For those of you who might not be familiar with the Eye of Judgment game, it is an interesting videogame for the PS3 that uses actual collectible card game (CCG) cards which are specially coded to allow the PlayStation Eye to determine what a card is and which direction it is facing, borrowing technology from "augmented reality" research. This provides an interesting combination of CCG game, videogame and something like the chess game from Star Wars.

The Eye of Judgment: Biolith Rebellion 2 (Set 2) is an expansion pack or add-on for the original Eye of Judgment game, and takes the form of two components: a download from the PlayStation Store and a physical pack of cards (or Starter Deck).

While I did enjoy playing The Eye of Judgment when I reviewed it, there are very few games I get to go back and actually play for fun; as a reviewer, I'm always playing games that just came out... or that are scheduled to come out in the near future. At any rate, I hadn't played The Eye of Judgment for quite some time, so I don't know what the release schedule for updates has been, but I was rather surprised to find out that, although the download of the expansion itself took (much) less than a minute, there were 1374 files required to be updated to bring me up to the latest version. In order to download these files, I had to actually delete some content from my PS3's hard drive to make room. (Tip: HD Trailers take up lots of room.) Once I had enough room to actually download the files, it took around thirty minutes to complete the download.

These are physical cards which are made by Wizards of the Coast and are sold at many retail outlets, including Gamestop, Walmart, Target, Toys'R'Us and Amazon. Specifically, The Eye of Judgment: Biolith Rebellion 2 (Set 2) introduces one hundred new cards to the game. The first set of cards for The Eye of Judgment laid down the ground rules and provided a way to learn the basic tactics and game mechanics involved in playing the game. This new set of 100 cards helps players to build unique "deck-based" strategies by adding variety to both the cards available and the effects that these cards can have - alone and in conjunction with each other.

The The Eye of Judgment: Biolith Rebellion 2 starter pack provides you with thirty (30) playing cards, as well as function cards, such as Status, Action, End Turn and Cancel (one each). New Set 2 cards from Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro will run you $3.99 for Booster packs and $14.99 for Theme Decks.

As this is a CCG videogame, there were changes made to the game itself to accommodate these new cards, the most obvious being the addition of sound clips, 3D models and card information to enable the game to incorporate these new cards into the gameplay.

The graphics look very nice, possibly better than I remember them. The models are nicely animated and, in general, match the cards well. There was one card (a "Hero" card") that was different than the rest in that it had one large environmental image instead of a character image and status. I am not sure if this is intended or if this is some sort of misprint, but it was hard at first to find and identify that card when the computer dealt it to me.

Quite possibly one of my favorite aspects of The Eye of Judgment: Biolith Rebellion 2 (Set 2)'s graphic improvements is the section that gives details about specific cards. This section now features a map that will show what region the different cards are from while displaying the vital stats for that card. Additionally, you can interact with the card a bit; if you move another card over the card in question in a menacing way, it will trigger animations reacting to you. (Pretty cool.)

There are several new abilities and game mechanics introduced in The Eye of Judgment: Biolith Rebellion 2 (Set 2). New abilities include: Decoy, Fieldmorph (to the field type of the creature), Intercept, Invocation, Magic Protection, Resurrection and Return. (If a character has Resurrection and you have another in your hand, you can instantly replace the fallen one with the one from your hand; Return merely means that you return a fallen character to your hand.)

New game mechanics that shake things up a bit include: new creatures that cannot be attacked with Spells, new creatures that prohibit certain abilities (such as the way that enemies within two squares in front of a Dwarf Sniper cannot Dodge.), the ability to steal exit mana from destroyed creatures, the ability to create combination Fields, the ability to get cards from your deck library or graveyard, spells that deal direct damage to creatures and spells that influence turns (such as Aluhjan Spellsheild).

The above mentioned updates include some upgrades that are, technically, not part of The Eye of Judgment: Biolith Rebellion 2 (Set 2), such as improved graphic displays showing more information about Field and Card Status and a new in-game encyclopedia explaining everything you could need to know, regardless of skill level.

And, don't worry if your friend hasn't upgraded, yet... players who have Set 2 will still be able to play against players who only have Set 1.