Game Guy had heard about this a few days ago, and now he has seen it for himself: Barack Obama ads appearing in Electronic Arts’ “Burnout Paradise.”

Yes, Game Guy was on his Xbox 360 Elite — the one that hasn’t crashed yet — tearing around the fictional Paradise City, violating all the traffic ordinances he dreams of ignoring in real life, when he spotted a billboard promoting the Democratic nominee for president.

The ad was not the same as the one shown here (thank you very much, JeffSon for the image) but resembled it rather closely. In fact, Game Guy had to make a U-turn in heavy traffic on a one-way street to catch a second look and make sure he wasn’t seeing things. At the bottom, the ad says, “Paid for by Obama for President.”

EA has said it will place ads in games from whoever pays for them. The Obama campaign has not yet responded to requests for comment.

Now, from Michigan to Melbourne, the Web is matted with references to Obama’s in-game ads, and more might show up in other EA games: Word has it that at least one EA executive has contributed to Obama’s campaign.

As for Obama’s GOP rival, John McCain, we can only speculate where he stands on this. From a New York Times interview transcript published in July:

“I am learning to get online myself,” McCain said, “and I will have that down fairly soon, getting online myself.”

Judging from this, Game Guy guesses that McCain has a ways to go before sitting down with “Burnout Paradise.”

UPDATE: Obama ads will turn up in “Madden NFL 09,” primarily in swing states, according to The Huffington Post. This time, Missouri does not appear to be one of them.