exactly, that's why I'm waiting until the mods are out. I'll still read up on the product, but I'm going to wait until next summer because I see myself spending a couple hours on the game and then doing nothing but modding. I look forward to the next fakefactory mod.

I love killing witches in the game. Aw yes, they are killing me more often. :P

Well, truth be told, I'm not entirely sold on this game. For a tactical co-op game, there's already SWAT 4, for a zombie massacre there's Painkiller. It's kind of weird, too, because I wish Dead Rising had gotten a PC port solely due to its "zombie apocalypse" aspect, but I'm not very enthusiastic about Left 4 Dead for some reason.
Good thing there's a demo, that way I'll be able to see what all the rage is about.

Painkiller is most definitely not a zombie massacre game. It's more of an oldschool run n' gunner which was damned fun and makes me wish there were more of them these days. And from what I understand, Left4Dead will be much more based on twitch action than the tactical realism of SWAT 4. Very different from both those games.
I still recommend the Zombie Master mod for Half-Life 2 for those who haven't played it yet. It's a hybrid of an RTS and zombie survivor shooter. Instead of Left4Dead's AI director, one player is the Zombie Master who has an overhead view and spawns various types of zombies and sets up traps using his limited resources. Survivors on the other hand have to complete map specific objectives to win each round. It's a bit slower paced that what Left4Dead seems to be but very atmospheric.

I'm loving the demo, can't wait for the full release. Its not often that a feature like the "AI Director" lives up to expectations. It really does what is promised, and makes each round unique and fun.

This game isn't tactical to me in, or not in the realm of anything like swat 4. It's almost closer to UT's Assault mode in terms of complexity. You help people out but don't have to really coordinate attacks with people or avoid the witches. There's actually a couple achievements that will be in the full game, that require you kill the witch in various ways. It's just 4 people trapped in a scenario involving zombies (although they explain it as more of an outbreak, and inspired by 28 Days)and the guns are really simple. You can't even adjust the fire rate. It's not cs with zombies, but just a very fun Co-op shooter that requires teamwork but not on a hardcore level such as SWAT 4 (which I also like.) One of the most interesting things about L4D is the AI Director and how it reacts to how people are playing. The very first level of the demo feels very scripted, but the Subway level seems a lot more interesting. Stuff is a little more chaotic and there's a greater sense of danger and randomness, but not in a frustrating way where if you die, that's it,. Instead, you respawn in a room trapped and the other players or AI can rescue you, and then you get right back into the action.
Painkiller is demons too not zombies. Coincidentally I just played Painkiller Gold two days before the Left 4 Dead Demo release. It's a great game. Definitely demons though. I really loved the look of the final level in Painkiller.
CoD5 will have a Zombie Mode too that's 4 player coop but from what I read it's similar to that new Gears of War 2 game type where you attack waves of incoming enemies. I've seen some interviews on the net about it, but it sounds like they are trying to jump on the bandwagon to me.

Honestly, from the stuff I've seen, I don't see what the big deal is all about.

By "zombie massacre" I meant the hordes of mindless enemies attacking you, not necessarily meaning literal undead (though there are a few kinds of enemies of that sort, too).
So, I finally gave in and installed the Steam client (also bought AudioSurf while I was at it), downloading the demo now.

Hey if you see BloodDoll (me) playing Zoey on any servers, join up if you want!

aww that's too bad. Well you can, anyone here can if hey see me. Don't take my pills!

Whee... demo is public now. Just installed the game and new drivers. Will report back with impressions once I give it whirl.

Actually, it would seem I'm getting the lowest latencies from Eastern US servers. On average they're about the same as European ones, though.
I've had a couple attempts at the demo level on Expert, the zombies seem more threatening there. In Normal you'd just gun them down by the dozens without any problems, which is not much fun.
It's pretty weird that the server browser is only accessible from the dev console. And even then it's a bit wonky. So yeah, I'd say lag would be the lesser issue, actually finding servers and people would be more trouble. If you want a method more effective than hoping to get lucky with the built-in matchmaking algorithm, anyway.

I've just played it for a while and enjoyed it a great lot. Apart from the weapons feeling all to similiar to Counter-Strike: Source, it is all very well done, especially the fantastic animations of the zombies. Even though this was a lot of fun, I don't think it could last very long for me. Things are mixed up nicely with varying amounts of zombies in every match and more, but the maps are still essentially totally linear. So, I guess Left 4 Dead would be the perfect game for the occasional LAN party with a bunch of friends. But considering that I could mostly play it online with strangers or with a friend using TeamSpeak now and then, I'm quite sure it really won't be worth the full price for me.

User Generated content is your friend, friend. And this is the demo.
But, I did want to say there are already mods out for the demo.