When the first left 4 dead came out I remember playing it on XBOX Live with a couple of friends of mine almost everyday after school for about a month or so. Between vs mode and going through the campaign stuff it was a great time for a while. Then we moved on to other games and I never really played it since.  
 
Left 4 Dead 2 came out. I was interested but never got around to picking it up until a few weeks ago when it was 7 bucks on steam, in celebration of porting the game to OSX (which is my only computing option currently). So I was stoked and bought it, only to realize I had to upgrade my macbook to run Snow Leopard in order to run it.  
 
Well, I finally got around to getting an upgrade disk and after installing that I downloaded l4d2 to see if shooting zombies was still fun. 
Turns out it's way more fun than I remember and I've been playing it every chance I've had for the last 2 days. 
 
I know this is a bit late to the party, but goddamn this is a great game. Icing zombies with both guns and melee weapons is incredibly satisfying, the atmosphere is perfect for getting that classic "oh fuck, it's zombies" feel, and the team itself is growing on me. 
 
We all remember Brad calling it in his review, and I finally know why that was. This is the best zombie game that I have ever played, both in terms of the gameplay itself and it's ability to create that mood. You know, the mood you get when you're really into a zombie movie, wanting to just reach into the screen and grab a shotgun to finish off the guy who was bitten (he's just gonna turn anyway).  
That feeling of excitement and adrenaline when the tank is on it's way, or when some asshole sets off a car alarm, or when a hunter pounces on you out of nowhere and you catch yourself jumping out of your chair a bit. Playing this with the lights off, a cold drink nearby and my good headphones on has been some of the most fun I've had gaming in a while.
 
So now that we're a little over a year past its initial launch, how do you guys feel? Is this still the definitive zombie gaming experience, or did you feel it came too late in the zombie craze and you wrote it off as just another zombie game? Or has something else captured the zombie-killing experience better?
 
Also, if anyone wants to play, just add Dr. Stoked on steam.