APB was supposed to be Grand Theft Auto taken into the massively multiplayer online realm. However, the game turned out to be a dud — lack of content, and huge stability and gameplay issues that ultimately resulted in the game being shut down.

But APB didn’t die, as GamersFirst acquired the rights to the game, and went on to patch and update the game with new content. APB has since been re-released on Steam as APB Reloaded, and according to GamersFirst, it already has over 3 million registered users, which is a huge improvement over the original 130,000 players.

GamesFirst also announced that APB Reloaded will be going back to the store shelves where it will be priced at $30.

A few months ago, APB developer Realtime Worlds was shut down and all its assets were sold off, including APB, the cause of all the trouble for Realtime Worlds. APB was acquired by GamersFirst, who promised to bring back the game at some point in the future.

Well, we’re now certain that they’re serious, as the beta for the rebirth of APB, called APB Reloaded, will commence next month as a closed eta — you can sign up here.

We’re now officially in 2011, which will no doubt bring many great games into gamers hands, and hopefully, we’ll see a few surprises as well. For the 2010 year in gaming, we saw lots of great games, here’s out Best of 2010 at DigitalBattle:

Best shooter: Battlefield Bad Company 2

The shooter category has been packed in 2010, with lots of games coming out, including yet another Call of Duty, a reboot of Medal of Honor, and Halo Reach. But for us, the best shooter was Bad Company 2, with an improved campaign over the previous Bad Company and by far the most fun multiplayer shooter of the bunch, even though Halo and CoD fanboys might disagree.

Best Indie game: Limbo

Limbo took many by surprise with its dark nature and creepy atmosphere. While there have been many indie games in 2010, and many good ones, Limbo stood out the most. Check out our Limbo review.

Best Xbox 360 game: Halo Reach

Xbox 360 saw a relatively quiet year compared to 2009, but it still had the last Halo game made by Bungie, and it lived up to all the expectation fans had. Read our Halo Reach review.

Best PS3 game: Heavy Rain

It was a close race between Heavy Rain and God of War 3, and we chose Heavy Rain because of its uniqueness and story. And for being a game that’s hard to find these days, a game with a sense of mystery. Read our Heavy Rain review.

Best Wii game: Super Mario Galaxy 2

Without a doubt, it’s the best Mario game ever made, and took the already awesome Super Mario Galaxy to new heights. It offers everything a platformer should have, and it’s a game all future Mario games will be judged against. Read our Super Mario Galaxy 2 review.

Best sports game: NBA 2K11

It’s widely considered the best NBA Basketball game of all time, including from our review. It helps that there was no competition from NBA Live/NBA Elite this year.

Best DLC: Bad Company 2 Vietnam

The $15 DLC added a whole new dimension to the hectic multiplayer of Bad Company 2, taking its talents to the Vietnam era, with new maps, vehicles and lots of guns. Read our BC2 Vietnam review.

Best racing game: Gran Turismo 5

It was years in development, costing close to $80 million, and yet, we kinda felt disappointed by GT5. Despite that, it’s still a good racing game, and there wasn’t much competition in the racing scene in 2010. However, GT5 was also…

Most overhyped game: Gran Turismo 5

While it’s still the best racing game of 2010, the years leading up to it made us expect the greatest racing game ever, which it unfortunately wasn’t. There were a lot of things that felt dated in GT5, like the AI. For more, read our Gran Turismo 5 review.

Biggest disappointment: APB

What’s there to say about APB? Much anticipated, it came out as a dud, and it seems developer Realtime World’s blew $50 million to create great customization for characters. And not much else. Read our full disappointment in our APB review.

Best game of 2010: Super Mario Galaxy 2

It takes an already great concept and perfects it to the bone. Best Wii game of all time, best Mario game of all time, and best game of 2010.

Runners up: Mass Effect 2, Heavy Rain, Red Dead Redemption, God of War 3, Bad Company 2, Halo Reach.

A few days ago we reported that K2 Network had been rumored to have acquired APB from Realtime Worlds. Now that’s been confirmed, and not only have they acquired all of APB’s assets, they’re already working on bringing the game back in 2011, as APB: Reloaded, as a free to play game with micro-transactions.

According to new reports, the defunct developer Realtime Worlds has sold its APB assets to K2 Network for $2.4 million, which seems like a steal, since the game cost well over $50 million to develop. K2 is known for buying up MMO assets then trying to reboot them — they acquired 9Dragons last year and brought it back to life. So there’s a good chance we’ll see APB again.

Realtime Worlds is bankrupt, and APB is shutting down for good in a week or two. But according to sources close to the Scottish developer, Realtime Worlds’ founder, Dave Jones, is talking to Epic Games about possibly working together, and about Epic acquiring APB, its codebase and IP. Dave Jones recently moved to the US, and it’s not unlikely we’ll see him work with Epic in the future, as the two have a history together.

It finally happened: bankrupt developer Realtime Worlds has announced that they will be shutting down their failed MMO APB. Realtime World’s Ben Bateman shut down the official forums with the post: “APB has been a fantastic journey, but unfortunately that journey has come to a premature end.” Expect the servers to begin shutdown in the upcoming weeks.

Yep, the rumors are true: after APB’s huge failure, developer Realtime Worlds has filed for “administration” in the UK, which is the same as Chapter 11 bankruptcy. All 200 employees’ jobs are in jeopardy, and the developer has brought in outside help to sell off its assets. Realtime Worlds spent years and over $50 million making APB, which is a surprise, considering how shallow the game was (besides the customization features).

We recently reviewed APB and were underwhelmed and unimpressed (we gave it a 3/10), after years of hype and development, APB just plainly disappoints. It turns out we weren’t the only ones, as APB currently carries a disappointing 59 rating on MetaCritic, with some of the bigger publications rating it well below 50. Some of the major game networks like GameSpot and IGN are still due on their reviews, and they’re expected to be just as critical as the rest of the industry. So what went wrong with such a promising game? Have you played APB? What do you think?

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