Finally, some interesting news about The Eye of Judgment (EOJ), the trading-card-camera-battle-mat game coming soon – yep, soon! – from Sony. Here’s what Sony had to say.
First off, they give us an English lesson. Us! An English lesson! Tsk! That’s like us trying to give the Americans a baseball lesson! Nah, just yanking your chain guys – the lesson is that the game is called The Eye of Judgment, and not The Eye of Judgement. Ok?
The all important question of pricing has been answered too. Check this out.
. $69.99 for the game, which includes
. THE EYE OF JUDGMENT software (disc case, manual, Blu-ray disc)
. PLAYSTATION Eye camera
. Judgment (camera) stand
. 9 Fields Battle Mat
. 1 Starter deck (includes 30 Summoning Cards + 4 Function Cards)
. 1 Booster pack (includes 8 randomly inserted Summoning Cards with one guaranteed to be rare or ultra rare)
More summoning cards will be available in the form of Booster Packs and pre-constructed Theme Decks, available by Wizards of the Coast.
. Booster Pack: $3.75
. Pre-constructed Theme Deck: $14.99 (Five different Theme Decks available. Each fully playable and include a bonus Summoner’s Companion book with background, play tips and card lists)
Spelling – check.
Price – check.
Release – …
The game will be released on 23/10/2007 in North America, apparently syncing with a global launch by the end of October. Once that happens, you’ll be able to battle players from around the world via the PSN.
Expansion packs will be available to keep the game fresh and introduce new strategies. Each new pack will consist of more powerful creatures and spells to help further EOJ’s longevity.
One of the major concerns expressed about the game has been the ability for players to cheat when playing online. Sony say:
The most popular question we’ve heard revolves around online cheating. Mainly, “What’s going to prevent players from ‘stacking the deck’ when playing online?” – meaning, cheating your card draw so you get your best cards from the start. Fortunately, THE EYE OF JUDGMENT introduces a new paradigm in drawing cards when playing against your opponents online. First, you’ll have to register and save your Summoning Deck, offline. Then, when logged on, you select the Summoning Deck you wish to play. Once paired up with your opponent, the PS3 will automatically shuffle and randomly pull your cards for you. Once these cards are selected, you must pull these cards from your ‘physical’ deck and draw them to your hand and play the Summoning Cards on the Battle Mat, as normal.
All the info can be found on the Official Blog, along with a link to a video showing how the game works.
This level of originality and polish is something Sony were famous for on PS2 and are now continuing with PS3. So, it’s one in the eye for their competitors, but will it be as successful as EyeToy and SingStar?
You be the judg.