Zynga’s new game Empires and Allies, which the company describes as CityVille meets Risk, presents you with battles your troops can actually lose. While you can go back to your various military structures to build more, those troops, tanks, etc. are gone forever. This is a new concept for a company that built its fortune on finding homes for stray livestock.

Fans of Poker Rivals, Gangster City and Pirates Ahoy probably won’t want to spend any more Playfish Cash on these three Facebook games. Playfish has announced these three games are going permanently offline June 7, 2011. The official company statement was that these games are no longer performing at a level that allows support for them. No Playfish Cash currently invested in these games will be refunded. The announcement encourages players of these three games to try other Playfish titles. It’s also offering 5 Monopoly Gold to players who try Monopoly Millionaires.

The undead are everywhere in the world of gaming right now, including Facebook.

The undead are everywhere in the world of gaming right now, including Facebook. Joining the horde of games mining zombies for more cash is Zombie Lane, an effort from Digital Chocolate. You will, as the name suggests, fight off the oncoming zombie apocalypse. You’ll also clean up the neighborhood, harvest your own food and rescue your neighbors. It is a Facebook game after all.

Zynga’s hit crime simulation Mafia Wars has begun a new tie-in with an upcoming movie release. Zynga is teaming up with Sony to promote The Green Hornet.

Playing Mafia Wars between now and the January 14, 2011, release date of The Green Hornet gives you the chance to unlock seven items he uses in his battle against crime…

Sega has already gotten its feet wet in the free-to-play sport sim category with Football Manager. Coming March 2011, Sega will launch MLB Manager, a free online baseball sim.

The MLB license gives Sega access to all 30 teams and 900 players that will appear in the game. It will launch in the US, Canada, Japan and South Korea.

FarmVille is getting into the Christmas act with the return of a popular giftable item: The Clumsy Reindeer.

See, he’s got Christmas lights tangled in his antlers. Hey, I’m not one to judge Santa Claus but maybe somebody should get the little guy some glasses instead of making fun of him. I’m just saying. He was a 2009 holiday themed gift animal and is back for a limited time. He appears in your FarmVille tab as an item you can send to friends. Get them and give them before the holidays are gone.

Digital Chocolate, the social gaming company headed by EA founder Trip Hawkins, has unleashed Epic Fighters on Facebook. Despite the misleading name, it’s not a street fighting or boxing sim. It’s a RPG set in a Lord of the Rings-style environment of Amaranth. Your quest asks you to become the king or queen by dethroning the current Dark King Thora Kalyptica. To do so, you’ll choose from Human, Elf, Undead (because 2010 is the year of the zombie) or Dark Elf to create your warrior. You have a diverse selection of fighting and magic styles as well…

Zynga’s Mafia Wars takes you to exotic locales including Bangkok and London, asking you to run your own criminal empire. The company’s official Mafia Wars blog notes no mob based game would be complete without a trip to Italy. The old country, after all, is where the mafia legend began.

The hottest gaming platform going these days may not even be a video game console but social networking site Facebook.

Gareth Davis, a platform manager for Facebook, believes the best is yet to come. He said that Facebook has some 400 million active monthly users and more than 100 million unique game players…