Left 4 Dead 2 Aus Appeal Fails

The Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification has again refused to classify Left 4 Dead 2 following Valve’s appeal.Initially, the OFLC (as we’ll refer to the above-mentioned classification board from here on in) refused to classify Left 4 Dead 2, as the game didn’t meet the group’s standards for an MA 15+ rating – the highest rating a videogame can currently receive in Australia. The reasons cited were, predictably, the level of gore and violence in the game.Valve appealed against this, while simultaneously submitting an edited version. That way, even if the appeal failed, there would still be a toned-down version of Left 4 Dead 2 ready for the game’s launch on 17 November.As you may have gleaned from the title, the appeal has failed. A three-member panel from the board unanimously classified the game RC – Refused Classification. This means that the game “cannot be sold, hired, advertised or demonstrated in Australia.”The reasoning behind this is twofold. Firstly, the violence: the panel notes that Left 4 Dead 2 “contains a level of violence which is high in impact, prolonged, repeated frequently and realistic within the context of the game.”Secondly, the panel took issue with the zombies. The review board believes “there was insufficient delineation between the depiction of general zombie figures and the human figures, as opposed to the clearly fictional ‘infected’ characters. This was a major consideration of the Review Board in determining the impact of this game on minors.”The infected, of course, being the super-zombies that players can control in Versus.The upshot of this is that Australia will be getting a toned-down version of the game, instead. It’s better than no release at all, but still not exactly ideal.That’s if anyone buys it when it comes out on 17 November, of course, as there was that whole boycott episode. Still, those who do buy it early get some tasty pre-order treats.