Australia isn't the only nation receiving a powercleaned version of Left 4 Dead 2. Germany, no doubt because of the killerspiele hysteria, has a similarly sanitized demo. But guess what, it also runs 40 percent faster.
PC Games Hardware benchmarked both the uncut Left 4 Dead 2 and the censored German demo using to a 60-second demo sequence from the second chapter of "The Parish." The sequence involves a ton of common infected as well as multiple Boomers and a Spitter. The setup: Radeon HD 5870 used to display the demo at 1680 by 1050 with maximum details, "4x MSAA and 16:1." I can't quote what that means exactly but "the setting is quite challenging for the CPU."
Here's what they found:
The direct comparison between cut an uncut version reveals huge differences in performance. It doesn't matter if we use a dual-core E6600 or quad-core Q6600 processor, the less violent version of the demo runs about 40 percent faster that the uncut version. Furthermore the difference between the two uncut results (dual-core vs. quad-core) is bigger, too, what indicates a higher CPU workload.
This isn't just a trivial difference, PC Games Hardware points out owners of the cut version may play on "uncut" servers. So, "a scene that lags in the uncut version might be running smoothly in the cut version - especially in Versus Mode this could make the difference between death and survival."
That said, someone with a full version may also reduce the depiction of violence through the game's command console.
Left 4 Dead 2: Unfair Performance Benefits with Cut Version? [PC Games Hardware via Blue's News]