The sequel to the 2008 Multiplayer Game of the Year, Left 4 Dead 2 is due out November 17 on Microsoft Windows PC and Xbox 360. Value is making the PC version while Certain Affinity is handling the port on the XBOX 360.

In L4D2 the AI Director has been improved to encourage more participation by players, forcing players through difficult gauntlets to reach the extraction point, and the ability to alter elements of the level such as placement of walls, lighting, or weather conditions. The AI Director will also be improved to reward players for taking longer or more difficult paths through each episode by providing more useful equipment, such as incendiary ammo, along these riskier paths, and even alter elements of the levels to create varied paths based on the choice of these paths.

Players will have access to more and improved weapons, including new melee weapons such as a frying pan, an axe, baseball bat, cricket bat, and chainsaw, and improved guns such as a silenced sub-machine gun, and a more-precise assault rifle. Also, totally new weapons like a grenade launcher and an AK-47. While the players will mostly encounter normal infected foes, there are “special infected” foes that possess unique abilities that require unique tactics to defeat or avoid. In addition to those introduced in the first game, Left 4 Dead 2 includes the Charger, a larger creature that can move fast but with low health that can leave a player helpless, and the Spitter, which spews a ball of mutated phlegm which covers an area of ground and eats away at survivor’s health for every second they are in it. Existing specials will also be adjusted; for example, the infected Witch, fixed to a single spot in Left 4 Dead, will be able to roam during daytime levels, a featured referred to by Valve representatives as the “Wandering Witch”.

Who played the original Left 4 Dead? Are you getting L4D2 and on what platform?

Where has this game been? THXers have been having a blast playing a separate cooperative mode in Call of Duty: World at War called Nazi Zombies.

While CoD’s version of Zombies is fairly scripted and doesn’t have the sophisticated "AI Director" found in Left 4 Dead, each game offers a slightly different experience based on the random events that happen; mainly the type of weapons that come out of the Mystery Box.

The game consists of up to two players locally or up to four players online working together battling against an unlimited number of waves of Nazi zombies. Players gain points by either killing the zombies or repairing boarded-up windows, which are used to remove blockages such as couches or doors inside the bunker. These points can be used to gain access to more powerful weapons than the starting handgun. Guns are bought from outlines on the walls or the Mystery Box, which gives weapons at random. Zombies continually break the boards on the windows or certain walls to gain entrance and to find and kill the players; when all players die, the game is over. Downed players can survive if another player revives them or will respawn at the end of a round with only a handgun. The game mode originally had to be unlocked upon completion of the campaign mode, but was later made available without this prerequisite.

Map Pack 2 was released on June 11th. The third map pack will be released in August 09.

Getting through the levels of Nazi Zombies is very challenging. If you don’t play the game’s economy, you won’t make it past the early rounds because you have limited ammo and guns cost points.

The game has been a refreshing blast in a time while we are heading down the homestretch waiting for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Halo: ODST, and Left for Dead 2.

If you are like me, you were excited about World at War and then put it down after nobody on your buddy list continued to play it. I liked the World at War beta because it had the same game mechanics as CoD4: Modern Warfare. The biggest difference was the styling (WWII genre items in dark gritty maps in the Pacific). The game came out and no one played. I guess Gears of War 2 stole the show. It was released a weak prior. And let’s be honest. CoD titles made by any studio other than Infinity Ward just don’t get the same following.

Zombies has been a great; especially playing with THXers like Nearsight, Midnight, Reverend, FoulBreed, The Prey, Shyzza, Brick, and Celery.

Admittedly, the only reason I will continue to play the game is because I want to keep getting to higher levels. Once I’ve gotten to a level that’s quinched my thirst for achievement, I’ll probably put this game back in the drawer.