Mention the word zombies in a room of gamers and two franchises instantly come to mind. Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead. While other zombie franchises have tried to claw their way to the top, these two from Capcom and Valve respectively sit atop the zombie food chain. With Capcom’s recent affinity for crossing over franchises with other publishers, it is great to see that they have come together with Valve to enable the Resident Evil 6 x Left 4 Dead 2 project.

In a completely free download, Resident Evil 6 PC players will be able to experience a new mode, “The Mercenaries No Mercy” featuring Left 4 Dead 2’s signature cast – Coach, Nick, Ellis and Rochelle – as playable characters. Each will have a custom weapon load-out for the mode. Also making their debut to the Resident Evil world alongside the foursome of survivors are going to be the Witch and the Minitank. This mode will be going live on April 5th.

Drunk History is back on the web, but this time they’re showing the holiday spirit with guest stars Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes, and Jim Carrey.

The mother of all video game fan films has arrived as the Left 4 Dead flick hits the web. Be sure to stick around till the end for some awesome gaming cameos.

Speaking of fan films, we stumbled across the best real life gaming adaptation in the history of the web. Say hello to Battlefield 3 In Real Life.

It’s Christmas time everywhere in the world (well, almost everywhere), even in Arkham City. But instead of visits from a man in red, they get a famous caped crusader.

Anyone who comes to this site knows we love to pass along anything that touches the bottom of our geek hearts. Many times, these come in the way of fan films.

But today it’s a special treat with a free PC game. Through his website Eric Ruth Games,  a developer has posted his portfolio of 8-Bit style games which includes, you guessed it, a classic NES style version of 2008’s megahit, Left 4 Dead.

Entitled Pixel Force: Left 4 Dead, players step in to an 8-bit version of the four original campaigns of L4D. Either single or two player from one keyboard (sorry, no XBox Live or Steam connectivity here), gamers get to take a peek at what this genre defining game would have looked like had it come out twenty years ago in the days before graphics accelerators and first person shooters.

In the first half of The Best Video Games of 2009, we saw Best Portable, Wii, Playstation 3 and XBox 360 Exclusive titles. Now things are ramping up on the way to the Game of the Year.

Best Music Game

Tie – The Beatles: Rock Band and DJ Hero

The Rock Band / Guitar Hero formula has been done to death at this point. Players play songs in a set list to unlock more music. Repeat as many times as needed until all songs have been unlocked. But it was 2009 that the music game genre took two big steps forward. As loved as Metallica is, their Guitar Hero installment couldn’t hold a candle to the weight of the legacy that the Beatles would bring with them in The Beatles: Rock Band. For the first time, there was a career spanning take on the legendary act with amazing and unique visuals attuned to the songs being played out.

With the addition of harmonies for the first time in any music game, The Beatles: Rock Band stepped up the feel of being in a full band to another level. Along with the unrivaled set list that only the Beatles could produce, the game has a shelf life that can outlast the pop-centric songs of current game releases.

A little over a month later, music gaming took another leap but this time into the unknown. Many people grow up hoping to become famous musicians at one point in their life but nowhere near as many look to become famous DJs. DJ Hero from Activision brought in masters of turntablism with the likes of the original hip-hop DJ Grand Master Flash to DJ Jazzy Jeff to electronica legends Daft Punk in the ultimate mashup collection.

One of the biggest hits this holiday season has already been confirmed to be Left 4 Dead 2. The sequel to last year’s multiplayer hit, the game featured four new campaigns, each with full Story, Versus, Survivor and Scavenger modes.

The new game starred four new survivors as they try to escape from various Southern American environments. But there are still tons of questions left unanswered from the first game like how the infection began, and most importantly what happened to Left 4 Dead’s original four survivors.

Valve has announced that these questions will be answered in early 2010 when Left 4 Dead 2‘s first downloadable content will be released. Valve’s press release states: “Dubbed “The Passing”, the first game add-on for L4D2 brings the original Left 4 Dead (L4D1) Survivors down south for a meeting with the L4D2 cast, while delivering new single-player, multiplayer and co-operative gameplay for the PC and Xbox 360. “The Passing” takes place just after the “Dead Center” campaign of L4D2.