Not everyone of the equine persuasion can carry off the green vapour accessory quite the way it does, after all.

Should you decide to surf your way through the digital oceans and over to the Indie Royale website and help our less fortunate gaming brethren, then you’ll be rewarded with a number of corking indie titles, including: Osmos, B.U.T.T.O.N., The Shivah, and Blueberry Garden. There’s still a healthy 80-odd hours left before the bundle is retired, mind, but don’t put things off if you want to do your bit and score some games.

Although many improvements and optimizations have been made since Diablo III launched yesterday, the return of some errors has meant that for the sake of keeping on top of problems as they arise, Blizzard feels it is prudent to focus on fixing the current issues rather than launch more elements of the game whilst trying to maintain server integrity.

Hats off to Blizzard for prioritising in this way rather than trying to push the rest of their product on people before players can even enjoy the game properly in the first instance. The real money auction house was due for launch on May 22nd but will now be held off until a more suitable time, as yet unconfirmed by Blizzard. The full statement made by the company can be seen below.

“Diablo Players: We’d like to extend a very sincere thank you to everyone who joined the global Diablo III launch celebrations this week, as well as to everyone who was ready to jump into Sanctuary the moment the game went live. To that end, we’d also like to say that we’ve been humbled by your enthusiasm – and we sincerely regret that your crusade to bring down the Lord of Terror was thwarted not by mobs of demons, but by mortal infrastructure. As many of you are aware, technical issues occurring within hours after the game’s launch led to players experiencing error messages and difficulty logging in. These issues cropped up again last night for the Americas and Europe servers. Despite very aggressive projections, our preparations for the launch of the game did not go far enough. We’ve been monitoring the game 24/7 and have applied several optimizations to help our systems better weather the global rush.

As of late last night, specifically 11:50 PM PDT on May 15, all systems have been online and running relatively smoothly. We’re continuing to monitor performance globally and will be taking further measures as needed to ensure a positive experience for everyone. This includes some maintenance to implement additional improvements for each region. In order to make sure everything is continuing to run as it should, we’ve decided to move out our target launch for the real-money auction house beyond our original estimated date of May 22. We’ll post further updates on that in the near future. Aside from the tremendous number of players simultaneously logging in to the game, one of the launch-day service issues was linked to the achievement system. Some players began to notice early on that achievements were either not being earned properly, or not being saved between multiple logins. We’re investigating this issue and will provide a specific update as soon as possible.

We greatly appreciate everyone’s support, and we want to sincerely apologize for the difficulties many of you encountered on day one. Please visit the Battle.net Support site or Support forums for the latest service-related updates or for help in troubleshooting any technical issues you may be having downloading, installing, or while playing the game.

Thank you again for your patience while we reinforce the gates of Sanctuary and further strengthen it for your onslaught.
Respectfully,
Blizzard Entertainment.”

The discussions are not just for the future of the games but also other things such as novels, products, animated features and the like – the whole idea is to just get some communication flowing as well as creative juices from the devs, BioWare community and wider fanbase. Moderators and developers alike will be popping onto the forums every now and again to take a gander at what’s being posted as well as perhaps sharing their own thoughts and opinions, so make the most of the opportunity and don’t just write something like, “want moar b00bz kthxbai”. Oddly enough I don’t think that’s the sort of input BioWare is looking for just now…

One thing worth noting here before some of you get all excited that the next Dragon Age is going to definitely feature your awesome idea to make all Templars dance the conga if the player is inactive for too long (a totally awesome idea, by the way, and it’s mine so no stealing) – BioWare are looking at discussing ideas, not making promises. It’s also not an outlet for you to try and get your own game concept turned into a reality; if you’re not interested in discussing the future of the Dragon Age franchise within the context that BioWare lay out for you then perhaps be more of an observer at this stage.

“However, it’s worth reminding that we’re not making promises, we’re talking about ideas. We won’t guarantee that things we discuss will materialize and we’re not showing anything until we’re ready. And as a last bit of housekeeping, the purpose of these exercises isn’t crowd sourcing or soliciting your game dev concepts (keep those close in case you want to make a game someday!). This should remain a discussion between BioWare and fans about what you loved about Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2—what this franchise means to you.”

It’s still exciting stuff and if you love the franchise and want to see it become even better then get yourself over to the BioWare Social Network forums and start joining in those discussions. Who knows? Perhaps something you throw out there just may be considered as a possibility for a future Dragon Age product…

But anyway, the point I am rather inarticulately trying to make here is that I was completely unaware that Crysis 3 had even been announced (I’ve been off the Grey Viper radar for a while) and therefore fairly surprised to see a new batch of screenshots. Slow off the mark? Me? Never.

So check them out – there’s only a few but there are lots of nice posing shots of Prophet whilst the world clearly goes to pot behind him. Not to mention that they could do with getting some serious gardening done – I mean, a beast of a bow is all very well and good but I think the alien with a flamethrower for a face has the right idea when it comes to getting rid of the weeds.

Crysis 3 hasn’t been given any sort of release date yet but we’ll let you know as soon as one has been made.

Head on over to the registration page and fill in the form, ensuring that you’ve included information for all the required fields and then check the little box at the bottom to say you have read and understood the terms and conditions. We all know you will have neither read nor understood them but still tick the box, ok? Now then, once you’ve done that you will receive an email with your key code if you have been successful and in order to redeem it you need to visit The Secret World official site and either create a Funcom account using the key or apply it to an existing account if you already have one. Finally you can download the client and be ready to play this weekend. The beta test runs until Monday 21st May.

Starting today at 4pm PDT/11pmGMT, players can get stuck into the first major test of this brand new feature and through listening to player feedback, Trion hope to be able to make changes to the details and other specifics of the mode – so what you see today may not necessarily be what you get with the final product, but it’ll be pretty close and improved.

So what’s the deal? Well for the blow-by-blow account of everything and anything to do with Conquest and indeed RIFT itself, check out the official website which has so much information your head might explode. But for those who just want the gist of what to expect, here’s a little bit of blurb for your perusal:

“Set in the windworn foothills of Stillmoor, the familiar landscape has been transformed with control points and sourcestone powered fortifications as Ascended banners billow under the blood-red sun… Pitted against two additional competing teams you must wrest control of as many Sourcestone Extractors as possible while preventing your opponents from doing the same. These control points open access to buffs and resources to your team which provide a wide variety of benefits in addition to unlocking additional buffs and abilities you earn by contributing to your factions cause. The match ends when a single team has claimed 40% of the control points or 5,000 players are killed – once this happens a 10 minute timer will start, this is your chance to make a last grab for control – after which you’ll earn your rewards! Conquest offers yet another way to augment your gameplay and characters and there’s something for everyone. Even crafters play a vital role by refining the battlefield resources into upgrades and even more perks – you’ll find new recipes available at your crafting trainer!”

• Two ‘epic’ new heists
• ‘Free For All’ mode
• ‘Technician’ skill tree
• Three ‘awesome’ new weapons
• New player upgrades
• Deployable sentry equipment
• Raised cap level

via neogaf.com

When’s it coming? We don’t know. Likely soon, we’re guessing. How much? Same deal – dunno; presumably not much. We’ll be listening out on the scanner for updates, though.

Watch it, learn from it and then get the game. But don’t forget to check out all the current information concerning possible errors you may encounter whilst Blizzard fix server issues; it won’t be permanent but it’s worth knowing what is out there in case you happen to come across any problems. Don’t let it put you off playing though because as you can see from the trailer, this game is epic in every sense of the word.

As announced on the official blog the free weekend will begin Thursday, May 17th at 12:01AM CDT / 5:01AM GMT, and end on Monday, May 21st at 2:00AM CDT / 7:00AM GMT, which is more than enough time to get the hang of wielding a lightsabre. The usual exclusions and restrictions apply but if you’re not familiar with them then just have a little read of the FAQs and make sure you’re eligible to join in. If you are then rejoice, don your favourite Star Wars costume (you know you’ve got one somewhere) and head on over to the Weekend Pass site to get stuck in once registration opens. If you’re not, then I guess it’s back to mournfully watching those Diablo III servers for a bit longer…

The DLC was apparently going to be a multiplayer pack rather than a continuation of the main story; this either annoys you or pleases you, depending on your personal feelings concerning the story of Mass Effect 3. For some it’ll be a relief to just be able to get online with friends and bash the living daylights out of something or other that isn’t on your side. For others it’ll be quite a let-down seeing as the “extended ending” is still very much anticipated and many fans have been so vocal about their displeasure concerning the current ending of the game.

From what Kotaku could glean before the information was taken down, the multiplayer pack was going to include two maps, three weapons and six classes to play around with. Entitled “Rebellion”, the idea was to give players two new fronts for fighting the Reapers.

“The Rebellion Multiplayer Expansion opens two new fronts against the Reapers: Firebase Jade’s jungle reservoir and Firebase Goddess on Thessia. In-game reinforcement packs now include three new weapons as well as equipment, consumables, and six new classes: Quarian Engineer and Infiltrator, Vorcha Soldier and Sentinel, Phoenix Adept and Vanguard. The battle continues – hold the line!”

Keep your eyes peeled to see if this does actually come to light; personally I quite fancy having a go at being a Vorcha…

The biggest change for the next title in the FIFA series is the introduction of the “first touch control system” which EA Sports are hoping will add that certain amount of unpredictability to how the game plays out. Those times when the wrong amount of pressure is applied and the ball goes just wide enough for someone else to take it from you? Expect that to happen in-game with this new system. Similarly, those moments when fancy footwork actually achieves something other than just impressing school kids? Put some class in your kicking and see the effects on-screen. Put simply, mistakes will cost you in FIFA 13 – but having skills will do you some favours.

The main aim of the “first touch system” is to put uncertainty back into the soul of football. Where’s the challenge, after all, in always trapping the ball no matter how difficult it’s supposed to be? You want realism? EA Sports will try to deliver that and it sounds as though it could make players be even more strategic in their playing style when it comes to the crunch. For example, FIFA 13 will not just hand you the game on a plate – if the ball is heading towards you and it would normally be a tricky one to trap if you were playing in real life, FIFA 13 takes various elements into account such as speed, angle and player skill when it simulates the touch. So there’s the very real chance of the player screwing up and missing the ball or getting it wrong somehow by being unable to control it effectively.

Naturally this sort of thing ought to put the fear of failure into both sides – defenders need to be extra alert when considering how to keep themselves in play and attackers need to think about the best way to get the ball without being so overly-ambitious that you throw the game completely. Think risk and reward – never try, never know. If you want your simulation football matches to be as exciting as the real thing then FIFA 13 aims to get one step closer to achieving that feeling.

Speaking to line producer Nick Channon, PC Gamer rather astutely asked the question of whether this new added element of chance could be more frustrating for players than fun.

“We’ll need to make sure that the game is unpredictable, but it’s predictably unpredictable… We’re not making a random game here. You’re not going to randomly lose control of the ball. Ultimately it’s about making the game more realistic.”

PC Gamer were also able to get Channon to confirm that the PC version of the game will be the same as console versions this year, just like FIFA 12 was, which means the new “close control system” will be available. This system allows players to open up their body to move the ball laterally so that they are not always facing the direction the ball is travelling in. It should make it easier to get past attackers and allow for some of those skills to shine through without having to use the trick stick. The free kick system has been given a bit of an overhaul too with more abilities thrown in suck as crossover runs, lay-offs and fake-outs. It’s all Greek to me but I’m sure some of you out there are nodding your heads in understanding. If you’re playing defence then more players can be added to the wall and they can also do stuff like charge the kick spot or shuffle forward to get them closer to the ball. To add to the realism, the referee will start to show cards if players do this too often.

The AI is constantly being updated in FIFA games and 13 will be no exception. There will be far more player analysis going on as a result of EA Sports tinkering with the AI and you’ll need to keep your wits about you if you want to maintain your position as the winning side. All these changes are not likely to make FIFA 13 a sudden leap forward in football simulation games but sometimes it’s the little things that make a big difference in the long run and it looks like EA Sports are planning to do just that.

But all hope is not yet lost as obviously Blizzard is on the case and know that people are struggling to enjoy Diablo III in all its glory. Aware that things are not quite tickety-boo and also going on various feedback from fans, Blizzard has compiled a short list of the errors you are most likely to encounter and what they mean, as well as possible ways to combat them. So make a note of any error numbers you have been seeing and check them out against the following information for further assistance.

• Error 12: This is one of the most frequently-experienced errors so far and is caused by the Global Play feature being disabled until all regions are active. Please make sure you choose the correct region when starting the game.
• Error 33 and 34200: The service is undergoing maintenance, please try again later. (Please note that Diablo 3 will not be available for play until May 15 at 12:01 a.m. PDT.
• Error 37: The server is full. This is likely due to high login traffic. The only solution is to keep trying to log in.
• Error 24000: Once logged in you may run into this error when attempting to start a game. We’re aware and are working to resolve it as quickly as possible.
• Error 108: Similar to “An unexpected decryption error occurred”, the error 108 can be caused by corrupted, damaged or incomplete installation files. This can often times be caused by closing the downloader early. Though the downloader may show 100%, please allow some time for it to fully complete. You may be able to fix this by running the downloader and pointing it to the same saved location so that it may scan and download any missing files.
• Error 3004, 3006, 3007, or 300008: There are a number of possible causes for these errors. Check out these pages for further suggestions.
• Error 315300: If you’re sure you’re typing your correct account information, check to make sure no additional spaces were added before or after your email address. If you’re still running into this issue, there may be an error in your foreign language appdata files. Some players have found a workaround, but please be aware the steps they provide are not something we can currently support.
• Grey login button: You need to use your Battle.net email address as your account name. Your BattleTag is a nickname, not your account name.
• No License Attached: Please create a BattleTag for your account.
• Unable to initialise streaming: This error can generally be caused by security software on your computer. During this time, however, it’s possible that the error is caused by the number of people hitting the servers. Please double check your firewall settings and try again.
• Updating setup files: If you’re stuck on “Updating Setup Files” try these troubleshooting steps, as well as these.

Another issue encountered is when the disc keeps ejecting from the drive. Blizzard recommend the following:

“Reinsert the disc and try again. If not, or if you keep seeing this error, log in to Battle.net and install Diablo III digitally. If you downloaded the installer digitally, this error indicates that it did not convert the files correctly. This can often be caused by closing the downloader early. Though the downloader may show 100%, please allow some time for it to fully complete. To resolve this issue, log into Battle.net and re-run the downloader.

When it comes to the aforementioned Error 3006, which is game-breaking, Blizzard also have a temporary workaround they recommend until they can figure out what on earth is going on and how to fix it. The problem appears to trigger when players come across the Templar early on in the game and they get booted out and then cannot log back in. Pretty game-breaking, I’d say. So the current suggestion to help combat this is to avoid equipping the Templar with anything – don’t even give the guy a sandwich. This should help avoid the game kicking you out and then once you have accepted the Templar as a follower through the user interface pop-up you should be able to start giving him stuff. And that sandwich, the poor man.

Hopefully some of what Blizzard has offered up here will help you guys out – unless, of course, you haven’t experienced any issues whatsoever. I’d keep it to yourself if that’s the case…you might just get lynched.