The James Logan Courier

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

What does a sequel look like when it's turned around in a year by a studio notorious for taking twice as long to develop an episodic expansion pack?

Actually, if you're the audience Valve is targeting with "Left 4 Dead 2," it looks pretty good. "L4D2" is a wholly incremental upgrade over its 2008 predecessor, but it hits all the marks — new campaigns, new characters, new modes and new infected freaks to play as online — it needed to hit to command another $60 from play who still have the original in heavy rotation.

Elementarily speaking, "L4D2" changes nothing: It's a first person shooter, starring you as one of four human survivors navigating a zombie apocalypse (this time, in New Orleans and its outskirts). The objective: Kill hordes of attacking zombies, and less common but exponentially more dangerous special infected, whose attacks are more powerful and harder to circumvent.
As per last time, the game splits into five bite-sized, hour-plus-long campaigns, and it dynamically rearranges how and from where the infected attack each time you play. You can take on campaigns solo (with three A.I.-controlled allies) or with friends (two-player split-screen, up to four online).

From wikipedia:
Laurence Sterne (November 24, 1713 – March 18, 1768) was an English novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He is best known for his novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy; but he also published sermons, wrote memoirs, and was involved in local politics. Sterne died in London after years of fighting tuberculosis.

Read The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne, one of three of his works available free from Project Gutenberg.