Spoilers for the upcoming Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 DLCs are in this article. So if you want to keep yourself unspoiled for the zombies, then I recommend to stop reading this right now.

Earlier this evening, the GAME British Academy Video Game Awards were held in London, and here at Game Rant, we’ve got the full list of winners and nominees for your viewing pleasure.

The show was hosted by the comedian Dara Ó Briain, with various C-list celebrities taking the stage to present individual awards. Ó Briain was in top form throughout the night, with hilarious geeky jokes keeping the crowd entertained throughout.

Without further ado, here are the categories and nominations, with the winners in bold and marked with asterisks:

Apple users arguing that the Mac is a viable gaming computer will have a significant addition to their army: Valve has now confirmed Steam will be coming to the OS X.

For those who live by consoles rather than computers, Steam is a digital distribution platform in which gamers can easily purchase and download games, connect with friends and of course, play online. It has grown exponentially within the last few years as Valve has branched out to more and more gaming producers who wish for their games to by offered by Steam.

Recently, an anonymous member of the Australian Classification Board gave an interview with AustralianGamer for all of the gaming world to see – Australia has been known for their game rating system, and their ability to completely deny sales of a game they deem inappropriate for the public. Recently, they forced Valve to remake Left 4 Dead 2 without all the blood and bodies, forcing the company to spend serious time reprogramming so they would be allowed to sell it in Australia.

Crikey, let’s take a gander as the Classification Employee tells us about their job:

It was confirmed some time ago by Valve’s Doug Lombardi that the first downloadable content for Left 4 Dead 2, entitled “The Passing” would be extremely important to the overall story of our favorite multiplayer zombocalypse, and that it would in some way have the cast cross paths with the four Survivors from the original Left 4 Dead; Francis, Zoe, Bill and Louis.

Quoth Mr. Lombardi:

“The Passing will become the most important campaign in the Left 4 Dead story, as all the Survivors are being called together in one campaign.  It will also be a huge offering of new game play content, with something new for every game mode plus a new uncommon common and weaponry.”

The Passing will be set immediately following the events of the Dead Center campaign, and will take place in rural Georgia.

Microsoft is unveiling a boatload of treasure next month at its first ‘X’ press expo in three years.

Xbox 360 X10 Media Reception is Microsoft’s first main ‘X’ event since X06 in Barcelona in September 2006. Expect a lot of game reveals, including first solid details about Fable III and Project Natal announcements.

Nathan Drake might pick up a bit more treasure next month.

Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves leads the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, netting 15 nominations including game of the year.

In the game of the year category, Uncharted 2 is up against Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed 2, Rocksteady Studios’ Batman: Arkham Asylum, Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins.

Have you contributed to world peace by killing your share of zombies yet today? If so, go wipe the blood off your hands. But if you haven’t, run (don’t walk) over to Amazon and check out their Deal of the Day, where a merciless survivor such as yourself can scoop Left 4 Dead 2 on PC for $28 or on Xbox 360 for $35. Now that’s savings!

I like to think of the Left 4 Dead series as a simulator with real-world practical application. Sure, when the apocalypse comes, getting in close to get your jollies with a cricket bat to the skull may be a bit unwise but at least you will know such a possibility exists.

Major Nelson reported a few days ago on the top titles of 2009 on Xbox Live. His lists included the most played games of the year by connectivity, the most played Xbox Live Arcade titles as well as lists for top Windows games and Top original Xbox titles.

The notable call-outs include Halo 3 taking top honors as having the most unique users play the game over Live throughout the year. Following this, we have the latest three Call of Duty games and Gears of War 2. On the Arcade side of things, Battlefield 1943 and the still-awesome Castle Crashers took the number one and two spots respectively.

Check out the lists below.

If you have an Xbox 360 and a copy of Left 4 Dead 2 but aren’t interested in paying the monthly subscription fees to play online, you’re in luck! Well, for one weekend anyway.

Normally, online play is reserved for only Xbox Live Gold subscribers but from Friday, January 15 at 17:00pm GMT, until Monday, January 18 at the same time, regular silver membership users will be able to join in on the zombie-killing fun.

Looking for a Left 4 Dead 2 strategy tip? What could be better than knowing the best way to bring down the powerhouse of all infected, the tank.

A Steam forum user, Urik, created table with hit and time counts required to take down a tank on expert skill. You won’t believe how much lead you need to spend to put down one of these monsters.

Good news, Left 4 Dead 2 fans; Valve has confirmed that new DLC will be available early next year.  Titled “The Passing,” the new content will take place immediately after the “Dead Center” Campaign and will allow the Survivors of Left 4 Dead 2 to meet Zoey, Louis, Francis, and Bill from the original game.

“The Passing” will include new arenas for Survival, Versus, and Scavenge modes and will also introduce a new co-operative challenge mode of play. Also included are a new “uncommon common” zombie class, melee weapon, and firearm. Somewhat unclear is whether players will be able to take control of the original Survivors in some way.

The 2009 Spike Video Game Awards are over with, and we’ve been covering a lot of announcement and trailer information coming out of the show, but in case you missed the actual awards themselves, we haven’t forgotten about you – we’ve put together the official list of 2009 VGA winners in each category (as well as the nominees).

Don’t forget to check out our own 2009 Game of the Year Round-Up for a more extensive discussion on the most critically acclaimed titles of the year.

After all of the talk about which system was dominating Black Friday sales, and which system was about to become ancient history, NPD’s release of its November report for the United States almost seemed anticlimactic. I mean, when has Michael Pachter ever been wrong?

But, lo and behold, there was quite a surprise awaiting all of us in the November 2009 report:

The Nintendo DS sold 1.70 million units? Take that PSP!

Given the economy, it’s hard for some gamers to get what they want – and with the prices of most games, who can blame them? That’s why, here at Game Rant, we thought we’d share a good Christmas bargain with you:

As Kotaku reported, Wal-Mart has announced that if you buy a $199 Nintendo Wii Bundle from their US stores next week, you’ll get a $50 Wal-Mart Gift Card for your patronage. Convenient, seeing as that about covers the cost of a new game for your new system! And just to tip you towards using the gift card on another game, Wal-Mart has also stepped up and knocked $10 off the prices of several top games until December 24th.

If you’re a gamer and a follower of industry news, you need to check out the Inside Gaming Awards, a huge new gaming awards show from Machinima.com.  If you watch trailers and previews online, then you’ve no doubt come across Machinima’s widely popular YouTube channel for which we’ve used ourselves here at Game Rant to share trailers with you.

Up until December 7th, voting will open for everyone for the Gamers’ Choice awards.  It’s a very unique and cool (if not first of its kind) voting mechanic: there is one video for each nominee, and each video view counts as a vote.  Each video contains clickable links to easily navigate around all the categories and nominees.

The awards will take place on December 11th 2009, the night before the Spike TV Video Game Awards, and offer another way for gamers to participate and celebrate a great year in gaming. Machinima’s new awards program is the first of its kind and we have the nominees for the awards listed below.

UbiSoft announced today that Assassin’s Creed 2 has sold over 1.6 million units in its first week. This works out to be roughly 32% more than the original Assassin’s Creed, which still holds the title of fastest-selling original game property.

Once again I am not surprised Assassin’s Creed 2 is outselling the original. Sequels tend to sell better because they carry over all the hype from the original and have an installed fan-base.

A patch for Left 4 Dead 2 was released on Steam in an attempt to solve some of the matchmaking and performance problems PC players have been falling victim to, but many annoying bugs and random crashes remain. Chargers are sticking people into walls, witches are becoming invincible, invisible walls are incapacitating survivors and varying degrees of crashing is occurring. Xbox 360 owners have previously been left for dead when it comes to updates, waiting an extra month for patches for the first Left 4 Dead.

I’ve had a few crashes and a lot of charger wall sticking happen myself. It hasn’t really put me off of playing the game, even if the crashes do tend to happen at the end of a round, going into the tie breaker in a scavenge match leaving me sitting at my desktop, my adrenaline pumping without reason.

Left 4 Dead 2 has been on shelves for a little under a week and already there are hints from Valve detailing potential DLC. In the game, The Midnight Riders are a fictional rock group within the Left 4 Dead 2 universe, and posters advertising the foursome can be seen throughout the “Dark Carnival” campaign. The advertisements encourage readers to visit midnight-riders.com -  which appears to be a little teaser put together by Valve.

The site isn’t teasing Left 4 Dead 3 yet, instead it appears to hint at a possible DLC pack (at least I hope). The Midnight Riders don’t appear to offer much variety, but hey, more Left 4 Dead 2 is certainly not a bad thing! If this is in fact DLC for Valve’s latest zombie slaying experience then we will probably hear something official sometime in 2010.

Short Version: Left 4 Dead 2 uses the same old team-based game play with new content, new game types and updated graphics to earn the title of sequel and not “DLC.” This fast-paced shooter is built for Left 4 Dead fans, co-op enthusiasts, and anyone who wants to stay in practice for when the next variant of the flu turns into a zombie apocalypse.

Game Rant reviews Left 4 Dead 2

The end is near. The zombie apocalypse is upon us. Everyone but you and three of your friends have changed into rabid, violent monsters. The government suggests you barricade your home, stay inside and wait for instructions. Yeah, right! I’m gonna kill me some zombies!

Left 4 Dead 2 comes complete with five new campaigns, four new survivors, new and old weapons, new special infected, new items, new graphics and the new Scavenge mode. Did I mention there’s a whole lot of new?

The first Left 4 Dead only came out a year ago and since the sequel was announced the internet’s been full of customer complaints that they’re forced to pay full game price for what should be an update or at very least cheaper downloadable content. The improvements and new content crammed into the sequel create a completely new game that I’m happy to say I own. It’s worth every penny.

Spike announced today on the VGA 2009 website, the nominees for this year’s program. Voting is now open so be sure to stop by and vote for your favorite games! Something a little more interesting though is the announcement of the first of several world exclusive premieres for the VGAs; The first being the world exclusive premiere footage of Halo: Reach that will air on their annual award ceremony.

While the other world exclusive premieres have yet to be announced, this is certainly one of the biggest games they could have grabbed an exclusive from! As for all the nominees and categories, you can check them out below (thanks to 1up).

“ReleaseGate” continues as a handful of Gamestop stores have released both Assassin’s Creed 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 prior to the official street date. Kotaku reports store employees have confirmed that the pre-release date sales were authorized by Gamestop corporate in response to other stores in the same area in Jersey City. This comes hot on the heels of last week’s Modern Warfare 2 broken street date.

The Gamestop stores involved called their preorder customers to tell them their preorder was ready for pick up. Early releases are becoming common practice for Gamestop in an effort to preserve their precious preorders from canceling and purchasing the game at the competition in advance of the street date. Gamestop is taking the stance that two wrongs makes a right and selling before the street date when their competition did so first should be an acceptable practice. I hate to say it, but an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind and if these kids aren’t disciplined street dates are may to be broken more and more and earlier and earlier.

With just under two weeks before its release, Valve has announced that the Left 4 Dead 2 pre-order numbers are four times bigger than that of the original Left 4 Dead. This does not come as a surprise considering the original was, an original. Gamers are more likely to pre-order a sequel to a game due to the fact that they played the first and enjoyed what the title had to offer.

There are thousands of gamers that have played Left 4 Dead and want more. It only makes sense the sequel would have significantly more pre-sales than the original. In order to impress me, Valve would have to compare their pre-sale numbers to something like Gears of War 2. Not only that, they didn’t even announce an approximate number, which is even more underwhelming.

If you are one of the thousands of gamers that cant wait to get a taste of Left 4 Dead 2, then you are in luck. The once pre-order exclusive demo for the highly anticipated zombie shooter is now available for everyone to download.

The demo features a level from “The Parish” campaign and can be played co-operatively locally or online. This is the perfect opportunity to test out the tweaks Valve made to the game. Personally I am interested to see how the melee weapons hold up against the hordes of zombies. I am also curious if they made enough changes to warrant another $50 price tag.

If  the L4D2 demo just isn’t satisfying your inner fanboy and you are craving more goodies aside from the newly announced Modern Warfare 2 Avatar Awards, then you best be hopping on the hype train for some Left 4 Dead 2 Avatar Awards!

Valve confirmed not long ago that Left 4 Dead 2 would support Avatar Awards, but it has just recently come to light as to what form these “Awards” would come in. As Fade Guy reported on the Steam Forums, the following items may or may not be the entire list of featured Avatar Awards:

We at Game Rant know you’re dying for a dose of zombie slaying and Valve is giving the fans that are chomping at the bit a small taste of what’s to come.

The Left for Dead 2 demo is due to release at 11:00 pm PST on October 27th (Demo release delayed for PC users) 2:00 am PST on October 28th, exclusively for those who have pre-ordered. Pre-ordering the game also scores you the unlock for the in-game baseball bat allowing you to play T-ball with some zombie skulls. I’m not sure how they’ll limit the use of a melee weapon to only those that pre-ordered. It’s possible the baseball bat may just be a a special skin for the baseball bat.

If you pre-ordered via Steam the demo will be available at 2:00 am PST on October 28th so start clogging those download servers then. If you pre-ordered on a console or from a retail store you should receive download instructions and an activation code with your order.

A Left 4 Dead 2 Trailer has found its way onto the greatness that is the internet, and we here at Game Rant thought you might want to see it.

The 3-minute video gives us some insight into the characters of the game: a fat guy, a hick, a suave guy, and a chick. Somehow, Valve managed to give them all some pretty damn hilarious dialogue in the trailer, which displays some mighty fine action sequences and scenery: exploding bridges, hazmat and clown zombies, survivors using chainsaws etc.

Here’s the trailer so you can judge for yourself:

The sequel to the successful (yet short and overpriced) Left 4 Dead game is coming our way quick and we may have just found out a little info on the last two campaigns featured in the game.

The Taiwanese GNN put up the five posters which, if legitimate, reveal the two unknown campaigns for Left 4 Dead 2, titled Hard Rain and Dead Center. The awesome taglines for the two missions are “Come Hell and High Water” and “Prices Aren’t the Only Thing Getting Slashed” respectively.