Eye of Judgement dated

The Eye of Judgement has been probing the gaming landscape for a suitable opening through which to emerge, and now it seems to have found one: er, autumn.

In other words [oh good - Ed], Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has issued a press release backing up what Sony Japan said towards the end of April: that its intriguing PlayStation Eye camera-based card-battling game is due out in the autumn.

How does it work? Well, in real life, remember, you lay out the play mat - a grid of nine fields - and then draw five cards from the 30-card deck. The aim is to control five fields on the mat.

So you lay down a guard with a creature or a spell on it. Over on the TV screen, the PlayStation Eye brings this to light or, as Sony puts it, "the magic starts". "Vibrations and energy waves begin to emanate from the card; before your eyes, the game creature emerges from the flat surface in incredible 3D detail".

You could of course whip out a dragon in response, which then comes to life, again, on-screen, and starts beating up whatever your opponent has. It's sort of when you punch your brother for stealing Community Chest cards in Monopoly but on the next level.

The way it works, if you're interested, is by reading a unique code on each card and then displaying the corresponding monstie.

The full game will come with a starter pack of 30 character and spell cards, plus four function cards. Over 100 cards will be available to buy in shops at launch, with a variety of themed decks promised from major retailers.

All of which should encourage you to swap cards in the playground/by the watercooler/down the pub in order to best your enemies in two-player battles.

Sounds interesting, right? So we'll, er, keep an eye out for more.