Unedited Left 4 Dead 2 banned in Australia

Australia's Classification Board remains keen on keeping the unedited version of Valve's survival horror shooter Left 4 Dead 2 out of the hands of the living. Today, the country's Classification Review Board unanimously agreed to refuse classification to the unedited version of Left 4 Dead 2. The appeal committee's decision upholds the software rating board's initial assessment from September and prevents the unedited version from being sold, advertised, or demonstrated in Australia.

In its decision, the three-member panel determined that the unedited version of 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." The review board took exception to the "insufficient delineation between the depiction of general zombie figures and the human figures, as opposed to the clearly fictional 'infected' characters," saying this point was central in its appraisal of how the game would affect minors.

Though the unedited version of Left 4 Dead 2 is effectively banned in Australia, gamers down under will still be able to purchase and play a heavily altered edition of the game. Shortly following Valve's initial appeal of the Australian rating board's decision in October, the organization granted an MA 15+ rating to a version of the game that did not contain "depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail, or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment."

Valve had not returned requests for comment on the review board's decision as of press time. Left 4 Dead 2 is scheduled for release on the Xbox 360 and PC on November 17. For more on the sequel to last year's acclaimed co-op-heavy first-person shooter, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.