Puzzle Quest: Galactrix Previews

IGN and GameSpy have both cranked out their own previews of Galactrix, Infinite Interactive's sci-fi followup to last year's Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. An excerpt from IGN's article:
Instead of choosing a character from several different classes at the start of the game, there is just one character who can then be customized throughout the game. Battles are fought between the player's ship and the enemy's. Instead of spells, there are special attacks at your disposal once you've built up your ship's energy. Red, yellow, and green tiles are used to build up your energy reserves (much like mana in PQ) and can be spent to engage in defensive maneuvers or powerful attacks.

And an excerpt from GameSpy's article:
Damage icons now come in one-, three-, and five-point varieties, with their sum being the damage which you do. Damage comes off of shields before hit points, and blue gems restore shield points as well. This seems like another nod towards casual friendliness in the form of increased survivability, although it also adds another level of depth to the prioritizing of gem collection. Purple gems give you "Psi" points, which function a lot like experience points. In theory, they'll have an impact on your quest options as well. Silver gems are for intelligence, which grants you more bits of info as you move around the game's overmap.

I should also mention that there's a new video interview with lead designer Steve Fawkner at GameSpot, as well.