Game: Eye of Judgment, The

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Eric Ridley — 2008-11-29T11:14:02+00:00

Ultra Rare Ouroboros Dragon card

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Eric Ridley — 2008-11-25T12:15:53+00:00

Sale display

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Eric Ridley — 2008-11-24T10:19:43+00:00

Booster box of Biolith Rebelion 3

Thread: Re: List of all attack patterns

fuldhim — 2008-11-22T21:15:20+00:00

Actually, item Q should be:

"Q: Attack both the field in front of and to the right of this creature. May damage your own creature."

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Eric Ridley — 2008-11-22T18:28:22+00:00

Biolith Rebelion 3 booster packs

Thread: Crush the computers session report

Eric Ridley — 2008-11-21T22:36:48+00:00

Eye of Judgment

This is a bit of an unusual session report for the Geek in so far as its a game report about a match against a computer.
The Eye of Judgment game can be played against another human (in your living room or over the internet) or against the Playstation 3. The PS3 is a tough opponent. It is no easy match even on just the 'Normal' difficulty setting. And this is exactly the setting you are going to read about just now.

I had been working on a deck (which i had modestly called 'Ultra Beatdown') for some time now. unfortunatly, since i am a bit of a rubbish board game player, I had lost 7 of my last 8 matches with it. But as I said the PS3 is a crafty opponent, so dont write me off just yet. This time my match was against a starter deck called Water Barrage.

The computer won the toss and got to play first. Personally this suits my playing style as I like to play second to get the first attack on an opponent on the feild. The PS3 started off with a Tritonan Ice Guard, placed on a water feild to boost his defence by 2. I played a 'Parmetic Holy Feast' to allow me to gain two extra mana so I had four straight off the bat. I played 'Dungeon of Ten Tyrants' a card that cannot attack on its own but it gives you 1 extra mana at the end of each turn. This was my set up for the match. The idea beind that after the first turn I would have a definite mana advantage each turn.

Sadly my Dungeon fortress mana farm was destroyed almost imediatley by what was the start of a relentless onslaught of mean cards that seemed to have every single one of my cards countered.
I had a card that would give every ally I had 'Perfect Dodge' if they were alligned the same as that card. So the computer would play the Elf Archeress who would shoot you and rotate the target 180 degree, thus negating the work I had done setting everyone of my cards up facing the same way. And so it continued.

The enveitable happened 35 turns later when I was destroyed again by the blasted PS3 and it's impecably programmed playing style. So it would seem that my play style leaves a lot to be desired and also that 'Ultra Beatdown' may have to be taken outside and shot.

Nevermind, at least my console will never get bored of beating me, like my freinds do.

Eric
Play Eye of Judgment, it rocks!

Thread: Re: The Eye of Judgment: Review

DJ Kuul A — 2008-10-03T16:34:56+00:00

I believe the console handles the shuffling -- it tells you which card you draw instead of the other way around.

Thread: Re: The Eye of Judgment: Review

Lou-Dawg — 2008-06-12T16:54:28+00:00

I don't mind the use of proxy cards, but how do you know that an online player isn't stacking their deck? I haven't played yet but I don't see why a cheater wouldn't just always use the cards they need at that time.

Thread: Re: No PS3 - What are my options?

wytefang — 2008-04-15T03:09:51+00:00

franklincobb wrote:
Pretty much any of the alternatives you listed is better than dropping that much money on a PS3.

You'd be better off buying a few cases of Dreamblade, an XBox 360, and Halo 3 and Bioshock for the same money.

The gimmick is neat, but not $500-700 neat.

Well considering that the PS3 is now available for $400 and you can get the Eye of Judgment for $65-70, it's much cheaper than you're suggesting.

Secondly, it nearly darn well is worth that much, imho. It's amazing and definitely something to be experienced. There is, simply put, nothing quite like it. The card game itself is actually quite good and in theory, could be played offline but it would require a bit more bookkeeping than many would prefer.

Highly, highly recommended.

Thread: Re: A game that will catch MtG players eye's

ducker — 2008-02-25T16:35:51+00:00

I wish I could comment on those other games, but I don't have any hands on experience with Culdcept and Dreamblade.

Thread: Re: Played my first games against the computer, very interesting

jonathan bruton — 2008-02-24T17:49:16+00:00

Often around on a Monday evening, "jonbruton" psn id. Really enjoy the game, played about twenty odd ranked games and a few friendlies. I am amazed at how many cards people have - often asked if I have one ottwo vards to complete someones collection. Still, the game is competitive on a budget.

Thread: Re: Played my first games against the computer, very interesting

Midian2000 — 2008-02-20T23:17:37+00:00

I might have to hit you up for a game or two soon, my friend. Just a starter myself...just building my first decks. "Midian2000" on PSN. Anyone else from here can hit me up for a game, as well.

Thread: Re: A game that will catch MtG players eye's

nelf21 — 2008-02-20T21:29:32+00:00

It sounds like a cross between Magic, Culdcept, and Dreamblade. Would you care to compare this game to those?

Thanks!

Thread: A game that will catch MtG players eye's

ducker — 2008-02-20T20:42:32+00:00

I've purchased this game for the PS3 a couple of months ago with the idea that I'd like it. I picked up my PS3 for the initial purpose of playing Blu-ray and DVD movies on a new TV. I do game, just not a lot of console gaming.

Being an avid Magic: the Gathering back in the day, this game caught my eye.

The idea that there are a lot of restrictions on how many of which cards you can put in to play provides a lot more structure to the game then one might think, where as initially with the first sets of MtG you saw many VERY powerful rare cards being stacked in people's decks.

In addition limiting the deck you build to only 30 cards puts a major restriction on how one can go about building a deck.

---

Game Play Setup: Construct a deck of 30 cards comprising of creatures and spells. There are 4 elements (fire, water, earth, wood) as well as Biolith (think machine) and then cards that are void of element (White Cubic)

As the board is structured with a balance of each element a deck really should be comprised of multiple colors. Why? Well, if the creature you place on the board is of the same type of element as the field you place them on, they will get a health bonus, as well as possible other effects.

You're limited by the following constraints. First, you gain (typically) only 2 mana on your turn. There are many cards that cost 3, 4 or even more mana to cast.
Second, you may only summon 1 creature a turn. So if you build a deck with 30 creatures you'll have quite a selection of cards to pick from, but you'll never be able to do any more on your turn then playing 1 creature. There are quite a few "spells" that can be quite an addition to a deck.

Objective to win: The objective is to control 5 (out of the 9) squares on the field. Alternatively, if your opponent runs out of cards before you do, you will win. Currently there are no means to force a player to discard cards directly from their library, but there are many ways to force a player to drop cards out of their hand.

Overall take/comments: There are multiple levels of rarity in their cards. Common, Un-Common, Rare, Ultra-Rare, and Phantom. And overall those cares that are on the rarer side of the spectrum tend to be a little bit more powerful there are quite a few limitations on those cards. Many of the Rare or higher cards are limited to only 1 in a single deck. (You can never have more then 3 of any specific card in your deck) In addition those rarer cards often have a higher casting cost. Which limits the playability of those cards.

A strong strategy and thinking ahead can provide even someone with limited cards a very good game against both the computer or other players. Although out on the internet using the PS3's PlayStation Network you'll find many opponents have decks that are comprised with very few common cards. Those players that have truly strong have decks that have a good combination of both.

There's a lot more information I didn't cover here, but I wanted to give some people an idea of what the game is like. I know it's a little vague but I'd be happy to explain more, or specific questions if anyone has any.

I'm ducker_3 on the PSN feel free to drop me an invite if you're looking for a quick game. I'd be happy to play you if I have the time.

Thread: Re: Played my first games against the computer, very interes

beri — 2008-02-07T18:51:29+00:00

Hey Mark, I'd love to play a round with you on PSN. I get intimidated by the hardcore CCG crowd, so some casual games would be lovely. My problem is that I currently don't have a PS3 - I go over to a friend's. And that friend is in the process of moving right now. But if I get one anytime soon, I'll let you know!

Thread: Played my first games against the computer, very interesting

magicmarcus — 2008-02-07T14:42:55+00:00

I finally got to play some games, and once I settled the camera settings so that they worked properly, I tried some battles with me using the preconstructed fire deck and the PS3 using the starter deck. I played on beginner level, and, even at that, it took me a few games to get competitive.

I can see why people are turning animations off for the serious online games, they do make the game last longer. They are pretty cool, though!

I can also see that I will have to play quite a few more games against the AI before I go online, and that I will have to try and make my own deck so that I don't get totally spanked!

If any BGG'rs want to play, once I actually venture online to try, I am "spielfreak" on PSN.

Cheers,

mark

Thread: List of all attack patterns

ducker — 2008-01-02T20:15:54+00:00

Here is a picture of all 17 attack patterns alphabetically labeled:

The dark red arrows indicate (along with the explosion) that an area is hit with an attack.
The pink arrows indicate that an area may be hit with an attack. (ie. as the controller of the creature, you determine which way to attack)

The yellow explosion is a physical attack
The purple is magical.

A: Attack any field on the board, but only one field.

B: Attack one field in any cardinal direction adjacent from the creature.

C: Attack the creature directly in front of this creature.

D: Attack both fields directly in front of your creature. Your own creature may be hit.

E: Attack the field in front of, and the fields to the side, of the creature. Your own creatures may be hit in.

F: Attack on field; either the one directly in front of the creature, or the one that is behind that field, if you attack over a creature you own, it will not get it.

G: Attack any field on the board and all fields adjacent to that field. Your own creatures will not be hit.

H: Attack all fields on the board. Your own creatures wont be hit

I: Attack any field in front of or to either side of your creature.

J: Attack any field on either side of your creature.

K: Attack both fields in front of and back of the creature. May hit your own creature.

L: Attack all fields in every cardinal direction of the creature. May hit your own creature.

M: Attack both the field in front of and to the left of your creature. Your own creature may be hit.

N: Attack the field two fields in front of this creature only.

O: Attack one field in any cardinal direction of the creature, no matter how far away it is.

P: Attack both the field to the right and to the left of this creature. May damage your own creature.

Q: Attack both the field in front of and to the left of this creature. May damage your own creature.

R: Attack either the field in front of your creature, or the one after that. If you choose the one after, the one in front will also be hit. Your own creature may be hit.

Thread: Cards for Trade

cbrua — 2007-12-22T18:30:54+00:00

If anyone is interested in trading cards, please contact me. I have several duplicates that I would like to trade for cards that I don't have. Cards I need:

016 - Crucifixion King Dios IV
023 - Tentacles of Possession
032 - Mercenary Saviour Latoo
034 - Imposter Queen Anfisa
050 - Arelai the Protector
051 - Black Hood Dwarf Vulitra
054 - Yellow Cubic
068 - Edin the Persecuted
069 - Inquisitor Koog
070 - Green Erlking Zomba
074 - Biolith Stinger
082 - Aegis Citadel
084 - Ouroboros Dragon
085 - Tino, Son of Scion
088 - Guardian Watchtower

Thanks!

--Chris

Thread: Re: The attack and defend pictures?

super... — 2007-12-20T22:40:03+00:00

yep

also ranged attackers like the elf archers only counter attack if they are hit from the square they can also target. also for those that attack multiple enemies their attacks are triggered by the presence of an enemy target, if thier is one enemy they will also hit allies.

Thread: Re: The attack and defend pictures?

Padachan — 2007-12-19T18:04:40+00:00

Thanks Tyler. I've read some more now and just want to check if I've got it right:

A yellow explosion means that it'll damage both enemies and allies. While a purple one would mean it just damages enemies, not your own.

Red arrows mean you attack in "all" the zones with a red arrow. While a pinkish arrow means you may choose this place instead of the red one.

Is this right?

Thread: Re: The attack and defend pictures?

super... — 2007-12-18T19:52:38+00:00

in the attack window a grayed out box means it can be selected as a target when it has at least one explosion. if their are multiple explosions and no grayed out boxes this means it must attack every box shown (even if your own guys are in it).

magic attacks can target anyone

god cards target all enemies as stated on their card.

Thread: The attack and defend pictures?

Padachan — 2007-12-18T18:26:53+00:00

I haven't had time to watch all the tutorial videos yet. Can anyone give a brief explanation of how the little pictures explaining attakc and defense work?

I've figured out this; please correct me if I'm wrong:
Attack box:
An arrow to a grey area means the target can attack in that direction.
A little explosion marker means the target will automaticly attack when played out if there's an enemy in the corresponding area. (??)

Is B "back" (taking extra dmg) or some sort of defense bonus?

Thanks in advance

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super... — 2007-12-11T07:55:03+00:00

the real-space game board (don't worry the spelling error has ben fixed) find the PDF here http://tylertinsley.com/2007/12/11/eye-of-judgment-printable...

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super... — 2007-12-11T07:52:58+00:00

this is an image of the real-space table top Kit in action. find it here http://tylertinsley.com/2007/12/11/eye-of-judgment-printable...

Thread: printable table top set PDF

super... — 2007-12-11T07:25:35+00:00

Here is a set of stuff i made to make a real table top version of the playsation game.

http://tylertinsley.com/2007/12/11/eye-of-judgment-printable...

This printable PDF has everything you need to play Eye of Judgment without the aid of a PS3. Just like the video game the field tiles flip to change element. The field tiles also have health meters so you can keep track of each monsters health without using handfulls of tokens. Tokens that keep track of the health are also colored to match each player so you will never be confused as to who’s card is who’s, Along with separate energy trackers and reversible dodge/invisible tokens this is a whole solution for playing eye of judgment when your power goes out.

Thread: Fun without expense?

flyinghogfish — 2007-11-28T09:48:34+00:00

One of the criticisms brought against this game (as with Magic the Gathering, etc.) is the cost of purchasing extra cards. [Choosing to ignore that you need a PS3 and a copy of the game, but I don't think anyone is likely to buy a PS3 just to play the game, anyway]

I've bought a few booster packs, and theme decks, I hold my hands up to that; there's always a thrill at finding a card you haven't seen before, or trying to figure out what your phantom card (the ultra-ultra-rare cards, which have no card information on them, for why I don't know) actually does.

I've spent a while customising decks, putting in the most powerful or rarest cards in order to gain an edge. After that, I've been beaten. Not always, I'm currently on a 1:1 win ratio, but I sometimes feel like I don't get the deck designing thing.

When I used to play Magic, I often felt that I was losing out to players with more cash = more cards, and it was their extra cards that were giving them the victories. [OK, so I'm not good at seeing my own part in designing/playing decks]

So, while trying to tweak my current non-too successful deck last night, I thought I'd try to construct a common card only deck - one that players will likely have most of the components for if they've bought a few boosters, or can pick up the extra cards without much expense.

I took out all my commons, lined them up, then went through the arduous process of picking the ones that might work together.

All of which is a long way round to say that I put a deck togther, went online and won a couple of games with it. Given that the first match was against someone ranking at 250-ish and I rank at 9,800+, and he had a 2:1 win ratio, I was quite impressed with myself. But was it a fluke? So I tried a couple more times and won both of those games too.

Which is also a long way round to say here's the common only deck I put together, I call it "Fool's Gold"...

[A few notes on strategy below]

Fool's Gold

3x Flame Magus
2x Hellfire Spitter
1x Feedonian Wanderer [thinking of swapping this out]
1x Partmole Fire Lizard
2x Flame Ascetic
1x Monk Elder of Okunada
2x Tritonan Harpoonsman
3x Aluhja Priestess
2x Venoan Assassin
2x Bewitching Elf Archeress
2x Biolith Bomber
1x Morning Star Warrior
1x Beguiling Fog
1x Yuga's Mesmerising Fog
2x Clare Wil's Banner [may put an extra one of these in]
2x Healing Shower
2x Fissures of Goghlie

I used three main strategies in designing and playing the deck...

1. Get your creatures out fast - your domination has to develop quickly, if the game gets to the later stages, the other player will likely be pulling out some nasty suprises, and your creatures are mostly low cost = low health.

2. It's the magic attacks that will get you the win - you've got six magic-attack creatures (the Flame Magi and Aluhja Priestesses) and they should be used to pick off creatures. This is where Clare Wil's Banner comes in, with a +3 to a creature to attack for the turn, you can do some serious damage.

3. Healing Shower is a fantastic card. Most of the creatures are Fire or Water based, s you could end up giving +3 health to a number at once. At one point, I had three fire creatures and two Healing Showers - that's three creatures with +6 health each - nice!

One of the benefits is that you'll rarely run out of mana, and if your opponent decides to drain your reserve, you've still got two points to play with in your turn, which is often plenty. I don't think I had a single turn when I wasn't able to play a creature onto the board, and I won one game when both I and the other player were in check (had four creatures on the board) and they were unable to play on their turn.

Maybe I'll bump into some of you online sometime, and you can see how the deck shapes up... I'm sure I'll still lose my fair share of games, but hey, it's only a game, right? Right? Anyone?..

Thread: Re: The Eye of Judgment: Review

beri — 2007-11-08T21:32:25+00:00

I appreciate the correction! I had meant to investigate the matter myself.

It's a nice feature that you can have the computer play with your deck. My friends who play UFS are always doing quick matches to test their decks against each other, so EoJ helps to automate that if friends aren't available.

Thread: Re: No PS3 - What are my options?

Neontek — 2007-11-06T03:17:54+00:00

If you got a PS3, this looks like a must have.

If you don't own a PS3 and wanna play collectible card games, I would suggest googling up a Legacy world champion's deck of Magic the gathering. Printing out the deck-list and learning the game using those cards. (You'll skip all the buy a precon, waste your money on boosters crap..)

Thread: "Horsie to pointy guy six" - EoJ: First impressions

mortenjohs — 2007-11-05T19:48:42+00:00

Being a big fan of games on both boards and consoles, I’ve been following closely the latest joint venture of Sony, Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast; The Eye of Judgment. This is basically a tactical card game that can be played using the PlayStation3 to help out with the book-keeping and spicing up the game with battle animations. The result looks very much like the chess-like game seen in Star Wars - parodied so brilliantly somewhere in Season 2 of Fururama. Anyway, here’s some initial impressions of the game.

Getting started with the game is not gratis; you need one of the many versions of the PlayStation3, a PlayStationEye camera, the Eye of Judgment software, a deck of 30 Eye of Judgment cards per player, a playing mat, a sufficiently big table with sufficient light. (The concept is nicely summed up in this Penny Arcade strip. Also worth a read is their impressions of the game here.) And voilà it sends you back to the early days of Magic: the Gathering. (At least me, since I’ve hardly toyed with CCGs since the big Magic-wave swept our high school lateish last century.)

The rules are accessible enough, but lots of stats and numbers makes one realise that this game was indeed designed with computer aid in mind - you can play without, but it would be a tiresome process. This is very interesting in a board gaming context - from board games being one of the main influences of earlyish computer games (Civilization et al.), via board games being heavily influenced by computer games mechanics (Puerto Rico et al.) to now also needing the aid of the computer to play.

Each turn you draw one card, receive two mana (colourless and cumulative), have the possibility to perform various actions (like turning or activating a creature) or casting spells before summoning a creature that attacks if possible. First one to occupy five of the nine squares, at the end of one’s turn, wins. That’s it.

You can play against the not too shabby AI of the game on various difficulty levels using different decks of cards. This is a very good way to get to know the rules and the basic tactics involved. (I would recommend just jumping into a game, after reading a couple of articles like this, and learn from there, rather than watching the horrible boring in-game training films.) There are also tools to help you to construct your own personalized decks, like the deck-builder and the fact that you can let the computer battle himself using different decks etc.

These decks can be registered as your “online decks” and thus be used to play online against other geeks. This I haven’t tried yet as I’ve only got the starter deck that came with the game bundle, and haven’t dared trying this against the fancy pants decks of the Internet. And here lies the big abers; do you want to invest the time and money it takes to create your perfect deck or is the game balanced enough that you can have fun with any OK deck if you play well? Why not just copying cards yourself instead of throwing money at booster packs to find the ultra rares? Is this cheating? (The only ones loosing on this seems to be trio behind the games(, and indirectly us if they don’t sell enough and cancel future expansion packs)…) The cards, along with certain restrictions on how many similar cards one can have in a deck etc., seems balanced enough to not really be inflicted by copyists, but who knows. I guess, for me, this will be a game to play with friends - on- or off-line…

There are other annoyances as well. Some weird implementation choices can be a bit bothersome. Like the fact that it can be difficult to distinguish landscape types while summoning creatures, whereas this is crucial to the well-being of the creatures… (I know, one can click the R1 to get more details, but this shouldn’t be necessary.) Let’s hope these minor quibbles can be patched away… Also the Eye is not perfect and needs correct lighting, (Still, when one has found this sweet spot, it behaves impressingly well!) and who on earth wrote the ghastly music?!

Also it’s not a game for everybody, I guess. Edge threw it a 4/10 note in their December issue, claiming: “The virtual interface does little to help players and, if anything, slows the game down as you wait for it to catch up with things that are already evident to players – such as victory, failure and boredom.” (Maybe they didn’t find the option to turn of the battle sequences? :-)) For me I think the fact that the computer is keeping track of the numbers and the rules is alone interesting enough to boot the PS3 to play the game - the fancy animations a nice bonus.

All in all I can recommend the game to all PS3 owners that are curious about newfangled ways to interact with a game or just interested in board games - and quite possible a glimpse into the future of board gaming?

(Originaly posted in my gglob.)

Thread: Re: The Eye of Judgment: Review

GI Joe — 2007-11-04T23:44:46+00:00

Great review! Spot on, and nicely covered.

Just a small correction: There is a CPU vs. CPU mode, and it can be quite entertaining watching the two computer players battle if you up the AI ratings and give them some of the unlocked pre-con decks.

Thread: Re: No PS3 - What are my options?

otaku — 2007-11-04T21:57:48+00:00

Thanks guys,
It's good to know it would be playable without a PS3 albeit fiddly. A shame as it does look pretty cool. I just have to win the lotto I suppose.
So if anyone can think of any alternative yet similar games other than those I already listed that would be great - Christmas is just around the corner after all

Thread: Re: The Eye of Judgment: Review

beri — 2007-11-03T08:03:48+00:00

I have one more thing to add to my review, too.
To use a Magic term, there's no 'colors' in Eye of Judgment. I mean, every card belongs to an element, but the elements just give you bonuses - they don't dictate your deck. It all comes from the same mana pool. Another example of limited-useful cards is UFS, where your cards have to share a resource symbol with your character.

Why is this good? Because it sucks to open a booster and draw a bunch of cards you're never gonna use. Back in my Magic days, I played White and Green, a little Red, never touched Black and Blue. So roughly 40% of the cards I owned were absolutely worthless. In Eye of Judgment, every card you own is potentially useful. Want to throw an expensive fire creature into your water-heavy deck? Go ahead. It really makes for a more satisfying game play experience. I think the EoJ boosters are slightly more expensive than other games ($3.99 MSRP for 8 cards, I believe), but I think you'll get more value out of a booster.

Thread: Re: The Eye of Judgment: Review

beri — 2007-11-02T21:28:23+00:00

Oh, that reminds me, my PSN or gamertag or whatever it is is 'bfiggins'. Bring it on!

Thread: Re: The Eye of Judgment: Review

beri — 2007-11-02T19:56:59+00:00

And as a note on how common cards can be great, I think 'Beguiling Fog' is the best dang card in the game. Rotate a creature any direction for 0 mana - it's like free mana if you want to rotate one of your own powerful creatures, or a huge tax on the opponent if you turn one of their guys the wrong way!

Thread: Re: The Eye of Judgment: Review

beri — 2007-11-02T19:53:41+00:00

StormKnight wrote:
Er, cheaters? A cheater is somebody who violates the rules of the game. Someone using a proxy card isn't cheating anymore than deciding to use a different marker for a Monopoly piece would be. The game doesn't change.

(Nice review though!)

I think by definition, they're 'cheating the system'. But eh, as seen above, I don't care.

Thread: Re: The Eye of Judgment: Review

StormKnight — 2007-11-02T16:34:30+00:00

Er, cheaters? A cheater is somebody who violates the rules of the game. Someone using a proxy card isn't cheating anymore than deciding to use a different marker for a Monopoly piece would be. The game doesn't change.

(Nice review though!)

Thread: Re: No PS3 - What are my options?

franklincobb — 2007-11-02T13:38:02+00:00

Pretty much any of the alternatives you listed is better than dropping that much money on a PS3.

You'd be better off buying a few cases of Dreamblade, an XBox 360, and Halo 3 and Bioshock for the same money.

The gimmick is neat, but not $500-700 neat.

Thread: Re: The Eye of Judgment: Review

crankin666 — 2007-11-02T13:34:55+00:00

I have to agree with you about the cheaters. You could have all the rare cards and phantom cards in the world but you still need to know how to use them and most of them take lots of mana. I played someone who had hudge rare and ultr-rare creatures but most of the time he was discarding them or he would play one and then I would be able to play two medium size creatures by the time he could get his mana up again. Cheaters do not matter in this tgame if you play smart.

Thread: Re: No PS3 - What are my options?

crankin666 — 2007-11-02T13:30:27+00:00

Just like the two before me commented on. It is totally feasable but the PS3 does all the calculations for you. Plus, if you get a phantom card it will be hard to know what it does unless you research it online and write it down. You would need an awfull lot of counters for this game if played without PS3. Good luck.

Thread: The Eye of Judgment: Review

beri — 2007-11-02T06:53:12+00:00

THE EYE OF JUDGMENT
Playstation 3, 2007

We’ve had card games based on video games (World of Warcraft) and video games based on card games (Magic: Duel of the Planeswalkers), but The Eye of Judgment is the first game to completely merge the two. It’s a fully-fleshed out CCG – booster packs, rarities, and everything. But with a Playstation 3, you can also scan your cards in with the Playstation Eye camera, and watch the creatures fight out on-screen.

I’ve had some time to play around with The Eye of Judgment now, so here’s my full review.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX
With the base set of The Eye of Judgment, you get the game software, the Playstation Eye, a cloth mat for the game and a stand that holds the camera at just the right angle. You also get one starter deck of 30 cards, and one booster deck of 8 cards.
Everything you need to play the game is here (except for the PS3), which is convenient – I think the game would be a more difficult sell if they were selling the Eye and the CCG separately. As it stands, a lot of people will at least be willing to give it a try, I think.
The obvious downside is that the game only comes with enough cards for one player (and barely enough for that). Do you want to rip into the game and take on your friends? You’ve got two options – divide your 38 cards so that each of you has 19 (the game won’t know the difference) or hunt down another $15 booster pack. Considering that playing against another person is a great way to enjoy the game, I find this a little short-sighted.

THE CCG
The core of The Eye of Judgment is the collectible card game. It’s backed by Wizards of the Coast, Hasbro, and Sony, so there’s definitely some big money going into making it good. And it really is quite enjoyable, with a huge depth of strategy.

The game is all about area control. There’s no avatar of the player, no life points to be worn away. A player wins when, at the end of any turn, they control five of the nine fields on the board. That’s it. Weak creatures or strong ones, you just need to get five of them down and keep them alive.

Creatures are obviously the heart of the game. Each one has a diagram showing where it can attack, where it can counterattack if attacked, and where its blind side is – where it takes extra damage if attacked. Position and direction are very important in the game, and even a weak creature can be devastating if placed where an opponent can’t effectively react to it. Also, when a creature is played on an element that matches their color, they gain +2 life – a crucial bonus that seems to favor playing multi-colored decks.

Besides creatures, event cards allow you to change the elements of the battlefield, rotate an enemy, gain extra mana, or do other interesting tricks. Generally, these are very powerful. For example, Beguiling Fog costs 0 mana, and lets you rotate a creature any direction you want. Rotate a strong warrior backwards, and you can render him unable to attack while exposing his vulnerable back. However, you have to remember that events aren’t creatures, and creatures are what win you the game. Balance is key.

I’ve found the CCG aspect extremely enjoyable. Positioning requires a lot of strategy, and you can often make up for a hand of bad cards by playing them well.

THE VIDEO GAME
As a video game, Eye of Judgment is a bit lackluster – it’s obviously just a part of the CCG. There’s no single-player campaign, and no way to earn virtual cards or such without actually buying cards. You can fight the computer (with a pretty good AI), but just one-off matches, good for testing a deck. The game is really designed to be played with other people, and it emphasizes that with a good 2-player and online mode.

I’ve done one online game thus far, and it was a real treat. Laying down cards and knowing that they’re appearing in front of someone across the country is great. The game is easy to set up and quick to find an opponent, although it may be difficult to judge just how capable your foe is. Still, if you treat every loss as a learning experience, you’re in for infinite hours of fun.

The game includes a few other neat tweaks, too. It comes with a deck builder program, which is convenient, but also essential for online play, since you have to register your deck before you can play online with it. I believe you can also have the computer play with a deck you’ve made, which might be good for deck testing purposes. I don’t think there’s a CPU vs. CPU mode, but that’s not a huge loss.

There’s also the Judgment mode, which is what was shown in a lot of early videos. It’s stupid. You lay out one or more creatures, and they appear on top of their cards. Press a button and the game tells you who is stronger. That’s it. However, that’s not to say Judgment is a total loss. It’s really cool to hold a card in your hand and watch a fortress erupt from it. You can tilt it around to look at different sides of the creature, pull it closer or further away, and the PS3 will keep track of it all. It’s really quite amazing.

You can do something similar in the information mode. You can load up your cards and learn what they mean, get the story behind them and a snippet of flavor text. It even shows you on a map where the creature or power comes from. This is really cool, although it seems wasted on a game with no single-player aspect. Still, backstory is always appreciated.

DO I NEED A PLAYSTATION 3?
Technically, no, you don’t. The game is completely playable just with the cards and a 3x3 play area. The PS3 makes the game very smooth, though, by automating all of the automatic decisions. You don’t need to worry about whether or not your character is in counterattack position, or if he has Dodge or Protection – the game will take care of it. (Although you should keep all that in mind if you want to play well!) However, there’s nothing special added by the PS3 – no minigames, no super-random effects – everything is on the card.

If you want to play without a PS3, you’re going to need a lot of counters. Damage to creatures is permanent, so you’ll need to keep track of their life, which can change depending on what element they’re played on. Tokens to keep track of your mana, too. And speaking of elements, you’ll need to mark the elemental nature of every space on the field – including the opposite side, since the element of a field can be flipped with the right card. Overall, though, it should make a pretty smooth game, even without the PS3.

The CCG is optimized for a video game, though. There are no ‘interrupt’ cards, no way to mess with an opponent on their turn. There are no standing effects – a maximum of nine cards will be on the field at any one time. (And that means that someone is about to win.) This gives it a somewhat simple ‘my turn, your turn’ kind of play style, but I don’t think that detracts from it. Rather, it forces you to play well and think ahead instead of trying to catch your opponent by surprise. Personally, I like it.

OVERALL
Eye of Judgment is a great CCG, and the PS3 aspect adds a lot to the game. It’s difficult to give it a full recommendation, because it’s very expensive – at least $100 if you want to pick up a few boosters to be competitive, and that’s assuming you’ve already got the PS3. Still, it’s a good value for the money. The PS3 is more than just a gimmick – I feel that it really helps enhance the gameplay.

If you have a friend with a PS3, convince two or three of your buds to chip in to buy the Eye. I think you’ll enjoy the game.

EXTRA NOTE: CHEATING
One particular hoopla about this game is the possibility of using fake cards. It’s as simple as finding a picture of a card online, and printing it out to use in online games. However, I don’t think it’s a huge problem.
First of all, this isn’t a new problem. I’m sure people have been copying Magic cards and playing with them since the game came out. If you really want to avoid cheaters online, you can use message boards to find honest players, and play with them online.
Second, even cheaters have to play by the rules. You can only have 3 of a card in your deck, and some cards have even further limits on their use. Mana is hard to come by, and even the most common cards are useful. It’s not like people are editing their cards to increase their stats – it’s the same card you could pull from a booster…they just didn’t pull it from a booster.

Thread: Re: The Eye of Judgement: Initial Impressions

beri — 2007-11-01T22:28:11+00:00

Yeah, I don't see how the copying thing is any different from before. You could always play a CCG with a pile of photocopied cards if you wanted.

Thread: Re: No PS3 - What are my options?

beri — 2007-11-01T22:27:14+00:00

Totally playable offline, but you'll want a pile of counters for health, possession of creatures, and mana. And you'll need to grab a screenshot or ask for the default configuration of the nine fields, and make cards to keep track of it.

I recommend you do what I'm doing - find someone with a PS3, and go in with them on the game. You can build your deck at home, and play against other people online.

Thread: Re: No PS3 - What are my options?

Zalasta — 2007-10-31T23:40:05+00:00

I read that offline EoJ is feasible, the only problem is that the PS3 does a lot of the bookkeeping for you, so it may bog down the gameplay if you do everything manually.

Thread: No PS3 - What are my options?

otaku — 2007-10-31T23:14:45+00:00

When I first caught wind of this game I thought wow! However, not having a PS3 I quickly did the sums - Did I want to spend $750 AUD (PS3 plus game) on a single game? Which doesn't even include money for boosters/theme decks. Sure a PS3 has plenty of other uses - other games, web surfing, playing Blue-ray disks (I don't own any), or even making animated features but is $750 worth it? - probably not.

One idea would be just to buy the cards and play it without the PS3 which I think is feasible (Can someone confirm this?) but obviously looses the appeal not seeing the "3D" image of your little beasties. So is the game good enough for this or does it have to have the animation? If it has to have the animation then it would probably wear a bit thin after a while.

So I started looking into similar games, and after search for fantasy card games at BGG came up with the following alternatives:

Bluemoon (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/9446)

As I own this I should probably drag it out again.

Dreamblade (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/22897)

I own this and it is probably the closest. Only trouble is I am yet to convince my wife to play and some of the more horrific figures don't help.

WrestAngel (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/20851)

Might be a contender

Masquerade (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/9108)

I found this during my search and although maybe not quite the same it looks interesting.

Hecatomb (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/17526)

Out of print but obtainable, relatively cheap, but again the horrific theme/pictures might make convincing the wife a tad hard.

Magic the Gathering CCG (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/463)

Another close contender but I could probably spend more than $750 on this based on posts here at BGG, not to mention trying to find the time to really get into it.

Conan CCG (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/23387)

Looks good but of course out of print now.

So does anyone else out there have any other suggestions/thoughts? Maybe I should have made this a geeklist for geekgold? With enough geekgold I might be able to trade for this game? Then again, maybe not ...

Thread: Re: The Eye of Judgement: Initial Impressions

crankin666 — 2007-10-31T16:16:13+00:00

I beleive this is a wonderfull game. As far as printing the cards go, I beleive the true collectors out there will still by boosters for their collection. Hey, look for me online or send me a friend e-mail from the PS3 and we will play. Natas666

I have a lot of cards and two of the ultra ultra rare phantom cards. I reccommend the phantom cards. I was told that there will be an expansion in Feb and then another later in '08. I can't wait.

Thread: Re: The Eye of Judgement: Initial Impressions

flyinghogfish — 2007-10-31T07:12:29+00:00

Nice review!

You can turn the battle animations off when setting up for a game, one of the options when setting up the board says "Battle Animations Off", and clicking this will avoid them. That said, I've been playing a few games a night since it came out and I haven't (personally) become tired of them yet. Especially amused by the Novogus Catapult where the little skeleton runs round the back to cut the rope.

I wouldn't think that anyone without a PS3 would buy all the kit to play this, however, if you have a PS3 or are going to buy one anyway, it's a good buy IMHO. As with MTG, extra cards purchased mean extra options, but I think there's still a role for knowing the cards you have and how best to play them. I picked up a few boosters and a couple of the pre-constructed decks, but so far I've mostly played with either the Starter deck that comes with the game, or one of the pre-constructed decks. No doubt I'll start tinkering at some point, but I'm still getting to know those two decks.

Thread: The Eye of Judgement: Initial Impressions

deltagreen451 — 2007-10-31T04:56:40+00:00

I picked up a copy of the game bundled with the new eye-toy and stand, together with a pack of the starter deck and one booster deck yesterday and promptly got home to give it a spin for about three hours and came away with the following impressions:

Parts:
Quality wise, the cloth board and plastic stand felt a little flimsy, but did it's job well enough in holding the eye-toy securely.

The cloth board was clearly printed, but fold-lines were quite evident. However, the lines did not cause any problems to the system during play. Using some light objects to hold down the board at the corners would be a good idea, but not necessary unless playing in a windy area.

The cards are well-printed, as to be expected with the large WotC logo printed on the back of the box. The starter deck comes with a standard 30-card deck, as well as four function cards (End Turn, Check Status, Action and Cancel cards) to "tell" the PS3 your intentions.

Game Play:

Set-up basically includes putting the eye-toy stand together, plugging the eye-toy into the PS3, unfolding the cloth board, and getting your 30-card deck out and shuffled.

Game play is slick, and the "enhanced reality" aspect really adds a large novelty factor in being able to see the effects of your spells and summons, as well as the actual battling, but I can foresee this getting stale after a while.

There are a few modes to play in, but I limited my play to playing against the computer with a standard deck to get a feel of the game.

The phases of the turn is quite simple: Draw card, add 2 mana to your mana pool, conduct actions or cast spells, and finally summon one creature, in that order.

The key, as far as I could see, was mana management and the "actions" phase, as summoning a creature generally signals the end of your turn. Mana in this game is a limited and valuable resource ~ with only two mana points generated every turn, with an additional point of mana every time one of your own creatures are killed during your opponent's turn.

Mana is required for casting spells, summoning creatures and most importantly, activating already summoned creatures to attack or use their abilities, and even playing with low-cost creatures and spells, one finds that the mana pool runs out alarmingly quickly.

A additional note about the playing-field ~ the game takes place on a 3x3 square grid, with the objective of gaining control of five of the squares (a majority) using summoned creatures to win. Each square (less the centre) will have an affinity with an element (Fire, Water, Earth and Wood) which gives bonuses and penalties to creatures of the same or opposing affinities respectively. This is usually manifested with a +2 or -2 to hitpoints as mentioned. The centre square is affiliated to the Biolith element, and grants no bonus, even to Biolith affiliated creatures.

Creatures will battle one another when activated (usually at a cost of mana, indicated on it's card), and there usually is a "free" attack when the creature is initially summoned. Damage dealt to creatures stay with them, unless healed, and so cumulative damage will bring creatures down, over time.

Creature placement and facing is also important, as the direction of attacks is limited in many of the more common and weaker creatures. This gives the game a feel more akin to war games and some board games.

Pros:
For the lonely gamer with a PS3 and an internet connection, this is a god-send. Games are relatively quick and visually pleasing, and the Wild, Wild, Web can potentially offer thousands of players to choose from.

The ability to set a time limit of a player's turn can speed up game play ~ run out of time, and you turn is over, buddy. While not really significant, it really brings a warm fuzzy glow in my heart when I recall playing against some rather irritating sand-baggers when playing M:TG a long time ago.

The colourful visuals and interactivity is a huge draw, especially for the younger and tech-savy generation, and might just be the platform to gently bring them from console gaming to "real" board-gaming

Cons:
Technically, the game can be played without the PS3 between two people, much like the "normal" CCGs that we are familiar with. However, I can foresee that this would likely involve a lot of book-keeping which the PS3 system currently automates, leading to very cumbersome game-play. Also, there will be a need for players to agree on the placement of elemental affiliations of the various squares which are also generated by the Ps3.

The issue about being able to print additional cards with a good scan and good quality colour printer has been mentioned else where, so I shall not dwell upon it, but will leave that to the companies to decide how to best deal with it.

After a few hours of watching pretty much the same animations again and again when the same spells and creatures were summoned and battled each other, I started to get fidgety ~ the graphics are very nice, but by now I know what a Elven Beserker Maiden/Flame Magus/Hellfire Spitter etc looks like, so can we get on with the results of the battle?!? There probably is a way to skip the animation, but I haven't figured it out yet.

Conclusion:
All in all, a pretty package of a game, with rather interesting "bells and whistles". The game balance is yet to be seen as deck construction and strategies are still in the formation at this early stage. However, as a way to get more casual gamers interested in the hobby, I'd have to say that this is both a success and a failure ~ a success in that it's graphics and animation will surely interest people, but the high price of buying a PS3, game and eye-toy might just put the casual gamer who don't own the system in the first place, off.

Final Verdict:

Thread: Re: Is it possible to turn off the music ?

kryth — 2007-10-31T01:35:07+00:00

You can adjust the sound of the music to none. That will effectively turn the music off.

Thread: Is it possible to turn off the music ?

jorgkuck — 2007-10-29T07:22:53+00:00

The game features some heavy metal music which, if I had to listen to it all the time, would just drive me nuts.

Is there a way (like in the game options menu) to turn off the music but keep the cool sound effects and speech ?

Can somebody who owns the game please confirm this?

Image

laiernie — 2007-09-29T00:55:11+00:00

an animated attack - demo at digital life '07 - nyc

Image

laiernie — 2007-09-29T00:54:22+00:00

demo at digital life '07 - nyc

Image

laiernie — 2007-09-28T13:54:36+00:00

biolith bomber promo card

Image

laiernie — 2007-09-28T13:53:54+00:00

card back

Thread: Re: History

Stinkinmushroom — 2007-09-03T02:10:04+00:00

euhm.. lol

Thread: Re: Gen Con

Stinkinmushroom — 2007-08-31T01:03:14+00:00

There are many options in the game so that you can skip the videos to play faster, they thought about almost every possible option that this game could have. Apparently it's really addictive and cool to play. One of the 'surprises' at the last Game convention in Leipzig. Can't wait to play it myself

Thread: Re: Gen Con

riledguy — 2007-08-30T22:04:25+00:00

Very interesting idea. Not sure if it is really going to improve things. I could see it just slowing down a CCG rather then really adding to it. It does look super nifty from a technical standpoint though. Who knows... maybe this is the future.. maybe not... either way a very cool idea and I hope it does well enough to warrent the makers attmpt as something new.

The guy doing the voice over was a bit painful to hear. Not saying he is not a nice and or bright guy... but next time he might want to find someone with a bit more charisma and or interest in the product to describe it. Heck even if they don't care about the product if they can at least feign interest in the product then it would be an improvement.

Thread: History

Neontek — 2007-08-30T15:11:19+00:00

I'm not sure it caused the creation of this game, but I sent a mail requesting Playstation to develop a CCG in early 2004.

Here's some screenshots I still have from that period.
Image57 is the mail itself, image58 is the answer Playstation sent me;

and

Thread: Gen Con

Neontek — 2007-08-30T15:03:08+00:00

TCGplayer.com previews the upcoming release The Eye of Judgment, a TCG from Sony Online Entertainment.

Youtube Video

Thread: Re: Demonstration

Neontek — 2007-08-30T14:43:14+00:00

More footage of Sony's innovative card battler as the developer shows the different strategies players can use. (part3)

Youtube Video

Thread: Re: Demonstration

Neontek — 2007-08-30T14:42:04+00:00

Eye of Judgement - Developer Walkthrough Pt. 2

Youtube Video