Here's to you, William.

So I could talk about the level design, the music, the fallen survivors, the golf club of WIN, the M60, the new midnight riders song, the zombie wedding, the footlockers, the weekly mutations or all the other things that make "The Passing" fun as hell, but I'd rather just show you a montage of the best reasons:

Francis hates haters.

It's kind of a shame; they could have had the world's most hate-filled children.

We Gotta Get Tougher Friends

Valve makes amazing games. This is true. They also generally have a hard time nailing down a time frame for the releases of said games. This is also true.

They also have quite a sense of humor.

As Left 4 Dead 2's "The Passing" is finally confirmed to be released this Thursday, I am eager to see exactly which one of the original survivors won't be making an appearance. We've known for awhile now that either Francis, Bill, Louis, or Zoey will be off fighting zombies in the Great Beyond and that an upcoming Left 4 Dead DLC will allow the player to choose which one of them sacrifices themselves for the greater good (the greater good) but that there will be a canon death detailed in both, "The Passing" and an upcoming comic book.

Though I'm relatively certain I know which survivor it will be, I would just like to point out the following collection of official posters for "The Passing". Click and look closely at the silhouettes in the background:

Yeah, Valve's got a sense of humor.

I hate waiting.

Is the world really ready for this much awesome? We'll find out next week.