A sequel to Valve's cooperative zombie shooter Left 4 Dead was just announced at Microsoft's E3 Media Briefing, slated to arrive November 17 on PC and Xbox 360.

New survivors in new locations--the trailer teases Louisiana--gain melee combat with weapons such as a chainsaw, frying pan, axe and baseball bat to fend off new zombies.

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Valve promises "a much larger game than the original with more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, and maps for Survival mode available at launch." The gameplay-controlling AI Director is also ramped up, now able to change weather effects, world objects and pathways to keep players on the edge of their seat.

Check back later this week for our impressions of Left 4 Dead 2.

The Crossing, Arkane Studios and Valve's first-person shooter planned to meld singleplayer and multiplayer with "crossplay," is officially on hold, reports Joystiq.

"We ran into an unexpected financial challenge some months ago and we had to put The Crossing on hold," says Arkane Studios CEO and creative director Raphael Colantonio, "Since then, we shifted our efforts to other very good projects."

Developed in conjunction with Valve and built upon its Source engine... Read more

An expanded edition of Valve's wit-driven puzzle effort Portal will hit Xbox 360 this fall as an exclusive downloadable Xbox Live Arcade release, Microsoft announced today.

In addition to the already-released single-player game, the Xbox Live Arcade edition of Portal will include additional test chambers through a new challenge mode, and new achievements.

Traditionally, a game's status as "Xbox 360 exclusive" refers to consoles, not PCs--suggesting that a PC release of Portal: Still Alive is quite possible, especially given Valve's past emphatic support of the platform.