Valve, creator of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced pre-order details for its upcoming action thriller, Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2).

Starting now, those who pre-order L4D2 via Steam will receive early access to the Left 4 Dead 2 demo (currently targeted for October 27) plus an exclusive in-game item – the American baseball bat, one of the 10 new melee weapons included in the game.

Unfortunately this appears to be only for US gamers but the idea is pretty darn cool