PLAY AT E3: Left 4 Dead 2

The new campaign is called "The Parish."  Survivors Nick, Ellis, Rochelle, and Coach start on a dock in daylight and make their way through a town.   The axe is available and it takes out multiple infected with one swing.  It doesnt replace the handgun and the primary weapon, and you can melee when holding the ax as well, but you drop the ax when you switch to a different gun.   New guns are available as well but they just replace the roles the shotguns and machine guns filled before.  Car alarms are still a factor as are the special infected.  Unfortunately, setting the game in daytime removes a bulk of the atmosphere that was present in L4D.  The demo on the floor is running over system link on four 360s.  The new boss infected is called the charger and it looks just as intimidating as the tank without the life span.  The survivors are a new mix of characters.   Rochelle looks like a black Zoey, Coach is a little overweight, Nick looks like doctor, and Ellis looks like a red neck with a baseball cap on.   More details on how it plays later.

It plays great!  Its still the same action and pacing, but with the daylight much of the mood is missing.  Apparently the developers are going to try to involve more story into the game this time around.  One thing of particular note is that the frying pan is really satisfying.  When you hit zombies with it it makes a "BONK" sort of sound that is really rewarding.  Left 4 Dead 2 will be out later this year.