EA’s exodus of big name talent for the green pastures of social gaming shows no signs of slowing down.

Senior Creative Director Mark Turmell has departed EA to join Zynga, according to Kotaku. Turmell is best known for creating arcade basketball classic NBA Jam, and oversaw the development of its 2010 reboot. He joins three senior level Madden NFL staffers and the company’s former COO John Schappert in leaving the company. Schappert landed at Zynga as well, along with NBA Elite producer Jeremy Strauser.

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…

EA intends to get as much money out of The Sims 3 as possible, and so it has announced that the video game system counterparts of the PC game are now in the works. Sometime in Fall 2010, DS, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 owners will all be able to experience The Sims 3 in new ways.

Each version of The Sims 3 will have its own unique touches…

Quite a few EA online games servers are going to be shutting down in the next few months. Surprisingly, the games that will be losing online functionality aren’t all that old. Aside from three Xbox games and a PlayStation 2 game, they’re all for current systems. The single player and local multiplayer modes will still work fine, but you won’t be able to play any of the following games online anymore, after certain dates.

The first blackout period starts March 16, 2010, and primarily focuses on seven select PC, PS3, PSP and Xbox 360 games…

EA Games is giving fans a small degree of control over Madden 11. At least, over Madden 11‘s appearance. EA is teaming up with Doritos for the Doritos Presents: Change the Game website, which allows people to visit every day to pick the football player that will appear on the cover of Madden 11. You have to hurry though as voting closes March 15, 2010.

The are three players to pick from, the Colt’s Reggie Wayne, the Saint’s Drew Brees and the Vikings’ Jared Allen…

We’d already heard talk of EA buying a 2010 Super Bowl ad spot to show off Dante’s Inferno, but now the company itself has confirmed it with a press release. EA has purchased a 30 second spot to run “Hell Awaits.” Based on the wording in the press release, it sounds like this will be a brand new game trailer.

EA also has announced that the ad will run during the fourth quarter, so if you’re not planning to watch Super Bowl XLIV on February 7, 2010, you still have some idea of when to tune in if you just want to see the ad. Or, if you won’t be near a tv, you can always check online later that day. AOL’s Fanhouse and Spike TV’s site both will have commercials…

EA and Visceral Games weren’t satisfied with leaving you crying in the corners of your room, traumatized by Dead Space. The companies want more. They want to scar you like never before. In a stroke of kindness, they’ve decided to give you some time to brace yourself, not make it a surprise. Dead Space 2 is in development.

The original Dead Space debuted on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 to rave reviews in 2008, quickly becoming the favorite game of money and striking fear into the heart of many who played it. This year, the less successful Wii game and prequel, Dead Space Extraction was released. Now we know for sure that sometime in the future, PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 owners will help Isaac Clark face off against the growing legion of Necromorphs yet again.

EA’s forthcoming PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 game has a bit of a surprise that will thrill some players and probably anger others. The first downloadable content add-on, “The Midnight Show”, includes a nudity switch. That’s right, a nudity switch. When you add on that DLC, the options menu adds a nudity option that can be turned on or off, allowing users to see the women of the Belle de Nuit strip club naked.

“The Midnight Show” does more then add the ability to see the strippers in game nude, though that’s the aspect that’s bound to get the most attention. It also grants Sean Devlin, the Saboteur, access to the Belle de Nuit basement. Once you’re in there, you can gamble, if you’d like. Wired also reports that lapdances are available in the extra location.

The code to acquire the “The Midnight Show” downloadable content comes with every new copy of The Saboteur. However, EA seems to understand that there is a booming used video game market and will also make the DLC pack available to download through the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live for $4.99/400 Microsoft Points. The DLC will be available when the game releases next week on December 8, 2009…

The NPD Group, a market research company in North America, has just released sales data on Dead Space: Extraction for September, 2009. And, while Dead Space: Extraction was only out for five days of NPD’s September reporting period, the news still isn’t good. From September 29 to October 3, 2009, Dead Space: Extraction sold only 9,000 copies.

While there’s still hope that EA and Visceral Games’ Mature-rated, first person shooter could sell well in October, and perhaps even over the 2009 holiday season, chances are it won’t see the success of the previous Dead Space game. Just as a brief example, the Xbox 360 version of Dead Space, which launched October 13, 2008, sold 193,000 units in October, 2008 according to NPD data.

Visceral Games seems quite disappointed by the sales figures so far. That is, if you go by posts from a Visceral staff member going by the name “codecow” on the NeoGAF forums. As GoNintendo reported…

When EA Games said Mass Effect 2 would be out in early 2010, it really meant early 2010. EA has just announced that the PC and Xbox 360 versions of Mass Effect 2 will be released throughout North America on January 26, 2010. A pretty nice way to welcome in the new year.

As is the trend with game preorders as of late, those who preorder Mass Effect 2 at certain retail outlets will have access to certain in-game bonus items. People who preorder at GameStop/EB Games will receive Terminus Armor, designed for extreme conditions that boost shield strength, speed and allow for extra weapons ammo, and a M-490 Blackstorm Heavy Weapon, which adds to the number of heavy weapons available and sounds like it’ll deal a lot of damage. The picture of Commander Sheppard on the right has the character wearing the Terminus Armor and carrying the Blackstorm gun.

If you preorder your copy of Mass Effect 2 from a store other than GameStop, you’ll only get the in-game Inferno Armor…