It appears that Valve has submitted an edited version of Left 4 Dead 2 to the Australian Classification Board in order to get it a rating and then on store shelves on the already announced date of November 17.

The Board, which approves all the videogames that are released in the country, previously stated that the zombie shooter sequel would be refused a rating mainly because of the level of violence portrayed and to the similarity between the infected the player fights against in the game and real humans.

Now, Valve is hoping that further talks with the Classification Board might get the title released on time but it is also preparing for a fail safe option which will allow fans of Left 4 Dead in Australia to get a modified version of the content. It's not yet clear what changes Valve has made to the videogame in order to appease the censors.

Gabe Newell, who is the boss at Valve, stated that “Right now we're pursuing two tracks: the first track is to release the product that we've created as is in Australia. This is our very strong preference and what we're working with to see if we can achieve - so we have an appeal of their decision. The issue there is that that process is fairly slow and that the next step on that isn't going to occur until October 22. At that point I start to run into problems with getting through certification with Microsoft and then getting manufactured in time in order to make November 17.”

All these problems, which have also affected other titles, are related to the fact that videogames lack an MA – 15+ rating, which movies have, for example. This rating would allow very violent videogames to be released, albeit with some restrictions. We'll bring you news as the approval process completes.