A few years back, Wizards of the Coast tried a bold experiment in digital property. It offered virtual representations of its collectable cards along with a free digital client to play Magic: The Gathering over the Internet. Against all conventional wisdom of the time, it turned out to be a success. At GenCon 2007, one can witness the fallout of that. Just as video games are invading the tabletop space (through licensed products like the World of Warcraft board game), so too are collectible card games heading into the digital world. One of the most interesting of these new hybrid titles was available to play on the show floor, The Eye of Judgment for the PlayStation 3.
The game itself is built to use the PS3´s new PlayStation Eye camera. The camera hovers above a board with a 3x3 grid of squares on it. The board is then read into the PS3 by the camera and appears on-screen as a battleground consisting of nine squares, each representing a different type of elemental terrain. Each turn a player gets a supply of mana and uses it to place cards down on the grid where they are then read by the camera and translated onto the TV. Depending on what cards are played, players can then watch as beasts fight each other, giant wizard heads come roaring out of the board to cast spells and all sorts of magical pyrotechnics go off to show the progress of the battle. The victor is the one who manages to hold onto five squares.
The effect of watching one´s cards come to life is pretty cool. The game has an examination mode where players can just place cards under the camera and they´ll be placed on the screen. Players can then move their hands underneath the camera and when they intersect with the digital beast it´ll react logically based on where the movement is coming from. While this mode is supposed to be used to learn more about the card, many of the people at the show were just having fun putting dragons and goblins and little ´mechs on the screen and making them jump around. It´s a novelty, of course, but a pretty fun one.
The actual gameplay, of course, is what the developers hope will give the game staying power. To that end, the game is actually pretty fun. Assuming a player knows something about collectible card games, they´ll be about ten steps ahead of the game. Even if they don´t, though, the game is not that complicated. Creatures are defined by polarized elements (earth and wood, fire and water and mechanical). Placing a creature on a tile contrary to its element results in a big attack power reduction.
Each turn, a player may use his or her mana to summon creatures, change its facing, attack or cast a variety of spells that affect the game in some way. One spell, for example, will turn an earth square to wood, which was unfortunate for the player who had stone dwarves on it at the time. While fairly simplistic as such games go, the level of strategy can get pretty deep and watching these battles come to life can make a player feel more like a real wizard than any Magic: The Gathering Duel.
The real question, of course, is whether The Eye of Judgment can overcome the decidedly Muggle issues of cost and cheating. While no price has yet been set, the company demonstrators at the event said that the complete package probably wouldn´t cost more than a Guitar Hero game.
Of course, one doesn´t have to continually buy booster songs for Guitar Hero to remain competitive. After launch, booster packs of eight cards will be available for purchase at about $3-4. The success of the game might also be dependent on whether there´s a compelling reason to buy the Eye beyond this game. None of that, however, should detract from the fact that that however this experiment turns out, it sure looks like it´ll be fun while it lasts. The Eye of Judgment is scheduled for release in October.
http://ps3.gamespy.com/playstation-3/the-eye-of-judgment-working-title/813719p1.html
Je vais faire un bon bide avec mon gros paté de lettres tout en anglais, mais pour ceux que ca interresse y a aussi une vidéo sur le lien 
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