Halloween is on its way, and while ghosts and ghouls may have been the undead horrors of decades past, here in 2012 it's all about the zombies and their ilk.

What better way to get in the mood for spooky doom than with this weirdly lovely, thoroughly instructive image from Left 4 Dead 2? See zombie, apply flamethrower. Now that's useful advice for the ages.

Click the image to expand to its full hi-res gory glory.

Open Up [Dead End Thrills]

Brothers Colin and Connor McGuire wanted a Left 4 Dead movie... so they made one.

The home project took them the better part of two years, including 3000 hours of editing. The final product is about the length of an "hour" long television show, clocking in around 40 minutes, and looks at least as good as several TV shows I've seen.

You can find out more about the making-of from the video listing and the McGuires' Facebook page.

Eagle-eyed gamers watching the tricksy horror flick Cabin In The Woods might have noticed a cool shout-out to Valve's Left 4 Dead in a sequence in the third act of the movie.

Talking today in a Reddit IAmA, the film's director Drew Goddard said we almost got a lot more than that: If MGM hadn't gone bankrupt, we would've gotten a downloadable Left 4 Dead expansion pack based on the movie.

Cabin In The Woods Spoilers Follow.

Here's Goddard:

We actually were going to do a downloadable L4D2 expansion pack, where you'd fight in the Cabin world, but then MGM went bankrupt so the delay squashed it. But the people at Valve were still cool enough to let us use some of their monsters to fill the cubes in the background (I had a lot of cubes to fill.)

By the way — the game was gonna be amazing. You were gonna be able to play in both the upstairs "Cabin in the Woods" world and the downstairs "facility" world with all the monsters. Believe me, I HATE all video games based on movies, they always suck, but porting Cabin into Left For Dead felt like the right fit. It pains me that it didn't happen.

I already think that Cabin in the Woods had a lot of fun playing with video game tropes, so it hurts my heart that we almost got to take a four-player run not only through the cabin but through the monster-filled facility underneath. I wonder if there would have been a merman? Or if Sigourney Weaver would have been the final girl-boss?

I guess now we'll never know. But we can always imagine.

Drew Goddard IAmA [Reddit via Tom Francis]

Skin Pack #2 is out for the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft today. It'll run you 160 Microsoft Points and come with the following skins, via Microsoft:

1. Enderman Man – Minecraft
2. Pig Man – Minecraft
3. Sheep Man – Minecraft
4. Naked Sheep Man – Minecraft
5. Spider Man – Minecraft
6. General Akamoto – Skulls of the Shogun
7. Otus – Owlboy
8. Meat Boy – Super Meat Boy
9. Agent Cobalt- Cobalt
10. Zapp – Gamma Bros
11. Buzz – Gamma Bros
12. Glorg – Glorg
13. The Player – Retro City Rampage
14. Spelunky Guy – Spelunky
15. Green Knight – Castle Crashers
16. Orange Knight – Castle Crashers
17. Blue Knight – Castle Crashers
18. Red Knight – Castle Crashers
19. Marcus Fenix – Gears of War 3
20. Skorge – Gears of War
21. Anya Stroud – Gears of War
22. Damon Baird – Gears of War: Judgment
23. Joanna Dark – Perfect Dark
24. Joanna Dark (dress) – Perfect Dark
25. Joanna Dark – Perfect Dark Zero
26. Elvis – Perfect Dark
27. Juno – Jet Force Gemini
28. Vela – Jet Force Gemini
29. Lupus – Jet Force Gemini
30. Horstachio – Viva Piñata
31. Pretztail – Viva Piñata
32. Fizzlybear – Viva Piñata
33. Bill – Left4Dead
34. Louis – Left4Dead
35. Francis – Left4Dead
36. Zoey – Left4Dead
37. Hunter – Left4Dead
38. Boomer – Left4Dead
39. Witch – Left4Dead
40. Agent Level 5 – Crackdown 2
41. Pilot
42. Sailor
43. Pirate
44. Ninja
45. Elf

I like the sound of Meat Boy. And Elf.

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition Skin Pack 2 Now Available! [PlayXBLA]

The add-on campaign created by the loyal Left 4 Dead community was supposed to launch about a year ago. It's finally hitting Windows and Mac platforms today as a free update. The official site teases that the DLC will land on Xbox Live soon.

Cold Stream [Left 4 Dead 2 official site]

With dual joysticks and motion-sensing accuracy, I'd say playing a few rounds of L4D on Sony's newest handheld device doesn't look too shabby.

Thanks Kenneth!

After being out for nearly a year on PC as a beta you'd think Xbox 360 gamers would have given up ever seeing a new campaign for L4D2 on their beloved console. But Valve is not one to make people wait any longer than they have to! /s

According to the L4D Blog, come July 24th, 360 gamers will finally get their hands on the "Cold Stream" campaign that has been in beta testing for PC and Mac users since March 2011. The DLC also brings with it updated versions of all the maps from the original Left 4 Dead, just to sweeten the pot.

Valve is also promising some "surprise" updates for all platforms so look forward to that as well. Hell, I might even jump back into L4D on PC if that wasn't the same week Dawnguard was coming out.

So, if you can round up three friends and an Xbox 360, you too can now experience the Left 4 Dead franchise in all it's gory glory.

Generally speaking, people compare games by listing bullet points. Which game has better graphics, which game has better gameplay? Which one has the better story, or better multiplayer?

Little did they know, there is a better way to determine which game is best. Just leave your game cases in a room together and see which one comes out alive.

I have to admit, I have a soft spot for the idea of game cases having their own secret lives. Michael Shanks takes the idea to a whole new level in this video. Ha!

(Thanks, James!)

Despite some vague-ish comments from Valve that this wasn't the case, a video turned up on the Payday: The Heist YouTube channel indicating that Valve is working in some capacity with PayDay developers Overkill on something called No Mercy, which will explore the origins of the zombie virus from Left 4 Dead. The video was quickly pulled from the channel, but was then grabbed by IGN and subsequently posted to youtube by several other users.

Update: Valve's Chet Faliszek has emailed us, saying that the YouTube video isn't a prequel, that it was "just some over-excited marketing guys."

"This is a 100% Overkill made mission for Payday: Heist simply set in no mercy hospital from the Left 4 Dead series. It is not telling the origins of the Infection and is not canon. There is a little cameo from one of the L4D characters (the comic should give you a hint) and a fun little easter egg with a payoff later in Left 4 Dead. Just us having some fun with a studio we are friends with and who have also made a great co-op game."

Before it was pulled, the YouTube description said, "Have you ever wondered how the Left 4 Dead series began? It started with a heist!" The level looks like a heist gone wrong (or at least, gone violent), and before long things have gotten hairy. Left 4 Dead flashlight-shooting ensues, and I gotta say it's weird to see the things at the other end of the flashlight beams shooting back.