I find it weird that Value, the same poeple that made the cutscene-less Half Life series, would make a game that uses cutscenes.

No offense, but I just have to echoe Rocket_Pig here. Are you seriously saying that a Valve game is gonna be worse than R2 or KZ2?

 I'm saying people have different opinions and tastes in video gaming. I have played the R2 beta and it's co-op is deep, tactical, and most importantly absolutely addicting and fun. I don't care who makes a game, for what system, or what reviews say. When I play a game I want to have fun, even if it's brainless. I don't elivate games into something else and neither do I hold one game above another due to titles of developers. My girlfriend has become addicted to R2 while playing the beta with me and demanded that I buy it day one, and honestly, I felt the same way about it. Gears 2 I'm getting because many of my friends will have it which adds a lot of value to the game. Thirdly, I haven't seen anything from L4D to suggest it's going to be better than either of those games, and neither have I played it for myself. Furthermore I do not know a single person who is buying this game and it's not something my girlfriend is interested in either. So no, I'm not saying any game is better then any other. To do so would suggest that I've played each of the games and that it is fact and not opinion as to which game may or may not be better than another. I might say that I think a game is better than another but not that a game IS better than another. But that's besides the point, I said neither of those things.

Well here's some gameplay vids then.

Nobody's telling you to base the playability of the game based off the cinematic.  Merely the badassery and awesomenitude of the game.

Seriously, there's been only gameplay shown for 2 years...having some awesome cinematics is just a plus, and shows the level of polish Valve is putting over the game as well.

It's not a vital part of the game, but it's there for added polish, just like the TF2 shorts.

Thank you for the vids. Very nice. I'll admit I haven't kept up with this title. I've seen a couple of vids and heard information. Looks really promising but by no means the end all this game > then all others. It looked a lot like other games I've played. Maybe I just thought that the developers of TF2 would be pushing the envelope more with new ideas and maybe they will but I din't see that in those videos. Those videos have got me more interested in the title though, so thank you. I'll keep my eyes on it apon release. Who knows, mabye I'll purchase it over one of the other titles I'll be getting but I'm not sure how many shooters I want this season. And with KZ2 right around the corner to boot. Maybe I'll convince some friends to purchase this over Gears 2 as I loved the first one when it first released but the formula ran stale and I'm not jumping up and down for more of the same to be honest.

This game does look really intense and probably fun to play, but I still really dislike the zombies and super zombies. I don't like the idea of mega-hulk zombie and ninja zombie, I just want normal zombies. The world they portray could not be survived, and certainly not by four people. All I'm saying is I wish they would use masses of slow zombies and make it an actually survival game; I don't like how it can't be scary anymore unless they are hauling balls at you. With that said I'm still anxious to play this, it has a lot of potential.

I don't think they were aiming at making a survival game at all. I think they were aiming at a fast-paced co-op shooter. Aliens just don't scream "YOU HAVE TO COOPERATE" at you face as much as zombies do.

Go play Resident Evil then. You're not gonna get the same thrills from tons of slow zombies...just look at COD5's zombie mode...it's a fun mode I'm sure, but it's totally different...you're simply trying to keep them out of your house, shooting them down if they do break in. In L4D, they're GONNA break in, it's guaranteed, and you just have to survive. Knowing you could get mowed down and ripped apart if you fail is way more intense than walking backwards slowly as a zombie lumber towards you as you reload your gun.

I saw it, it's absolutely AMAZING!

Okay, I read up some, and the one with the really long tongue is a mutated Infected - a Boss - called the Smoker.

Then the giant one toward the end is the Tank.

There's also the Boomer, the Hunter, and the Witch, but they didn't show in the opening cinematic.