The next two Battlefield: Bad Company 2 DLC updates will be home for Christmas. The VIP Map Pack 7 will actually be here tomorrow, in fact! It will be ready for download on December 1, 2010. But if you want Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam, you’ll have to be good until the week before Christmas since the PC expansion will be ready to download on December 18, 2010 and the PS3 and Xbox 360 expansion will be released a few days later on December 21, 2010…

If you’re considering preordering Battlefield: Bad Company 2, you’re definitely going to want to do it at GameStop. There are two exclusive preorder incentives for people willing to spend their money on the PC, PS3 or Xbox 360 game, and all of them are guaranteed to totally make your friends jealous. If you want them though, you’ve got to preorder before the game comes out March 2, 2010, and preferably as early as possible since one of the preorder incentives are limited.

The first Battlefield: Bad Company 2 preorder incentive is also the most important. Every GameStop preorder gives you the chance to take part in the Squad Rush multiplayer mode 30 days before anyone else. When you get your game, you either get a pre-order card or email with a special code that allows you to play in eight player battles, depending on whether you purchased Battlefield: Bad Company 2 in store or online. You just enter the code, and then enjoy your four-on-four battles. The product listing does state that this incentive is only available while supplies last, so if you want to be among the first to enjoy Squad Rush, I’d hurry and reserve your copy.

The other preorder incentive is an extra, special gun…

If you like additional downloadable content for your games, but don’t like paying for it, then drink Dr. Pepper. For a limited time, Dr. Pepper and EA have teamed up. Now, bottles of Dr. Pepper and select fountain cups at stores like 7 Eleven will come with promotional codes for free DLC for select EA games. 14 oz., 16 oz. and 20 oz. Dr. Pepper, Dr. Pepper Cherry, Diet Dr. Pepper and Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry bottles will all carry the codes under their caps, and codes will be on stickers on the fountain cups.

Once you acquire a code, you can visit the Dr. Pepper website to enter your code. You’ll need to log into the Dr. Pepper site and your EA account. Then, you can get DLC for your game. The website says you can get DLC for Sims 3, Mass Effect 2, Battlefield Heroes, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Spore. I’m guessing it only applies to the PC versions of the games, though the EA press release does mention the Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect 2.

Here’s what you can get for each game…

EA is also among the major companies ready to step up and support GamesCom 2009. And the company’s going to be putting on quite a show. It is bringing 42 games across all platforms to display, including the iPhone.

There are a number of highlights to check out, from the extraordinary amount of games being displayed, to a special press conference (which you can watch online via live stream), an exclusive closed door area with special games being shown, a booth set up just for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and the demo debut of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Let’s look at the list of games EA is bringing along, in some shape or form, in alphabetical order…