I have to admit I was wrong, yes I am admitting that I made a mistake in judging Left 4 Dead 2 before I actually had a chance to play the game. I naturally assumed that the sequel to Left 4 Dead was nothing more than glorified DLC. How could Valve demand gamers to pay full price after the original had only been out for a year?

After having a few days with the PC and Xbox 360 demo for Left 4 Dead 2 it is safe to say that Valve deserves our hard earned money and Left 4 Dead 2 will sit comfortably along aside Left 4 Dead (Valve has stated Left 4 Dead will continue to be supported).

The new infected are in a word 'fun' and playing as these infected in Versus mode should be a treat. The Charger is a lot stronger than I expected and rivals on the Tank in difficulty. The Spitter and its toxic ooze is an almost instant death on Expert and will only add another wrinkle to Versus. The Jockey is an interesting study, as it will punish those that like wander off on their own and steer them towards the infected horde and almost certain death. I found the infected wearing riot gear to be an excellent twist and from some of the other previews I've seen, expect to see other variants of these type of infected in the retail version.

The characters so far provide plenty of chatter and provide a stark contrast from the original characters of Left 4 Dead.  I haven't played enough to hear all of their voice work yet but all of the characters seem to have very distinct personalities and the humor has been pretty amusing so far.

The new weapons are a pleasant surprise, I was expecting more of the same from the old weapons but everything has new sounds, animations and a different feel. One surprise is the 'vomit bomb', which you can toss a can of Boomer vomit on to special infected and the common infected will attack them instead of you. I can see this tactic being very effective against tanks and in Versus mode. The melee weapons provide a brand new twist to game play, I found myself starting to use them more and more as I played the demo and it makes close combat a satisfying experience.

The visuals, blood and gore have all seen improvements this time around (wait till you see the Witch walking around in the daytime). The daytime of The Parish really shows off what the lighting effects of the Source engine and while I expected it to look stunning on the PC, this just might be one the most visually impressive Xbox 360 titles to date.

So Valve you win and I was wrong, Left 4 Dead 2 is exactly what I want from a sequel and this is just the demo. We still have no idea what Realism mode holds for us and the recently announced Scavenge mode just adds to what I may thought was just glorified DLC but just may prove to be the best game of 2009.