My thoughts in a nut shell, very nice post. :thumbs:
*edit*
IMHO, they should just shut up about the whole thing, just like valve have done with HL2 and make a surprise release of their mod 100% complete it would just make it a lot easier.
I think its a normal zombie in a later stage of evoling if that makes any sense, just like... in... OpFo, you see the huge zombie that runs really fast, the next stage after that :)