VALVe Ruins Left 4 Dead and the World

So, via Chris Livingston's Twittter (via Rock Paper Shotgun) I have learned that VALVe (creator of the greatest games ever) is working on a sequel to the best game ever (also known as Left 4 Dead) creatively called Left 4 Dead 2 -though I really hope they change it to Left 4 Dead Too as this game features an all new cast of characters and this title would help to capture the fact that like Francis, Bill, Zoey, and Louis, these new characters (brace yourself for a bad pun in 3, 2, 1...) were left for dead too.

The new game is set to take place in the southern united states with 4 new characters (Coach, Rochelle, Ellis, and the new Francis... Nick) and 5 new campaigns. There are also some new special infected such as the charger and a modification to our old friend the witch that allows her to roam around during the day. There seem to be a lot of other great improvements such as randomization of some map elements (other than health, weapons, and AI), something called the gauntlet that seems to suggest a chase scene element, and finally crescendo events that require a "checkpoint" to be reached before the waves of zombies stop coming. Oh, yeah, there will also be melee weapons (frying pans, baseball bats, and chainsaws), incendiary rounds, and new guns.

This all sounds great right, so why does the title of this post seem so angry? Well I'll tell you. For starters VALVe in a very un-Valvelike move have already announced the release date for this game and in another unvalvelike move its not Third Quarter of 2025 its a lot sooner its November 17th, 2009 (this still sounds like good news doesn't it?). This means the end of VALVe time if this is released a year after the first game was released, if we can't complain about how long it takes Valve to make games what else do we have to complain about(sure we are still waiting on HL2 episode 3 and the inevitable Portal sequel... but still)? And... if they are releasing it so soon it will probably suck, right? I am also kind of miffed because I had hoped they would just add new official campaigns and content to the original L4D.

All raging aside my biggest fear is that it will in all likelihood be great-and better than the original, I'll probably have to preorder it and begin playing it the second it is unlocked-whereby my mind will be blown and I will spend all my time playing it and lose my job and end any chance I have at a normal life. On the plus side I'll be really good at killing zombies.

When I saw the RPS article I was hoping it was a joke or a creative way of announcing a new mod or DLC for L4D unfortuately this is not the case as several other sites (including an official press release on the Steam News page) are also reporting information on this game. I hope that they at least give a discount to people who own the first L4D since it does feel a little expansion pack-ish. I also should tell Gabe Newell to Change the title to Left 4 Dead Too (or maybe Left 4 Dead, Too? because that would be great, and actually make sense!!1

For Screenshots and more info about the game visit Rock Paper Shotgun.com