Galak-Z had a nicely busy booth on the PAX East show floor, but thankfully not too busy to get a good couple rounds of playtime in.  After diving into a few missions, trading firepower with the enemies in its dark caverns, and dodging the flora and fauna that line the walls, Galak-Z revealed itself to be a zippy and fun free-scrolling shooter with an irresistible 80s anime vibe.  Dodging firepower while trying not to pinball off the walls, locking on enemies for a burst of explosive missile destruction, and carefully navigating to scope out an encounter before letting loose with the lasers when the radar popped up an enemy alert made for a good round of shooting, and the knowledge that perma-death was waiting to pounce on any carelessness added its usual pleasant tension.

The basic structure of Galak-Z is of an 80s anime, complete with cocky speed-suited hero in a fighter that owes more than a little design heritage to the original Battlestar Galactica.  The PAX East demo had a selection of three missions, and like the full game these had randomly-generated maps created from a number of pre-built areas, with enemy population and layout determined by level difficulty.  The player ship’s direction is controlled with the left stick while a trigger gives thrust, and inertia lets you thrust and then turn for strafing.  When careful maneuvering fails you can hit the juke button, which briefly flies the ship to safety above the Z-plane to dodge incoming fire.  For heavy damage you can let loose the missiles, holding down the lock-on button to shoot out a red scanning cone from the ship’s nose and letting go to release a homing barrage that isn’t quite so excessive as something out of Bangai-o but still nicely effective.  Enemies are smart enough to dodge, though, with AI that won’t sit there and let you pound on them.  Once you’ve completed the laser-dance with enemies, hopefully outgunning and out-dodging them until all that’s left is a pile of scrap, you can fly through their remains to hoover up what look like leftover Lego pieces to spend either back at base (if you survive the mission) or at a shop hidden in a side-cavern somewhere in the level.  The basic gun can be leveled up, or you can change the gun style to shotgun, upgrade health and armor, increase the missile stock, and probably a few other things that my too-brief play time on the show floor didn’t find.

The other aspect I was unable to explore was story.  The mission briefings were pretty simple, of the “go here and collect this” variety, but once you select one you can visit different rooms in the station that, presumably, will have people to talk to or other functions.  Galak-Z is due this fall, which is a date 17-Bit admits is set in stone due to Reasons, but there’s plenty of time to fill in the missing bits between now and then.  In the meantime there’s nothing to do but wait and anticipate, and maybe watch as much cheesy 80s anime as possible in preparation.

The Insurgent Pack is the first expansion pack for Killzone: Shadow Fall.  The multiplayer add-on adds a new class, weapons and other goodies to the game’s multiplayer suite.  For $9.99, does The Insurgent Pack add enough worthwhile content to justify the price?

Guerrilla Games has taken a very different approach from other developers when it comes to DLC.  Rather than forcing players to pay for maps that range widely in quality, Guerrilla Games has opted to use its DLC to add new ways to play the game.  This manifests in Insurgents as a new class: the Insurgent.

Playing as the Insurgent is much different than playing as any of the other classes.  The Insurgent starts each match with only a pistol.  No primary weapons, no abilities.  This isn’t a problem as the Insurgent has its own tricks up its sleeves.  The Insurgent is equipped with a special steal ability that allows them to pick up any weapon and ability in the game.  All stolen weapons and abilities are retained after death.  A hacking ability allows them to turn enemy ground automata to their sides.

The Insurgent does have weaknesses.  The use of stolen weapons and abilities is limited.  Ammo for the stolen weapon does not replenish upon respawn.  What you pick up is what you get, unless you find some more ammo on the ground.  Abilities can only be used a certain amount of times before they disappear.  Having these weaknesses is a fair and balanced approach to keep the Insurgents from becoming overpowered.

Coming with the expansion pack are three new weapons; the M82, StA-14 and the LS12 SMG Pistol.  All three weapons are returning favorites from previous Killzone games, and they still pack a punch.  I felt some nostalgia using the weapons.  It’s cool having these older weapons back in the game.

There are new abilities to try out, and some new personalization options. On top of this are seven brand new trophies to collect, and the only way to get them is to get this DLC.

Killzone: Shadow Fall – The Insurgent Pack adds a good amount of content, but whether it’s worthwhile really depends on how you want to play.  Some might find it frustrating to only start out with a pistol.  Others will enjoy the freedom of getting to pick up different weapons and abilities fallen enemies drop.  It all comes down to whether or not you’re really in love with the current classes, and if you want something new to freshen up your Killzone: Shadow Fall multiplayer experience.

What this DLC won’t do is bring people back to Killzone: Shadow Fall’s multiplayer.  The new class is nice, but The Insurgent Pack doesn’t really add anything game-changing.  If you’ve already moved on to a different game then there isn’t anything for you here.

Buy The Insurgent Pack if you’re still a big fan of Killzone: Shadow Fall’s multiplayer and want something fresh.  If the game has sunk its teeth into you, but you feel it needs some more content, then you’ll find the Insurgent class to be something right up your alley.

The Toronto-based studio that has brought us award winning titles such as Guacamelee!and Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack, is creating yet another new property. TitledSevered, other than the visual art style, this is very different from what the developer is known for, using touch-based gestures as a means of interaction. We were able to sit down with designer Chris McQuinn to get a better understanding of the mechanics and their general vision.

The development of Severed is still very much in its early stages. DrinkBox Studios still hasn’t finalized the release platforms, with what they showed and announced at PAX being early prototype footage. It was stated that iOS, Android, Vita and possibly 3DS versions would make sense, but nothing is set in stone just yet. This is a touch-based gesture game where the player will face off against various monstrous creatures in a one-on-one fight. There is the possibility that this system will transition over to Kinect or Move like instruments, using motion gestures as actions, but being so early on in creation, the team is focused on working with touch controls first.

There’s not a lot of story revealed, unfortunately. A young woman wakes up in a dream-like (or possibly nightmare) world and has to survive the ugly events. The world itself is non-linear, meaning that while there is a pathway to a definitive conclusion, it’s up to the player to decide where to go first. It was compared to Mega Man, going from stage to stage and fighting various unique enemies. The difference here is that instead of stages, you are going through different rooms. Once inside a room, players will be able to swipe in a 360 degree radius and strategically choose which monsters they want to fight in which order.

While the developer is mainly known for their platformers, Severed is more of a light RPG. There is no inventory system, but the heroine will obtain new spells and better armor, reflected through the visual aesthetic, throughout the campaign. Infinity Blade was a significant influence, but they wanted to have something a little deeper, merging it with a more Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out! style of combat. Here, in a first person perspective, the player will need to take advantage of an enemy’s hidden weaknesses, while maintaining their ability to avoid damage.

Another intriguing aspect to Severed is its music. While details are still sketchy, Chris did mention that they are working with various artists in the Toronto area, specifically the recent Juno-nominated Yamantaka // Sonic Team. There seems to be a good collaboration between the two as DrinkBox is drawing some of its art around the music they’re producing, and Yamantaka is doing the same around scenarios that are written up. Because of the rather unsettling setting Severed takes place in, it’s a goal for them to find “eerie-unique sounds” that resonate with the events around the young woman, and you can tell just based on the announcement trailer that they hit the nail on the head.

DrinkBox Studios continues to innovate in their respective space, offering up unparalleled experiences that does the gaming world proud. While Severed is still in the early stages of development, DrinkBox is hopeful they’ll be able to release the game sometime in first half of next year. What platforms it will appear on is still up in the air, but this is definitely one we can’t wait to see more of.

Arc System Works, the developers of BlazBlue and Guilty Gear, has launched a new website teasing the announcement of a brand new title in about a week’s time on April 23, 2014.

The teaser site shows artwork for what may be the main protagonist, an alluring female character armed with an extravagant sword. She doesn’t look too dissimilar to your typical Guilty Gear character design, however. The site also contains the abbreviation “BRCS,” hinting the title of the game itself (which will end up being a long one, evidently).

Also on the site is the following message:

“She who fights with monsters might take care lest she thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”

A new Arc System Works project can only be a good thing. We’ll keep you posted as the story develops, and you can monitor the teaser site yourself in the meantime.