Valve’s ace zombie slayer Left 4 Dead has bedazzled all who’ve played it. But don’t just take our word for it…

That’s because you can grab yourselves a gratifyingly large slice of the fraught blasting action with the FREE demo that’s just been posted on Xbox LIVE and Steam for PCs. It’s a scream. Literally.

Lumbering in at 1.2GB the demo supplies two of the No Mercy maps in which your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to survive an onslaught of speedy and worryingly ravenous Zombies. We find that guns are pretty handy - lots of ’em. Chums too, if you’ve got them, since Left 4 Dead supports four-player co-op gameplay.

So that’s what we’ll be doing as soon as the final bell rings this afternoon. Those of you slavering for the full game can download the PC version from Steam on the 18th - the internet’s marvellous, innit - while the Xbox version arrives on the 21st. Miss it at your peril.