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Left 4 Dead 2 Banned In Australia

Posted by Soulskill on from the scary-zombies dept.

An anonymous reader writes "According to Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification, Left 4 Dead 2's content exceeds that allowable for an MA15+ rating. Any such game is rated as Refused Classification, effectively banning it. From the report: 'The game contains realistic, frenetic, and unrelenting violence which is inflicted upon "the Infected" who are living humans infected with a rabies-like virus that causes them to act violently. The player can choose from a variety of weapons including pistols, shotguns, machine guns, and sniper rifles. However, it is the use of the "melee" weapons such as the crowbar, axe, chainsaw and Samurai sword which inflict the most damage. These close-in attacks cause copious amounts of blood spray and splatter, decapitations and limb dismemberment as well as locational damage where contact is made to the enemy which may reveal skeletal bits and gore.'"

4 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. Heh by ShooterNeo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    " These close-in attacks cause copious amounts of blood spray and splatter, decapitations and limb dismemberment as well as locational damage where contact is made to the enemy which may reveal skeletal bits and gore."

    Sounds like a pretty convincing advertisement for the game! Darn astroturfers....

    Seriously, the game is sold on Steam. Will steam sell you the game and let you play online if you have an australian IP address? Do they have to block you from purchasing it or not?

    1. Re:Heh by anomnomnomymous · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Steam can disable certain games from being sold in your country, or only let you download the censored version (as is being done with the German version of L4D). The weird thing is that there is a way around that: If someone from another country buys the game for you (and gives it as a gift to your account), it will only have the restrictions for the country it's bought in. I've bought L4D for someone in Germany, and they can now enjoy the full experience (as it should be anyways...)

      --
      When you shoot a mime, do you use a silencer?
  2. I can see the headlines now. by boxxertrumps · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The game that was so good it was banned in Australia.

  3. here's an idea by SEAL · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Valve's Zombie shooter has been refused classification, which means it can't be made commercially available in the country.

    Valve should thumb their nose at Australia's rating board and make the game freely available there.