I had a temporary notion to do this extensive E3 coverage for all the big games and what not, but considering I haven't seen the traffic I wanted, I don't think the work would be justified.  Instead I'll pick and choose a few select things over the next few days.  Today we have Left 4 Dead 2...

 Here's the teaser trailer.

Basically it seems to possess all the awesome of Left 4 Dead and a bit more.  A bit.  From what I've seen the community's reception to Valve's creation of a new Left 4 Dead a year after the original is... mixed... to say the least.  While on one side people are very excited about a sequel to an enormously fun game, others are concerned that Valve is taking it's first steps toward what Electronic Arts has become.  Personally I think this has more to to with the Xbox iteration of the game and Microsoft's well known greed than anything about Valve.  Valve can't give up the Xbox market and Microsoft openly expressed their strong dislike of free downloadable content when Team Fortress 2 first announced the Medic and Heavy packs coming to Xbox.  PC users have been accustomed to free DLCs for ages.  MMOs have been doing it basically since their inception.  Alternatively, when something akin to a "big update" would come out, it would just be an expansion and be priced at roughly half the price of a new game.  For consoles, DLCs are new and Microsoft being on the forefront of that, has sought to make as much money off of it as possible.  So, while Valve would rather sell 5 million copies of a game and then give free DLCs until the next big game(Team Fortress 2), Microsoft has made a habit of selling a lot less (usually half a game) and charging for any new content (Halo maps, Oblivion craps).

Now aside from the obvious cashing in on popularity, let's talk about the game itself already.  There are a lot of short videos at Gametrailers.com that demonstrate the gameplay and additions.  Though the gameplay looks mostly unchanged, there are quite a few little tidbits added in.  Left 4 Dead 2 seems to take place in a southern region most resembling Louisiana.  This is quite a visual difference from the skyscrapers and heavily wooded forests of the original.  Also, one of the first things I noticed was the daylight.  Apparently, the new game will have one or more daylight maps that give it a very "Dawn of the Dead" feel despite that it appears more "dusk."  Maybe this is a salute to George Romero's work.  The game engine and textures appear much the same, but there is the addition of both new character models as well as new zombie models.  All of the models seem to be well designed, especially the zombie models - which include individuals in sealed off hazmat suits showing the failed effort to stop the outbreak.  The individuals in hazmat suits are apparently "uncommon common" zombies, these individuals have a special ability.  This one specifically has is fireproof. There is also a new special infected called "The Charger" that will knock down those impacted by his charge and then pick up and ultimately incapacitate a downed member.

Aside from the new visuals are the new weapons.   Most notable is the inclusion of melee weapons which was once a sort of side note given the use of melee with all ranged weapons.  With these instead of merely pushing the zombies back in order to fire off a few rounds, you can decapitate them with an axe or bash their skulls with a frying pan.  There's also the addition of a chainsaw (awesome) that wasn't shown in the gameplay footage, but is briefly seen in the teaser trailer.  In addition to the melee weapons, there appears to be a silenced version of the sub machinegun (though it's not much quieter), a new version of the assault rifle I can't identify off the top of my head, or and special ammo caches that give you incendiary ammunition that ignites their targets in a flaming mess.  The developers say that not all new weapons will be recreations of old weapons with a different model, so I'm interested to see what those will include.

Finally, the addition of some new music was added.  Any person who enjoys game music scores will tell you that Valve knocked it out of the park with Left 4 Dead's sound track.  The way it sets the atmosphere and intensity of the gameplay is virtually unmatched in today's games.  It seems now that they've created a sequel, they decided to, instead of match the music to the gameplay, to match it to the region in which the game takes place.  While reminiscent of the original soundtrack, it is heavily accented with southern fiddle playing that sounds entirely out of place with what is happening.  Considering the proud nature of developers these days and the cost of creating original high quality music, no matter how much everyone says they hate it, they'll keep it.

I guess I should also add that all of the maps included will be playable with Versus and Survival modes as well.  This is obviously something that should have been included in the original but I assume was neglected due to time constraints.  Luckily we've seen the addition of some more recently.

At the end of the day, as more of the game comes to light and it separates itself a bit more from the original, I believe I'll buy it, but it's a stretch to say I'll pay the full price.  I bought Left 4 Dead the day it came out, but that's because the gameplay was revolutionary.  Usually that's what it takes for me to buy a game as soon as it comes out... because I have the tendency to get burned by buying a game that ends up being terrible.  Left 4 Dead 2 will be a fun game just like it's original, but it's not going to knock you on your ass with things you've never seen before.