After Left 4 Dead 2 was essentially banned in Australia following the country's Office of Film and Literature Classification refusal to assign the game a rating last month, Valve was no doubt left scrambling to come up with a solution. While the game's developer is undoubtedly hoping that its appeal will be met with a reasonable and level-headed response, an edited version of the game more likely to pass the OFLC's stringent guidelines has been created and submitted for approval. The hope is that even if the original is not approved, Australians won't be faced with a delay and the game will be able to make it out -- in one form or another -- on the game's planned release date.

The news comes by way of Valve head Gabe Newell (via AusGamers), who was in Australia meeting with a local modder who, with the help of an online community, managed to raise enough money to fly Newell out to see his work.

Should the original version of L4D2 be approved after the edited version is released, Newell promises that a free update will be released for the PC version of the game adding in the edited content. Owners of the Xbox 360 version of the game might not be so lucky due to the more complicated policies of releasing content for a console game.

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Microsoft announced five games that are being added to their Platinum Hits line today, and the list includes some heavy hitters for cheap if you haven't tried them already. The titles included are Grand Theft Auto 4, Street Fighter 4, Left 4 Dead, Saints Row 2, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Each game will receive a Platinum Hits box and be priced at $19.99 when those copies reach stores.

Microsoft also teases that some retailers will be offering a buy-2, get-1 free promotion alongside the release of the new titles. Potentially, you could fill three gaps in your gaming curriculum for less than the cost of one regular-priced Xbox 360 game.

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Not planning on picking up Left 4 Dead 2? Valve is spending $25 million to try and make sure that you do. That's how much they'll be spending on the ad campaign for the upcoming sequel, which is due in November.

"We'll be supporting Left 4 Dead 2's launch with a $25 million campaign," said Valve vice president of marketing Doug Lombardi.

"Left 4 Dead 2 has already set the record for greatest number of pre-orders in our company's history, and we're still over a month out from shipping."

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Unless you live in Australia, you may not have heard that Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification recently refused to assign a rating to Left 4 Dead 2. By doing this, the game has essentially been banned down under -- although it's not as if the game is simply too violent for an adults-only type rating. The highest rating the OFLC can hand out is a 15+ and, unfortunately, they decided the "unrelenting violence," "graphic depictions of blood and gore," and "frequent and intense depictions of violence" in L4D2 wasn't appropriate for 15 year olds. According to the OFLC's report, a minority wanted the game to be issued the same rating that the original Left 4 Dead received, "an MA 15+ classification with the customer advice of strong violence."

Now Valve has appealed the OFLC's decision to not assign the game a rating, Shacknews reports. An appeal was made on September 23, and with the game set to release on November 17, it shouldn't be too long before we hear a response.

Tiffany Steckler, a spokesperson for publisher EA, spoke with GameSpot Australia (via GamePolitics) and expressed the company's outrage over the OFLC's decision. "It?s funny that a place like Australia, which has come up with some pretty violent material in the past with something like Mad Max, can effectively ban video games for the same reason," she said. "EA believes that adults should have the right to make their own choices when it comes to the content they consume."

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