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Valve may not be coming out with Portal 2 as planned later this year but fans of both Left 4 Dead games will be getting some new (and free for PC users) DLC expansions on October 5. That's also when the games will finally get the long awaited Mac ports like most of the rest of Valve's game library.

As revealed by PC Gamer's web site and on GameTrailers.com, both Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 will be getting The Sacrifice, a new three level campaign that tells the story of Left 4 Dead 1's original survivors before they meet up with Left 4 Dead 2's cast in the recent DLC The Passing. While The Passing shows us that (spoiler alert) Left 4 Dead 1's Bill is dead, The Sacrifice will allow players to change which character from the Left 4 Dead 1 cast actually bites it.

One of the cool things about Left 4 Dead 1's version of The Sacrifice is that it lets players try out the cool new melee and other weapons from Left 4 Dead 2. Left 4 Dead 2 players will also get Left 4 Dead 1's No Mercy campaign as an extra DLC download. In addition, there will be a massive 150 page online comic that will lead up to The Sacrifice's story that will start in September. It's being drawn by Michael Avon Oeming who is best known for his work on the Powers comic book series. GameTrailers.com revealed that Oeming is now actually on staff at Valve.

In 1999 a team based multiplayer mode for Valve's first person shooter Half-Life was first released to the public. The creation of Minh "Gooseman" Le the mod was called Counter-Strike and its design (terrorist vs counter-terrorists in round-based gameplay) was an instant hit online. In fact the original version of the game continues to be one of the most played online shooters on the internet 11 years after the first beta mod version was released. In 2000 Valve bought the rights to the mod and turned the game into a commercial title later that year. In December 2008 Valve announced that the commercial version of Counter-Strike had sold a total of 4.2 million units in retail stores (the numbers do not include copies sold via Valve's Steam service).

Le was hired by Valve (along with Counter-Strike's co-creator Jess Cliffe) after the rights to Counter-Strike were bought by the developer. However after working at Valve for several years Le decided to leave Valve to work on an all new game. Working with developers in South Korea, the fruits of his efforts have resulted in Tactical Intervention, a Source Engine based multiplayer shooter that's being published by FIX Korea and will enter closed beta testing in the US on May 28.

In one of the first interviews about the game, Le talks about leaving Valve, the differences between Counter-Strike and Tactical Intervention and other topics.

Game Informer's big Portal 2 cover story is starting to hit subscribers and some folks are naturally scanning the article and placing them on the internet. VG247.com checked out the scans and put up some more info gleaned from the article featuring Valve's first person puzzle sequel. Now we are not keen to spoil everything from the article so we will just report a few tidbits (you can head to the news post if you want more).

As you might have guessed on your own, GlaDOS is back to his/her/its old ways as the villain while the subject of the original Portal, Chell, also returns as the protagonist. Also look for physics to be a bigger influence in gameplay. Finally a Mac version of Portal 2 is also mentioned which would tie into Valve's new big push into putting games on Apple's machines.

The long awaited Scout class update for Team Fortress 2 is finally set for release a week from today (Feb. 24) and today the game's official blog site has started the day-by-day reveal of what will be included in the update to Valve's multiplayer shooter.

One of the unlockable weapons that will be included with the Scout update is the "Sandman". It's basically a baseball bat and ball. Hitting the ball with a bat at an enemy team member will stun them with they come in contact with the ball. You can continue to swing and attack while they are stunned. The only issue? If you have the Sandman your Scout character can't double jump.

Two down; seven more to go. Valve has added unlockable achievements and new weapons to the Medic and Pyro class in their multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2. Now the game's official web site has revealed that the Heavy class is the next to receive the same kind of treatment.

Team Fortress's co-creator Robin Walker stated on the web site that they plan to reveal exactly how they plan to design such new features for the heavy in upcoming updates to the game's web site. It's a bit on the technical side but is certainly of interest to any budding game designers. There's no word yet on when the Heavy updates will be released