As fans of the PlayStation Eye title will note, who have probably played the man who goes by the handle Havok, the layout of the wooden play area is aesthetically in-keeping with the game's logo. Throw a couple beverage holders on the side and you've got a retail ready product.

Good work and smart thinkin', Matt. Thanks for the tip.

Unfortunately, the west coast office has no access to a copy of The Eye of Judgment with which to test this out. It's actually I'm quite interested in pursuing, as I asked the game's North American producers just how they had planned to circumvent card copying and cheating at E3 earlier this year. They didn't seem the slightest bit concerned at the time.

Given that one of their revenue streams may be drying up, should guilt-free players opt not to drop $15 on theme packs or $4 on booster packs, we wonder how concerned they are now.

Thanks for the tip, macavity.

I'm PlayStation Eye-less at this point, but fully plan on cobbling together sexy performances of "Hungry Like The Wolf", saturated with comely air-clawing motions, when SingStar finally ships.

The Eye of Judgment (PS3)
Battle to the death with cards and a camera.

Zack & Wiki Quest for Barbaros' Treasure (Wii)
The great game with a terrible name!

Painkiller: Overdose (PC)
Once a mod, now a for real game.

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)
Ratchet and Clank return with another outrageous weapons arsenal.

Clive Barker's Jericho (PC, X360, PS3)
Control a team of psychic soldiers against legions of the undead.

Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation (X360)
Fighting planes are fun!

Mega Man ZX Advent (DS)
Mega Man returns!

Conan (X360, PS3)
The legendary barbarian graces the 360 with his twitching muscles.

Battlestar Galactica (X360, PC)
Downloadable game based on the uber popular TV series.

Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties (PC)
Age of Empires III spreads it's reach to the Asian Dynasties.

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)
All new revamped Castlevania action!

Like many of my peers and colleagues, the introduction of a tabletop card game built on the next-generation of the EyeToy for the PLAYSTATION 3 seemed like a stroke of genius. This blend of digital and real world visuals spawned memories of Chewie and Threepio playing the stop-motion animated space chess game that one whiles away time with on the Millennium Falcon. The Eye of Judgment was supposed to be fantasy meeting reality, with archers, demons, wizards and dozens of fantastical creatures solving whatever conflict they have with magic-filled violence on your kitchen table.

Unfortunately, The Eye of Judgment—admittedly, a very solid game at its core that might appeal very strongly to CCG fans—impressed upon me that it was a fantastic proof of concept that asks too much of the player in the name of selling some booster packs.

If you're not familiar with the concept of The Eye of Judgment, it involves pointing the PlayStation Eye at a cloth mat with a three by three grid. On this grid, you'll lay down physical cards. Thirty of those cards, as well as the camera, stand and mat are included in the base package (Sony reps did specify that there will be a package without the camera, for anyone who might have picked up one with Singstar). There will be 110 cards total, sold in random booster packs of 8.

The cards you'll place will perform actions like summoning warriors or casting spells with each card containing a number of attributes such as mana cost, elemental alignment, direction of attack, counter attack, potential blind spots and attack damage.

The object of the game is to control five of the nine squares on the grid. You'll take turns against the CPU or another human player laying down cards trying to dominate spots on the grid and attacking spots your opponent has already occupied.

The game's core elements are solid. There's little question about that. You'll have to strategically plan your moves based on the number of cards you have in your hand. Being a collectible card game newbie, it was a bit daunting at first, but the game's mechanics soon clicked.

What didn't resonate with me was the time and capital investment one will have to make simply to play a game that couldn't have been done—and done quite well—without the PlayStation Eye and card game gimmick. To play the game, one will have to set up the camera, align it with the mat, register your current deck by showing your cards to the camera (up to four at a time), then go through the currently slow process of laying down cards, waiting for the camera to read the card and watching the game's battle animations. These animations are currently somewhat lengthy and turning them off is not yet an option. They're pretty to look at but will soon become a chore to watch by veteran players. Interacting with the game's display—allowing you to hold monsters in your hand or flick already placed characters—felt like little more than a cool gimmick.

While The Eye of Judgment is a great concept, one that shows promise for the camera peripheral and thinks outside the bounds of traditional control schemes, it feels like a bear to play. There are some players who may be very interested in keeping a semi-permanent set up of their Judgment mats in place, as the peer-to-peer multiplayer may catch on with a niche crowd. Sony's development studio should be lauded for creating something genuinely interesting as a concept, but the game surely could have been accomplished using digital cards, even allowing for booster pack purchases via the PlayStation Store.

The game is scheduled for release this fall, so we'll soon now how well the concept clicks with PLAYSTATION 3 owners.

Last year, I remember seeing THE EYE OF JUDGMENT at either E3 or TGS. Didn't think much of it, because I didn't know exactly how game play worked. A couple new Gamespot vids have surface, clueing us in and providing phrases like:

I'll grind you into the ground!

Could've done without hearing that twenty times and the hair metal, but still. The tech is mighty impressed, and Sony better do everything possible to keep it the heck away from Nintendo and Pokémon. Just imagine the frenzy that would cause! So remember, loose lips, sink ships and more after the jump. Brian Ashcraft

JUDGMENT Game Play [PS3 Fanboy]

PLAYSTATION Eye enabled PS3 game THE EYE OF JUDGMENT has been dated "Fall" for Japan and apparently the rest of the world. Nothing more exact than that at the moment. The card-based game was demoed at last year's E3 and takes advantage of Sony's new HD "Eye Toy," dubbed the PLAYSTATION Eye. The camera has a frame rate of 120 fps and allows for low light operation, and there are four mics that include background audio suppression, making clear audio chat possible without the need of a headset. Actually curious to see how this game does. Brian Ashcraft

THE EYE OF JUDGMENT Dated [Famitsu]