Australia, October 7, 2009

UPDATED!

The Australian Classification Board has given Left 4 Dead 2 an MA15+ rating. Well, more accurately, it has given an edited version an MA 15+ rating. What changes were made? Well, the Board report is now available (thanks to news.com.au for the link) and it makes for grim reading.

"The Board notes that the game no longer contains depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment." No doubt the Board was concerned about the adverse impact such aspects could have on the player, which is amusing, given that we're now concerned that the game will be lacking impact.

We're also concerned that this seems to indicate inconsistencies in the way games are rated in this country. Left 4 Dead, after all, allowed the player to blow the heads off the Infected, and at the end of a firefight the streets would be awash with bodies. That game was rated MA15+. Granted, the decapitation and dismemberment may be more graphic or explicit in Left 4 Dead 2, but it feels a little arbitrary.

In any case, it now has a rating, with the Board delcaring that it's their view that "the element of violence in the game has been sufficiently modified and is now able to be accommodated within the MA15+ classification."

This isn't necessarily the end of the story, however. As reported by Kotaku yesterday, however, Valve is appealing the original decision and hopes to have the uncensored version of the game classified. Will it be in time for launch? The board will report back on the success of the appeal on October 22, and with the game due for release here in November, that doesn't leave much time.

Fingers crossed EA pushes back the Aussie release to ensure that if the decision is overturned, Australian gamers will be playing the full game. If not, PC owners will be able to patch their edited title, while it's less certain what options – if any – Xbox 360 owners will have. For a few quotes on the situation from Valve's Gabe Newell, hit Kotaku.

http://au.xbox360.ign.com/articles/103/1033084p1.html

Hopefully Valve's appeal is successful, however I`d prefer a decapitation-free Left 4 Dead to no Left 4Dead.