News to some, friendly reminder to others, but the Left 4 Dead mod "Dead Before Dawn," a mall-based homage to "Dawn of the Dead," is no ordinary mod. Valve sent the makers a soundfile of Francis saying "I hate malls."

Anyway, "Dead Before Dawn" hits on Oct. 31. The modmakers are working feverishly, and promise that they will put something out on Halloween.

In the event that we do not see our finale up to scratch for release, we will NOT postpone the release. We promised you a halloween release date, a halloween release date is what your going to get. If this does happen, maps 1 - 5 will be released and an update for the campaign containing the finale will be released shortly after.

Further, yes, that is a fifth character in the poster; yes, he is C.J. head of Crossroads Mall security, and yes, he is playable. Correction: No he is not playable, as one of the Dead Before Dawn devs says in an email.

You can see tons more screens at the link. It seriously looks like one hell of a great mod.

Dead Before Dawn Community Update #3 [L4DMods via Evil Avatar]