BioWare has unveiled Dragon Age 2, the successor to the famed Dragon Age: Origins RPG, one of the finer RPGs to hit the stores over the past year. The sequel was unveiled in the latest issue of Game Informer, and the game is scheduled for release February 2011. You can check out the official Dragon Age 2 page here.

NASA has been working on lots of things, like satellites, rockets, spaceships, and, will you believe it, games. NASA’s “Moonbase Alpha” game is now available for free download on Steam. NASA describes the game as a “First Person Explorer”, which, given the setting and point of the game, is a pretty accurate description.

According to Activision, their DJ Hero music game has surpassed 1.2 million in sales, and that it’s their best selling new IP by revenue. Not surprisingly, DJ Hero 2 is well in development and is slated for release later this year.

Financial news outfit Bloomberg estimates that Microsoft’s Xbox Live service topped $1 billion in revenue in the past fiscal year. Microsoft has previously stated that about half of the 25 million Xbox Live players are paying for the “Gold” service, which, in and of itself, would account for around a good $100 million in revenue. On top of that, and a big chunk of Xbox Live revenue, comes from additional content (like DLC) and services.

EA Sports has announced that the latest installment in their yearly FIFA franchise, FIFA 11, has received a firm release date: September 11 in North America and October 1 in Europe and Asia.

2K Sports has revealed the cover of NBA 2K11, which, if you remember correctly, features Michael Jordan himself, both on the cover, and playable in-game.

EA and DICE have released the fourth map-pack for Bad Company 2, which includes new variations of two maps, Atacama Desert Rush and Port Valdez Conquest. The new map pack is free on all platforms. Via BadCompany2Blog.

For the last few years, APB has been one of the most anticipated MMOs, and most anticipated PC games in general. Finally, we get a chance to play Realtime World’s “cops vs robbers” on a large scale in a huge city, and finally, we get to see what it’s all about. Sadly, it’s all about nothing. The game is a huge disappointment, and despite its level of polish, there’s simply not much to do in the city of San Paro.

In APB, there isn’t much of an MMO feel, besides the ability to create a character which can be customized to an insane degree — which might be considered the best aspect of the game. The basic structure involves you doing a lot of missions, collecting cash and guns, upgrading your gear, rinse and repeat. While this has worked for many other games, it doesn’t work for APB because of two reasons, 1) the missions are boring and repetitive, and 2) the combat is just as boring and repetitive, and worse of all, there is no learning curve, no way of getting familiar with the game first, you’re simply thrown right in with players who have far more powerful weapons. You’ll die so many times in the beginning that you’ll just wanna give up on the game. We almost did. On top of that, the controls are too complicated and there isn’t a cover system — something badly needed in gun fights in a game like this.

For an MMO, you’d expect lots of missions and quests and stuff to generally keep you busy. Yet in APB, there’s isn’t much of that, and what there is, is pretty basic and unrewarding on the most basic level. Visually, the game looks great and the city of San Paro is well structured and rendered. However, it’s empty. Which, for an MMO, is a big deal. Overall, APB is a massive disappointment, and the years the developer spent making the game don’t really show anywhere — it still feels like there’s two years left of development to make a decent MMO.

The Good:
Great customization
Great concept
Polished

The Bad:
Poor execution
Not much to do
Horrible learning curve
Not much of an MMO at all

Overall score: 3/10

Sony has announced that Japan is getting a white ceramic model in 160 and 320 GB models. Furthermore, the 120 GB model will instead be upped to 160 GB, and only 160 and 320 GB models will be available. Here’s to hoping that the rest of the world gets the white PS3 Slim. Hopefully by the holiday shopping season.

Microsoft has revealed that there’s “unprecedented” demand for the new Xbox 360, which went on sale just two weeks ago, after it was unveiled at E3. However, the company didn’t reveal any sales numbers, we’ll have to wait for those next month from the NPD: