Next week, downloadable add-on "The Sacrifice" comes to Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, giving the original Survivors, Zoey, Francis, Bill and Louis, a chance to beat up on Spitters, Chargers and Jockeys with melee weapons.

To set the mood, Valve has released a heart-pounding cinematic trailer for The Sacrifice, filed with thrills, chills and Bill's molotov cocktail attack on a trio of Tanks. Let's hope it never comes to that as we follow the original quartet of Survivors on their journey down south.

The Sacrifice makes its way to the Xbox 360, PC and Mac on Tuesday, October 5. Xbox 360 owners will be charged 560 Microsoft Points, while PC and Mac players will get the add-on content free of charge.

Valve's Left 4 Dead 2 team gives Capcom a little love today with this image, hidden inside a blog post on the release of part three of The Sacrifice digi-comic. Then Chuck Greene shows up.

Valve has no qualms about broadcasting its love for other games, especially when it comes to the Dead Rising series. Frank West got a cameo of sorts in Left 4 Dead's The Passing downloadable content, after all, so it makes sense that the second helping from Capcom would score a little love as well.

Not only does Valve offer up this love letter, cleverly hidden behind an exclamation point, they also give Chuck himself a shout-out in the pages of the comic, seen below.

If two game companies can't whether the zombie apocalypse together, then what hope does the rest of humanity have? Perhaps one day we'll all gather 'round the television to play a rousing game of Left 4 Dead Rising.

The Sacrifice Comic Part 3 [Left 4 Dead Blog - Thanks Ego!]

Left 4 Dead games and expansions must be accompanied by a movie-style poster, according to some law of physics governing development studio Valve Software. The Sacrifice, which is out on October 5 for L4D 1 and 2, now has its own.

The Sacrifice is the newest piece of Left 4 Dead content that bridges Valve's original 2008 multiplayer zombie-shooting game and its 2009 sequel. The Sacrifice stars the heroes of the first game, as they fight toward an encounter with the heroes of the second.

The expansion, which lets players choose which of the L4D leads will die, is free to PC owners of either game and will cost $7 (560 Microsoft points) for Xbox 360 owners. Owners of the original game and the sequel will be able to download The Sacrifice. It includes levels that are playable in campaign, versus and survival modes.

Part two of the Left 4 Dead digi-comic "The Sacrifice" is live, the precursor to the upcoming downloadable content for Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll download it as a PDF.

This poster, by Freaking Awesome, contains the title of 978 pieces of zombie fiction, arranged, Left 4 Dead-style, in the shape of a flesh-biter's hand. Can you spot the video games among them?

It's not hard. They're mostly in one spot, and while it won't be comprehensive, they've done a pretty good job, including games from series like OneChanbara alongside more well-known franchises like Resident Evil.

You can find purchasing info at the link below, if you're interested.

Zombie Poster [FA]

Valve's sequel-spanning digital comic that explains just what happened to Left 4 Dead's original Survivors, dubbed "The Sacrifice," is yours for the reading. How do things go so horribly wrong between the original game and "The Passing"? Well, Tanks.

Part one of "The Sacrifice," part of Valve's new cross-game story arc plans, offers us plenty of blood and guts, plus a peek at a few new characters. I won't spoil it, just read it yourself, if you're a Left 4 Dead fan.

The digital comic version of "The Sacrifice" runs once a week until October 5, when "The Sacrifice" DLC will be released for Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 on PC, Xbox 360 and Mac.

The Sacrifice [L4D.com]

We're not sure the exact moment Left 4 Dead 2 cosplay took a turn towards choreograph city, but we like it (thanks Jose!)

You may think that both Portal and Left 4 Dead are recent games, developed for contemporary game machines. Nope. Both are actually remakes of games from the 1980s!

Or, that's what these great fake ads would have you believe, which get both the hammy acting and grainy VHS-o-rama effect down perfectly.

Retro Game Ad Discovery [Gamervision]

Before Valve roped the gang at Turtle Rock to come on over and make Left 4 Dead, the Half-Life developer was working on something else. Something with...fairies.

Yup. Not aliens, or cops, or super-soldiers, or valiant knights, or space marines. A game about fairies. Valve's Erik Johnson tells PC Gamer that the game, a "weird prototype" of a thing "based on movement and mouse gestures", never got close to being a serious project (and was likely one of many prototypes kicking around the offices), but was still useful for what it did and didn't do right.

"That was a useful failure to us," adds Valve boss Gabe Newell, "because it was so clearly dumb that it made us say, ‘OK, what are we actually good at that we can do instead?'"

They could do Left 4 Dead. So did Left 4 Dead. And we're all better off because of it.

Valve were making a fairy RPG before Left 4 Dead [PC Gamer]

Using sparse backgrounds, 3DS Max and the power of C&C Music Factory, Lionhead animator James Benson has for the last month been taking some of Valve's best characters and breathing a little extra life into them.

In the clip above, Left 4 Dead's Zoey breaks free from the confines of a first-person perspective and figures out a way to bring down a Tank without wasting bullets, while in the clip below, Team Fortress 2's Engineer figures out a way to go left to right (groove) and work you all night, before finally letting the music take control.

Those two are just to get you started; to see the rest (the dance clips are part of a bigger project), head to Benson's YouTube page.