Left 4 Dead 2 Approved In Australia After Edits

Last month we discussed news that Valve's upcoming shooter Left 4 Dead 2 had been denied classification in Australia, which meant the game could not be legally sold there. Now, after a series of edits which removed "considerable amounts of gore from gameplay," Australia's classification board has given the game an MA15+ rating. Their new report (PDF) says, "No wound detail is shown and the implicitly dead bodies and blood splatter disappear as they touch the ground. ... The board notes that the game no longer contains depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment." The unmodified version of the game may still be approved, pending a review that concludes on October 22nd.

Comments

Re:Or to put that in other words

[MozzleyOne]

The trouble is - Valve have a history of putting out really really awesome games. They do this by meticulously honing every single detail to perfection. By forcing them to change the game, our censors have forced us to play a game that isn't as good as Valve tried to make it.

The sheer fucking ARROGANCE of the concept of a ratings board playing a game and then banning it is what I find the most disgusting. I don't want to play a 95% version of L4D2 because some people in my country decided that, while THEY weren't harmed from playing it, would DEFINITELY cause harm to others who can't help themselves.

It's not just bloodthirst - purely from a gameplay perspective, to have a good FPS you NEED a good visual response to a hit in order to be able to move to the next target. It's all part of that large bag of things that make a FPS "feel" right, along with things like acceleration speed and jump height. If you get the little details wrong, everything feels wrong.

Though, even if it WAS pure bloodthirst that made me want the game left as-is, why would that mean anyone in the country stop me from playing whatever the fuck I want? Leave me the fuck alone.