When you get your hands on Spider-man: Web of Shadows come October 21st you will probably want to follow in the instructions found in this video. It tells you what you might not want to do in the event you are faced with the threat of infection. So feel free to sit back, relax since the weekend is almost here, and enjoy this very humorous trailer. You can pick up the game for PC, PS3, PS2, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Wii, and PSP.

Web of Shadows will be hitting store shelves October 21st for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS, and PSP

Helfer's nerd cred was leveled up last month when she spoke at NVIDIA's NVISION 2008 conference. Things in this post not about Tricia Helfer and her physical appearance are new screens of Web of Shadows, including this poorly angled shot which should probably be the basis of a Kotaku After Dark Photoshop contest.

Besides, when you've got as good of a game inside as I played at the Games Convention in Leipzig, you could ship it in a plain cardboard sleeve and I'd still be there on launch day to pick up the special corrugated edition.

It's that kind of passion that is going into Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, which from what I saw will mark a rebirth of the franchise after the abysmal Spider-Man 3.

This is a Spider-Man game of the giant sandbox variety taken to the next level. Developers Shaba and Treyarch have done wonders with the webcrawler. The game is based on the comics, featuring Spidey in his classic cloth suit, without a hint of the ribbed for her pleasure movie version. Those of you favoring a darker, more powerful superhero can slip on his all-black symbiote suit at will, trading in the agile jumper for more of a powerful tank character. You can choose a suit to level up or work on both equally, unlocking combos that switch from one to the other in mid-attack.

Spider-Man has been beefed up from previous games, bringing him more in line with the comic book version. Comics Spidey can lift 10 tons, so punching through a brick wall really shouldn't be a problem. In Web of Shadows it isn't. You can kick and punch a car in the street until it explodes, or in the symbiote suit you can just pick them up and toss them. I spent a good chunk of my playtime cackling with glee as taxi cabs exploded around me, causing chaos in the streets of New York.

While running around and swinging all over the city could easily keep me occupied for hours upon hours, Shaba has managed to bring the fighting in the game right up to speed with exploration. While I found combat in the first sever Spider-Man titles to be adequate, combat in Web of Shadows is actually quite dynamic and fun. You can fight on the ground, in the air, and even on the sides of buildings, bringing to mind a Winston Churchill quote that probably wouldn't be appropriate given the setting of the convention.

Oh, and the best thing about Spider-Man: Web of Shadows? When Spidey falls into water, he swims. I checked. As I headed towards the water, Brian had this funny smile on his face. He knew where I was going. One of the biggest complaints about Spider-Man 2 was water causing instant death. Apparently New York has cleaned that mess up a bit since then.

I've watched the development of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows warily, biding my time until I could get my hands on it before getting excited about the second coming of the franchise. Consider me officially excited.

Peter Parker has been infected by the alien symbiote, too, but has total control over its abilities, allowing him to switch from the more nimble red and blue suit to a more destructive black and white suit on the fly. Both suits have their advantages and disadvantages, as the black suit lets Spidey whip foes with symbiotic tentacles and carries a heftier punch, but can result in more collateral damage to the city.

That trade-off comes into play in how the citizens of New York, as well as your superpowered allies and enemies perceive you later in the game. With a cast of "Marvel Team Up" regulars, folks like Wolverine and Luke Cage, you'll need to make sure the good guys are on your good side.

Shaba Games, developer of Web of Shadows, looks to have gone to great lengths to capture that Spider-Man feel. All the stock Spidey moves are in there — wall-climbing, web-swinging, spider-sensing — with cinematic camera angles complimenting each. The camera will pan out and strafe when Spider-Man is leaping through the air, attaching himself to foes with a carefully placed web shot, making it look easy to string together combos.

In the Vulture fight we watched, Spider-Man had to get more altitude than he would normally be capable of. With a flock of Vulture minions sporting Green Goblin style gliders floating about, the producer in charge of controlling our hero leaped from minion to minion, until the Vulture was in range. He then knocked the crap out of him with a flurry of punches, kicks and webbing.

We also got to see a epic battle between Spidey and Venom, with a dozen Venomites scrambling around a back alley hive. After dealing with the symbiote infected mob, Spider-Man's next task was to eliminate Venom and his symbiote hive. Looks like Shaba is adding some nice variety to the boss battles in Web of Shadows and we look forward to taking some of this on ourselves.

What we saw of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows looked very early, as the game was still in alpha build stages. There's clearly plenty of work to be done on the title, as frame rate and camera performance needed some serious tweaking — our biggest concerns for the title's ultimate success. Visually, though, the game looks quite nice, and the glossy look of the symbiotes fits in well with the character's art style.

Activision was showing off the Xbox 360 version of the game, but it plans to ship on just about everything under the sun later this fall.

While you struggle between mildly pleasing and completely stupid covers, keep in mind the special message below the voting section on the website. "Activision shall not be bond by the outcome of the community vote and Activisions decision(s) and selection(s) shall be final and binding." So yeah, vote, but don't expect it to actually matter. Awesome.

Packaging Artwork Vote [Web of Shadows Official Site]

Little new information was revealed beyond what's already been published, but executive producer Graham Fuchs did elaborate a bit on what we've heard about the role of choice in the game, whereby the player's actions determine whether certain comic superheroes become friends or foes. Which heroes and villains? Will Venom be in it? No comment, but since Fuchs promised "fan favorites that have never been seen in a video game before," comic book aficionados may be able to make some educated guesses based on process of elimination.

Expect open-world, sandbox-style gameplay; at the same time, there will also be a story to progress through, with choices, opportunities and consequences dependent on the means by which the player solves his objectives. One key factor Fuchs emphasized regarding Web of Shadows is that while the publisher's more recent Spider Man games were based on the films, this title plans to cleave closely to the vision as set in the comic books, with more elements drawn directly from the source material.

With the game headed for a launch on every platform — PS2, Wii, DS, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC — you might have visions of motion-controlled web-slinging on the platforms that support it. Fuchs would not confirm or deny, but stated the player will have "more control over Spider Man than ever before."

He added that the gameplay mechanics will emphasize the verticality of the New York City setting, and like the combat system, the city has been rebuilt from the ground up, rather than using any of the structure of previous Spider Man titles.

An official website is now up, where those who sign up can cast their votes on the way Web of Shadows media is revealed, like voting on where the next trailer will take place. The Activision booth at Comic Con also had a sound booth where fans lined up to record their best screams, and the community will also pick a winning screamer to have his or her voice featured in the game.

It's far too early to tell if the game will be any better than the last two bombs, but I like the direction they're heading in. Darker is better.

Yahoo! Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows Premier [Yahoo! Videogames - Thanks Charlie!]