Pictured above are all the people who'd forgotten to pre-order Left 4 Dead, running for the nearest Gamestop. They're running because if you've pre-ordered the game from Gamestop or Electronics Boutique, or if you've already bought it on Steam (for the PC only, natch), then you can start playing the demo right now. Yep, right now!

The demo of this zombie-killing simulator includes single-player and multiplayer. Pre-orderers get to enjoy it for a week before the unwashed non-pre-ordered masses are let in on November 11th. Then everyone gets to play it for a week, and then Valve cuts everyone off on November 18th, which -- wouldn't you know it? -- is the same day they release the full game. Now that's just mean. Effective, but mean.