Quantic Dream's serial-killer-suspense-meets-family-drama adventure title, Heavy Rain, received the official Joystiq Seal of Approval™, but how did our peers in the world of gaming journalism feel about the title? Let's see what some other critics had to say about the interactive romp through rainy Frenchadelphia:

• GamePro (5/5): "Put simply, Heavy Rain is a gaming experience that took huge risks in design, narrative, and game mechanics, and executed on its ideas to masterful effect. You will care, in the end, about the decisions you made to shape the fates of your characters, and wonder long after it's over if you made the right choices."
• 1UP (A-): "Though shorter than other epic, multi-disc titles, there's more than enough content in Heavy Rain to warrant a purchase. At the end of my first playthrough I was left utterly satisfied with the conclusion of the story and wanting more titles of this caliber."
• Eurogamer (9/10): "A thrilling mystery, cleverly composed, and unlike anything else you will play this year. It may also be the only game you play this year where pulling the trigger makes you really feel something, and I can think of no greater compliment."
• Giant Bomb (4/5): "Interactive storytelling might not yet be able to evoke the same degree of raw human emotion as more traditional art forms, but this is a big step in the right direction."

Time played: 4 hours

I was in for a surprise as I set out for The Secret Armory of General Knoxx with a level 50 character, because as beefy as I thought my Siren was, she couldn't stand up to what was waiting for me at T-Bone Junction and beyond. Basically, I died. All of the time. I went from having around four million dollars in my bank account down to under a million before I even gained my first level in the DLC -- the hefty cost of respawning in the wilds of Pandora. And that's what made this whole thing so odd.

The expansion -- which is intended to give you some more mileage out of your maxed-out characters by raising the level cap to 61 -- continues from the end of the Borderlands story, so playing it before finishing the game proper is not advised. I finished my second playthrough with a level 50 character, so to start this add-on and run into such a wall, such constantly merciless opposition, was pretty perplexing.

Continued →

Now, we know what you're thinking. "Oh, Rockstar's released a trailer featuring the female protagonists in Red Dead Redemption. We're guessing there's a scantily-clad burlesque dancer with a heart of gold, a scantily-clad cowgirl with a heart of gold and a fiery, scantily-clad revolutionista with a heart of gold." Well, you're awfully close -- just replace all three instances of "scantily-clad" with "completely badass," and you're a bit closer to the truth.

Check out the trailer above to see Red Dead Redemption's reasonably-dressed femme fatales spit some sass and shoot some dudes.

Alpha Protocol is ready to spy hard on May 28 and June 1 in Europe and North America, respectively, according to IGN. Spies in the land down under will get their chance to play the game on May 27.

Obsidian's RPG has been plagued by delays, shifting its launch from fall, to spring, to summer. Hopefully, this time Sega can make the game's latest release date -- or at least let us know in a reasonable amount of time if it's delayed, again.

Update: Sega has confirmed the June 1 release date for North America. All three versions -- PS3, Xbox 360 and PC -- will release on that day.

First: Sorry about the obvious gag. Second: It seems several players are having an issue with their copy of Heavy Rain not only seizing up but (in a few cases) corrupting their save data; you can read all the stories on the PlayStation forums. Info is limited at the moment, but a Sony rep in the thread suggested the stopgap of waiting at least five minutes before rebooting if a freeze occurs. The rep seemed hopeful that measure would enough to avoid save data corruption.

Heavy Rain is intense enough without having to worry about losing your save data at any moment. Here's hoping we have word of a fix soon.

[Thanks, Ryan S.]

PlayStation classic Grandia will make its way to the PSN this Thursday, February 25, at a price far less than what you'd pay for a new or used copy. For $10, North America can finally access the RPG that's been on the Japanese PSN since April 2009 -- and on the Sega Saturn since 1997.

Grandia stands out from other JRPGs with its exciting combat system, which was obviously in its infancy during the first installment. In fact, we've been waiting for another high-profile game to iterate Grandia's turn-based battle system for years. Y'all just wait, when Joystiq publishing is off the ground, we'll iterate the heck out of it.

We've gotten pretty into MAG here at Joystiq HQ, but it's had the unintended side effect of causing us all to get really excited about incredibly minute things in patch notes. Take for example the recently-detailed 1.03 patch for the game, due tomorrow. We know for a fact that at least one Joystiq staffer sent a co-worker an instant message reading "'Changed resuscitated player's camera orientation to match the last camera direction used while incapacitated instead of the pre-harm camera.' YES." See? Super nerdy.

Sure, there are some bigger, easier-to-understand balancing changes in there, too, but if you're a MAG fan, we imagine you'll be inclined as we are to ravenously dissect all the nuts and bolts.

While Nintendo threw a release date party in San Francisco today, Disney Interactive rev-ealed the scheduled arrival of Split/Second on May 18 to Joystiq in an email today. "The Split/Second release date is May 18 in the US and the name in the US is still Split/Second ... Split/Second: Velocity is only for Europe and will be released on May 21," the publisher clarified.

Now Gamer recently reported the UK release date exclusively alongside the reveal of a new moniker in the EU. Along with a more specific release date (previously known as "May 2010"), Disney sent along some new box art (as seen above). Unfortunately, we were told no new details are yet available on a demo for the upcoming Michael Bay-esque racer.

You ready? Okay -- follow along: Sony announced today that the Sony Computer Entertainment subsidiary will change its name to SNE Platform (or "SNEP"), and then transfer its video game operations to a new subsidiary, named -- surprise! -- Sony Computer Entertainment. On April 1, SNEP, which will be primarily operating Sony's network services and business as a wholly-owned subsidiary, will merge with Sony, and then promptly dissolve into the parent company. Since Sony already owns all shares of SNEP, there's not going to be any market action (issuance of new shares, share capital increases or cash payments) upon the merger.

So, wait, what's happening? Essentially, Sony is moving its network business out from under the gaming wing and bringing it up to the parent company level. This is a different path than the one laid out a year ago, which suggested SCE, as then operator of the network business (think: PSN), would begin to play a larger role in the unification of the company as it pertains to an online strategy. Instead, the "new" Sony Computer Entertainment will have a slightly more narrow focus, "mainly consisting of the planning, development, manufacturing and sales of home-use/portable game consoles and software," according to the reorganization announcement; and Sony Online Service, including the proposed expansion of PSN IDs to non-gaming Sony devices, will seemingly be handled by a new division (but possibly the same personnel) within the Sony parent company.

Though listed as the "Representative Director" of the short-lived SNEP subsidiary, Kaz Hirai will presumably remain in charge of the PlayStation division now and after the April 1 merger. Sub-divisions SCEA and SCEE are unaffected by the reorganziation.

There's a good chance that many of you were going to play through Yakuza 3 without messing with the hostess club segments or the Answer x Answer arcade quiz game. Now, it's a certainty.

"The content between Yakuza 3 US/UK and Yakuza JP is a little different in that we took out certain bits in order to bring the game to the west in the time alloted for us to do so," a Sega rep told IGN. "The parts we ended up taking out were parts that we felt wouldn't make sense (like a Japanese history quiz game) or wouldn't resonate as much (such as the concept of a hostess club)."

You may have gone on a karaoke date with Rina in the demo. In the original game, you meet her in a hostess club, and have to buy her gifts and learn about her in conversations. Now, we suppose, she'll just randomly call you like she did in the demo. Somehow, the dating won't be affected, as the Sega rep assured IGN that "the story experience was the same as the Japanese version."

Who can blame Sega for cutting some of the more culturally Japanese elements from this role-playing game about modern Japanese culture? After all, it must have been in a rush to release on the same day as Final Fantasy XIII.

Take-Two is starting an office in Japan to publish its games. Previously, Take-Two and Rockstar games have been published by partners like Capcom, Cyberfront and, most recently, D3 Publisher. It always seemed a bit weird to see a GTA game with a Capcom label, and now we'll be spared that minor cognitive dissonance.

The first game to be released under the new Japanese branch of Take-Two Interactive is Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City. The publisher has yet to offer a date for this Japanese release, or even specify if it will be on both PS3 and Xbox 360.

The bunny was already out of the velvet hat regarding Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse - Episode 1: The Penal Zone, but here's a twist: it's coming to the PS3, according to the ESRB. If true, this would be the first time Sam & Max bring their special style of police work to Sony's console. Oddly, no ratings for other consoles (nor PC) have been published on the ESRB's online database.

We're currently following up with developer Telltale and the ESRB for clarification on platforms. After all, nobody should be left out when it comes to the Sam & Max adventure games.

Update 2: The ESRB rating has been pulled. According to the ESRB, "The platforms listed on our site are those that have been identified to us by game publishers. As it turns out, this title has been removed from our website today at the request of the publisher, but will be reposted at a later date. Any question related to this title and what platforms it will be available on should go to its publisher."

Update: A Telltale rep tells us, "It's fine to say multi-platform, including PC and a selected console platform. And one might speculate on Mac too for this series, given our announcements at Macworld earlier this month. Real official news is expected very soon."

PlayStation Home has expanded quite a bit in 2009, with 50 spaces and over 100 games now available within Sony's virtual world. It has been a modest success, but perhaps it's fallen shy of the lofty expectations placed on it when it was initially unveiled at GDC nearly three years ago. Since then, Sony's online service has managed to cut advertising deals with Red Bull, the US Army and Fox -- but has Home been able to maintain interest?

According to a report by Brandweek, advertisers are largely ignoring PlayStation Home, opting to pursue opportunities on Xbox Live instead. Ad agency Publicis Denuo's John Rafferty told the site that "from moment one, it kind of felt clunky. And once you got through that, there wasn't much there." Regardless of the robotic nature of the service, the high cost of entry is proving to be a huge barrier against Home, with "labor-intensive six-figure deals" required to create content for the community.

Jack Buser, director of PlayStation Home, argues that it offers "a chance to cut through the noise and actively engage directly with a large, targeted, and highly desirable consumer base." However, it appears that advertisers that want to work with Sony are interested in pursuing a different relationship -- one with the PlayStation Network itself. "Sony is a little more conservative in embracing their system as an ad platform," the report notes. However, the addition of the What's New screen, and advertising on the PlayStation Store, show that the Sony team is adapting, slowly transforming the PS3 into a system that advertisers can genuinely pursue.

[Thanks, ugotmesij]