Joystiq [PlayStation]

A couple of weeks ago, we helped unveil the first look at the upcoming expansion for Eye of Judgment, Biolith Rebellion 2. Since then, Sony has been slowly unveiling more and more juicy details about the new cards on their official blog. Today, we are happy to present an interview with the creator of Eye of Judgment, Yusuke Watanabe.

How did you originally come up with the idea for The Eye of Judgment? Was it always planned as a PS3 game?
The trigger was a demo of the CyberCode's image recognition technology, originally developed for use on PC. We transplanted CyberCode to PlayStation format so I could share my surprise with as many users as possible. We worked with CyberCode based on the technical information of PlayStation 3 that, at the time, had just started becoming open, and based on the findings, we found that PS3 was the best console to maximize the potential and appeal of The Eye of Judgment in terms of the specifications.

Has Sony thought about releasing a higher quality gameboard? The fabric one is nice but is lacking for people who play on the ground or uneven surfaces.
Through a trial and error process using many kinds of materials, the fabric material was the only mat that cleared our standards for endurance, storability, design, and cost. However, we are very interested in creating a high quality luxury mat or board to encourage heated matches.

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If there is one genre that has really flourished on the PSP, it would be rhythm games. Titles like Lumines, beats, Parappa the Rapper, and Gitaroo Man have made Sony's handheld a must-have for any fans of the rhythm genre. And while all those games were fantastic titles, Pyramid's most recent PSP title, Patapon, manages to blows them all away with some of the most unique rhythm-based gameplay you'll ever experience.

Combining gameplay from a wide swath of genres, developers Pyramid managed to create a game that is part rhythm-based, part RPG, and part RTS. It's not always easy for developers to successfully combine genres to create a greater whole, but Pyramid absolutely nailed it with Patapon. The resulting gameplay makes Patapon one of the most unique titles to come along in years, on any system -- not just the PSP.

You play the roll of a long missing deity to a tribe of big-eyed warriors, called Patapons, who have been banished from their land and have lost the will to fight. In order to help the Patapons regain their former glory and achieve their final hope of seeing the mysterious 'it' at the end of the world, they need you and your mighty war drums to whip them into shape and get them motivated for some serious combat.

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This spring, Sony and Wizards of the Coast will be releasing the first expansion to their augmented reality/CCG experiment phenomenon, Eye of Judgment, and we have the very first look at one of the cards from the new set. Not only that, in anticipation of the upcoming release of the new expansion -- we will also be posting an interview with the creator of the game, Yusuke Watanabe, in the coming weeks. Also, keep checking the official PlayStation.Blog today for their official unveiling of the first Eye of Judgment expansion.

In the meantime, hit the jump for the first look at 'Lament for Clare Wil' and marvel at its ninja-stopping powers.

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When it comes to Metal Gear Solid 4, there are two rumors that will just not die. First up, of course, is the zombie-rumor that the game is going over to the Xbox 360. Second only to that though, is the often denied rumor that there will be a MGS4 demo coming out prior to the game's release. Now, Konami has gone on the record a number of times to say that it is not happening, but yet still fans hold out hope.

Unfortunately, PSX Extreme reports that once again Ryan Payton has denied the reports of an upcoming PSN demo in his regular Kojima Production Report podcast. While it's annoying we won't be able to get a taste of MGS4 until this Summer, it's important to remember that demos aren't always a good way to really sample a game (think about Heavenly Sword's demo). Instead take solace in the fact that all the development cycles that are involved in making a demo are instead focused towards making MGS4 one of the top exclusive PS3 games of 2008.

When Burnout was first released in 2001, it did the amazing feat of instantly re-defining the idea of an arcade racer. Gone were the days where adrenalin junkies looking for their fix had to play yet another Ridge Racer title or suffer through impossibly average games like the Rush series. Burnout introduced a sense of speed, control, and visceral excitement that simply had not been seen in racing games before. Crashes made you physically wince and high speed races would have you sweating like you were actually in the car itself as you hurtled down a busy downtown street going 130 mph. It was one of the most refreshing changes of pace that a stale genre has ever experienced -- and yet few people in America were even aware of this British developed title.

Things would change once Burnout 2 came about though, with its larger variety of cars, tracks, and modes (including the dementedly entertaining party mode called Crash) attracting a much higher level of attention than the previous game. The series' popularity only accelerated once Burnout 3: Takedown came out, with Criterion Games experimenting with more and more ways to jack up the level of adrenalin and carnage with each game. In fact, experimenting with the Burnout franchise would become one of Criterion Games signature traits -- just because a feature was in a previous game, didn't mean it would show up in later games (as Alex Ward once famously said).

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The price point for Patapon has just been announced over at the PlayStation.Blog and the news is darn good. The upcoming Sony-developed rhythm/RTS title is getting released at the ridiculously low price of $19.99 when it hits the stores next month. While this is normally the price of one of their Greatest Hits titles, Sony was worried that the unique and odd-ball nature of Patapon may result in it getting lost amongst the other big upcoming PSP titles.

If our hands-on report hasn't gotten you excited about Patapon yet, hopefully this new development will pique your curiosity. It is seriously one of the most bizarre and entertaining experiences on the PSP yet, and definitely should not be missed. Pon Pon Pata Pon!

[Thanks Hasbrown_hunter!]

While the news of naughty films on Blu-ray isn't exactly breaking news, it is interesting for a number of reasons. First off, Joone is the fellow that oh-so-long-ago said that Sony was blocking them from releasing their 'adult entertainment' movies on Blu-ray. Evidently, this isn't the case any more as Joone has changed his tone and said the real problem originally was the price of producing Blu-ray movies (which is quite a bit higher than HD-DVD movies).

The other thing that is interesting is that this is the first time that we have heard of the PlayStation 3 explicitly causing such an increased demand for HD movies that a studio changes its exclusivity stance in the HD format wars. For a long time, the HD-DVD camp has said that PlayStation 3 owners don't buy movies. Well if porn is any indicator, looks like PlayStation 3 owners luuuv their high-def movies -- as long as there are naked people in them at least.

[Via High-Def Digest]

There were a lot of great titles shown off at Sony's Gamers Day in May of this year, but one of the surprise hits was the PSN title, PAIN. Maybe it was just because it was so different than everything else shown at the event, but the ability to launch your character from a giant slingshot and bounce him around an active city seemed to grab the attention of quite a few of the journalists attending. Though praise was high, there were concerns even early on that there might just not be enough gameplay in PAIN. Sure the idea of smashing some Jackass-esque guy into a wall is fun, but would it be able to keep our attention for more than an hour or two? Seven months later, PAIN has been released to the general public and we have the answers to that question -- unfortunately, it turns out that some of the fears about longevity were definitely warranted.

The basic gameplay of PAIN revolves around firing your character (a rather Xtreme looking fellow named Jarvis) out of the world's largest slingshot and trying to cause as much havoc and chaos as possible across the city. Though it sounds pretty basic, there is actually a surprising amount of depth in just how you cause your destruction. Even before the launch, you can adjust the angle and power of the slingshot using the analog sticks. It's once you've launched yourself into the air that you realize there is more going on that just sitting back and watching your guy smash into walls and monkeys.

After you've fired your guy towards the city, you can help guide him in any direction using the analog sticks, as well as change his poses for extra points and the ability to hit specific objects that you might not normally reach. You can also grab onto pretty much anything by pressing one of the face buttons in the direction of the item you want to latch onto. The timing can be a little tricky but it's pretty satisfying flying through the air, grabbing a swinging girder, and whipping around to land on some cantankerous old lady.

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The Soldier of Fortune series of games has long been a guilty little pleasure for many gamers. Developed by Raven Software (the guys making a little title called Quake 4), the first game starred a real-life mercenary named John Mullins and was made popular due to its unusual (for the time) real-world topical settings and violent, visceral combat. A sequel was made two years later in 2002, also starring John Mullins, titled Soldier of Fortune: Double Helix and upped the ante considerably in terms of gore and violence due to their much publicized GHOUL 2.0 dismemberment system.

Though neither game was ever considered a top-tier quality title, both Soldier of Fortune games have managed to attract and keep a solid cult following with many gamers (including myself) playing one or both of the games even to this day. So when Activision suddenly announced earlier this year that they were bringing the violent series back, many people were quite excited -- if a little confused by the news that Raven Software was no longer the development company. Things didn't get much better when it was found out that a small company named Cauldron out of the Slovak Republic would be handling the development, but still people held out hope. I mean how can they mess up with such solid groundwork already laid in place by the previous games?

Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for cracks to start showing in Soldier of Fortune Payback's facade. Right off the bat, you find out that they've ditched the series protagonist John Mullin in favor for a generic faceless mercenary who sounds like he's trying to pass an unusually large kidney stone every time he opens his chew-filled mouth. The rest of the voice acting in the game varies from much worse to slightly better and completely fails at drawing you into the characters or the story itself.

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Gamers firing up the incredibly addictive CCG/videogame Eye of Judgment tonight will find that they have an update waiting for them. Bumping the game version way up to 1.01, this is a mandatory update for anyone who wants to play EoJ online. Without further ado, here is a list of the official updates:

• Main revised functions (no, we don't know what that means either)
• Reinforcement of COM AI in Battle Arena Mode
• Optimization of network connections for Online Mode

It is great to see that Sony is updating EoJ already, but they still haven't addressed one of the largest complaints of playing the game online -- the fact that anybody can join your private game while you're waiting for your friend to accept his invite. And really Sony, does the computer need any more help in kicking our asses?

[Thanks Woo!]

Though Midway's Stranglehold has been out on the Xbox 360 and PC for quite some time, due to the well publicized problems with adapting the Unreal Engine to the PlayStation 3, our version has only just come out. And while it is frustrating to have such a long delay between releases, it's not all bad for once. Midway has used the time to tighten up the performance of Stranglehold on the PS3 to a very solid framerate as well as add on one of the coolest video game bonuses of all time -- a high-def re-mastering of Hard Boiled, the fantastic John Woo Hong Kong shoot-em-up that serves as the primary inspiration to the game itself.

While only the Collector's Edition of Stranglehold includes an HD copy of Hardboiled, this is one of those unusual bonuses that actually makes the game itself better. Taken on its own, Stranglehold is "just" another shooter with a story of revenge and the ability to blow the hell out of pretty much everything in the environment. Taken with the movie as well, you see a continuation of one of the greatest stories to come out of the Hong Kong action genre from the early 90s, as well as a continuation of the style and cinematography of the movie. Characters that seem flat or unnecessary suddenly become interesting and special effects that seem like simple next-gen window dressing gain added meaning.

Movies like Hard Boiled are what started the whole concept of tough guys with dual Berettas who can dive through the air backwards while taking out half a platoon of villains. It's hard to remember sometimes, but the action in games like Max Payne (as well as the bullet time in The Matrix) are direct homages to John Woo's early movies. Slow motion shooting, dive-shots, and heavily stylized combat were all traits of movies like Hard Boiled, Bullet in the Head, and The Killer, so in some ways it's surprising that it's taken this long for John Woo to just come out and make his own video game.

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Manhunt 2 has had an interesting development cycle. It's hard to think of another game that has been so steeped in controversy, politics and debate. But while the politicians and TV talking heads can go on and on about violence, corporate responsibility and protecting the children, the people who the game is actually made for (you know, gamers) are much more curious about how Manhunt 2 actually plays.

The game starts off with a massive lightning storm temporarily causing a blackout at a rundown and dingy insane asylum, which rather inconveniently causes all the cell doors to pop open, spewing forth a small army of violent crazy people. Your character, Daniel Lamb, suddenly snaps into consciousness while strangling an old female doctor as your cell door opens. Shocked at what you're doing, you drop her body and stumble out into the hallway in what segues into a mini-tutorial on how to sneak and kill. It also nicely showcases some of the ... questionable aspects of the game, since in the first five minutes you are peed on, spit on, and throw up twice.

Of course, the most controversial part of Manhunt 2 is not the urination -- it's the wide variety of grotesque ways you can kill people. While it is possible to engage enemies in normal hand-to-hand combat, this will almost always mean your death. The way you're 'suppose' to kill someone is by sneaking up behind them with a weapon and performing an execution. If done correctly, you will be treated with a short cutscene of you horribly eviscerating your opponent. Well, at least you'll assume you just eviscerated the perp, since Rockstar edited the cutscenes to appease the ESRB and ended up making them an unintelligible mess of quick cuts, bad camera angles, and blurred effects. Unless you're extremely squeamish, you're not going to be disturbed by the violence of the executions, but the cutscenes may give you epilepsy.

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Ratchet and Clank's debut on the PS3 is one of the most anticipated games on Sony's fledgling console. Though it's arriving only a year after Insomniac released the best launch title on the PS3 (Resistance: Fall of Man), Ratchet and Clank: Future Tools of Destruction oozes so much polish and love that you would have thought it had been under development for years.

Going with the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy, Ratchet and Clank doesn't necessarily try to reinvent the franchise in its leap to HD. It merely takes everything that defines an R&C title and refines it to diamond-like perfection. Sporting some of the most fantastic graphics on any next-gen platform yet, Insomniac once again proves that they know the tech of the PS3 inside and out. But, they don't forget the important bit parts of what makes a game a Ratchet and Clank game: tight platforming, inventive weapons, and surprising amounts of genuinely humorous dialog.

Part of what makes Ratchet and Clank so great is its fast-paced and satisfying gameplay. Sporting a ridiculous amount of weapons and gadgets, there is so much variety to just combat alone that you will never be without some new way to blast, incinerate, or transmogrify your enemies. Beyond just shooting monsters to tiny pieces, the game also features some of the most satisfying platforming gameplay in years. It is easily the best platforming action in a next-gen game so far (although the competition has been sparse).

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It would've been interesting to be in the board room when the developers of The Eye of Judgment were giving their pitch to the Sony higher-ups. I can just imagine the crazed looks the developers got when they tried to explain their game was an augmented reality collectible card game using a peripheral that had previously been only used for party games. Everything about The Eye of Judgment's concept suggests that it shouldn't work -- it's way too esoteric, the barrier of entry is too high, and the technology behind it had never been tested before.

Luckily for us, Sony has much more forethought than I have, since The Eye of Judgment turns out to be one of the most innovative games in years. It's a darn good CCG as well. Utilizing the just-released PS Eye to turn your cards into actual 3D models on the screen, The Eye of Judgment offers the best example of augmented reality in videogames yet.

You place a card on the included cloth game mat and the camera identifies the card on the fly via a bar code type system, and a creature pops up on the screen. The game will keep track of all the gameplay elements for you, like how many cards you have in your library and your hand, what turn it is, and creature stats. The combination of holding real cards in your hands while also playing a video game is strangely thrilling, and not having to juggle all the rules and stats in your head is a nice change of pace from classic CCGs like Magic: The Gathering which have a rather ... complicated rule set.

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It may be hard to believe, but in our long tenure PS3 Fanboy has never reviewed a sports game (and no Go! Sports Ski doesn't count -- we're trying to forget that game even exists). It's not that we dislike sports games per se, we more just tend to be fans of RPGs, FPSes, and action titles in general. Well all that is changing as we boldly explore the depths of sports gaming with our review of NBA 2K8.

NBA 2K8 is the latest iteration in 2K's basketball series and comes out to a crowded market on the PlayStation 3. Unlike EA's monopoly on NFL branded football games, there are three different NBA series and they all hit the PS3 at the same time. Historically speaking, the 2K series has been the best of the bunch -- beating out Sony's NBA series and EA's NBA Live series, so it seemed like a good game for a player who's been out of the basketball loop for as long as I have (we're talking years here).

Featuring six different gameplay modes, there is definitely no lack of content in NBA 2K8. You have a ridiculously deep franchise mode called the Association, you can play full seasons with your favorite team, do a quick game of street ball (called NBA Blacktop), practice your moves on an empty court, or even setup special scenarios (like being down 8 points with 20 second on the clock) to show off your skills. There's a ton of stuff here, and hardcore NBA fans will have enough to keep them busy for months.

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