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It's not a surprise at all but developer BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts have just revealed plans for Dragon Age II, the second full game in the fantasy RPG franchise. A teaser site for the game has gone live with some info about the title although screenshots and gameplay footage are not yet available.

The game itself takes place over a decade in game time as your player character has to change from a battle worn refugee to champion by gaining fame, fortune and the assistance of allies. There's the promise of a new combat mechanic for the sequel as well as " a whole realm rendered in stunning detail with updated graphics and a new visual style." Game Informer's new print magazine issue will have a cover story on the game this month. A release date for Dragon Age 2 has yet to be revealed.

Update: EA's new press release for the game announced a March 2011 release date. It a;so reveals that the human character you will be playing is named Hawke, " . . . a penniless refugee who rises to power to become the single most important character in the world of Dragon Age."

Last year developer ACE Team announced that it planned to create Zeno Clash 2, a sequel to their acclaimed downloadable first person action game. Since the announcement was made there's been no word on the game's progress. At E3 2010 it was announced that ACE Team was working on an all new game, Rock of Ages, but there was no word on the status of Zeno Clash 2.

In an upcoming interview with Big Download about Rock of Ages, ACE Team's Andres Bordeu was asked about Zeno Clash 2. He replied, "The majority of our efforts are being focused on Rock of Ages, though we are working on another project which we are keeping under cover for now." When we ask for some clarification on Zeno Clash 2's status outside of the interview, Bordeu told us, "I can't elaborate much on this subject for the moment. All I can say is that we have developed some content for the sequel, but at this point the studio has decided to focus on developing new games/IPs, thus Rock of Ages is our main priority. And yes, we are working on another game concept which is not Zeno Clash 2. We're a small studio so there is only so much we can work on simultaneously."

Look for the Rock of Ages interview with Bordeu to be posted later today on Big Download.

Earlier this year developer Wargaming.net, the makers of the 2009 WWII RTS game Order of War, announced its plans for World of Tanks, The free to play turn-based strategy themed MMO is also set in WWII and will feature over 150 different types of armored vehicles and will have everything from small skirmishes to massive campaigns.

The game will be entering into a closed beta test on July 8 but the folks at Wargaming,net sent us a tankful of beta codes for World of Tanks (1,000 codes in fact) to give out to our readers ahead of the closed beta launch. All you have to do is send an email to contests@bigdownload.com and we will give out the codes until we run out of them. Check below the jump for instructions on how redeem and download the client. And much thanks to Wargaming.net for the codes.

Download the World of Tanks Closed Beta Client (1.08 GB)

Do you want to check out a cool new downloadable 3D puzzle game? Would you like to win a full version of said game? You are in luck today as Big Download now has six Steam download codes to give away for the newly released title Puzzle Dimension.

This nifty game comes from new start up game developer Doctor Entertainment and lets the player navigate through a maze of 100 3D puzzles. The visuals and music change as you progress through the various puzzles. Did we mention that since you get it via Steam you can have access to Steam achievements, leaderboards and the Steam Cloud features?

If you want to win one of the six Steam codes we have for Puzzle Dimension here's how you go about it:

• To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
• The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Wednesday, June 30
• You may enter only once.
• Six winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Those six winners will each be sent a Steam code to download Puzzle Dimension (valued at $9.99 each)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules. You must be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) who is 18 years or older to enter this contest

Our thanks to Doctor Entertainment for sponsoring this giveaway. Good luck.

Zombies seem to be the new black in games but in the mainstream world it's vampires who rule with movies like Twilight and its sequels and TV shows like True Blood. In this third day of booth babe coverage at E3 2010. we managed to find a booth model who was wearing fangs proudly.

While today is the last day of E3 don't be surprised to see some more booth babe action from the show floor later this week. Yes there were that many models at the Los Angeles Convention Center and they were ] awaiting their close up from us.

If you have been keeping up with our coverage of E3 2010 you know that Electronic Arts has announced plans to hold a multiplayer beta test for their upcoming first person shooter Medal of Honor. The beta gets underway on June 21 although if you have a copy of Battlefield Bad Company 2 you get to play in the beta starting tomorrow.

As luck would have it Big Download has three Medal of Honor multiplayer beta codes to give away thanks to EA. If you want your chance at one simply post a comment on this web page (one post per person please). You have until 11:59 pm Eastern time Thursday to post a comment. After that we will select three random posters and will send them the beta key. Good luck.

Confirming what has become one of the worst secrets in the PC gaming industry, IGN has just posted up a first look preview at the now official Shogun 2: Total War. The latest game in the historical RTS game series from developer The Creative Assembly and publisher Sega is also a sequel to the first ever game in the Total War series which was released way back in 2000.

Set in 16th century feudal Japan, the new game will be designed to be a bit different than more recent Total War games with a smaller amount of units and more of a narrative and story to the game's single player campaign. Also look for hero units to be introduced as well as naval warfare. The AI is also being programmed to follow the rules of the classic book The Art of War by Sun Tzu. No release date for the game was offered in the preview.

Update: Sega has posted up a bare-bones info page on the game which says it is set for a 2011 release.

After lots of evidence that a PC version was indeed in the works, Microsoft has finally admitted that the upcoming Xbox 360 RPG sequel Fable III is also coming to the Windows PC platform. The game from developer Lionhead Studios, will be released via retail stores for $49.99 "this holiday" and will also be available via download on the Games For Windows Live client.

As we have mentioned before when this story first started as a rumor Fable III will be the first major retail PC game Microsoft will publish since the PC port of the original Gears of War game came out in late 2007. Unfortunately PC owners won't be able to buy a special Limited Collector's Edition of Fable III like their Xbox 360 counterparts.

Update: Microsoft has sent over word that while the PC version of Fable III won't get a retail Collector's Edition, PC owners of the game will be able to purchase and download in-game content that will be included as part of the Xbox 360's Collector's Edition. Specific content and pricing for the PC DLC has yet to be announced

If you have been picked to beta test StarCraft II you had better get some game time in now. Blizzard has just announced that the first phase of the multiplayer beta test for their long awaited sci-fi RTS sequel will end for all regions on Monday, May 31 (that's Memorial Day here in the US). Blizzard states that the beta will be offline for several weeks, "while we make some hardware and software configuration changes."

However don't fret. Blizzard plans to reactivate the beta test "for a couple of weeks prior to the game's launch to complete our testing." The game itself is schedule to ship to stores on July 27.

After working for the past couple of years on a game that later went on hold, developer Firefly Studios is going back to basics. The UK-based developer has now confirmed that it is developing Stronghold 3, the latest game in their long running historical RTS-sim game series.

Little info on the game itself has been released so far other than the fact that Southpeak Games will publish the title for release in spring 2011. Firefly's last major game project was supposed to be Dungeon Hero, a fantasy action-RPG. The game got a publishing deal with GameCock but Southpeak did not bring that game along to its lineup when it purchased GameCock in late 2008. A teaser web site for Stronghold 3 has launched with a simple yet effective animation.