News: Left 4 Dead 2 officially announced. Juicy info here!!

Okay, I did say I was going on a hiatus effect as of that last post, but then I read some hot-off-the-press stuff on Left 4 Dead 2 right after, and I think I would be horrible not to share such juicy information.

It is confirmed. Left 4 Dead 2 is an entirely new title as opposed to being another DLC.

I'm not going to write anymore about it because I shall link you to a very nice coverage by John Walker from Rock Paper Shotgun, with Chet from Valve.

"Left 4 Dead who now? No one was expecting Valve’s next game to be a sequel to 2008’s awesome co-op zombie shooter, Left 4 Dead. To answer your immediate question: Yes, this is a completely new game, with new characters, in a new location, with new zombies, new weapons, new twists, and an improved Director, in five completely new campaigns set in the Southern United States. This isn’t more maps for the previous game, it’s a brand new game, and it’s due this November. We snuck into Valve HQ ahead of Monday’s announcement and played a full campaign, and at first glance much appears to have evolved."

Seriously, you would be doing yourself a disservice by not reading.

But for those who are lazy, here are some awesome bullet points about what's coming out. Legendary points highlighted by me:

1. Left 4 Dead 1 will still get DLC (very important for people who are worrying about ye old L4D)
2. Bigger than Left 4 Dead 1, 5 campaigns instead of 4, sheer sizes of each map
3. Daytime survival
4. 4 new characters: Coach, high school football coach, Rochelle, cable news producer, Ellis, southern boy mechanic (reminiscent of the Scout in TF2), Nick, gambler and conman.
5. Personality development throughout the campaigns, bigger dialogue exchange between survivors over campaigns
6. Campaigns feel like they are strung together more chronologically, as opposed to separate like in L4D 1
7. New boss infected - one announced is the Charger, one large arm, who duh-charges you which knocks you off balance. Can pick you up and smack you over and over on the head until someone rescues you.
8. New uncommon common infected - Hazmat suit zombie, that can survive molotov fire. Have to be shot through the hazmat face-shield to pop their heads
9. WANDERING WITCH! ZOMG!!! WANDERING WITCH! THE WITCH MOVES ABOUT!!!!
10. New melee weapons: axe, frying pan, chainsaw, baseball bat and new animations to go. Like axe can cut legs off zombies and have them crawling on their bellies. Mmmm.
11. New weapons: new shotgun, new semi-automatic, new sniper rifle
12. Smarter A.I. 2.0 - smarter item and zombie placements
13. Randomly generated portions of the map, privy to A.I. Director's discretion on your performance. Better you are, the complexer the routes. FUN!!! Change occurs also during Versus mode.
14. More incentive to explore longer routes i.e. A.I. will place rare ammo drops called incendiary bullets that can set zombies alight upon impact
15. Everything is just bigger and better
16. More zombies to kill per campaign
17. Random weather changes - i.e. thunderstorm forces you to take cover, as visibility is diminished, A.I. Director will make it harder gameplay during such times
18. New event-type. Crescendo moment makes people stack in corner to survive. Now, crescendo moment doesn't stop until you move!!! It's called "The Gauntlet".
19. Story with CEDA (the biohazard department) becomes more integral
20. Out November 17th

The graphics do look sharper. And A.I. Director 2.0, oh my gawd. Here are some lovely pics. The first one is for the upcoming PC Gamer of the month. I mean seriously, how WTF awesome is that?