Sources claiming to have knowledge of the situation estimate that some 30 employees were laid off earlier today. Shaba was responsible for the previously mentioned Spider-man game, ports of the Tony Hawk series and Shrek Super Slam, all for Activision.

The cutbacks put an end to Shaba's 12 year existence.

The publisher was alleged to have made similar-sized cuts at the recently purchased 7 Studios yesterday. In other words, if you work for a wholly owned Activision studio, it might be wise to update your resume.

Update: Reps for Activision have provided the following statement regarding Shaba Games' closing: "Activision continually evaluates the resources at our studio properties to ensure that they are properly matched to our product slate and overall strategic goals. As part of this process, we recently made the difficult but necessary decision to close Shaba Studios. We are grateful for the studio's contributions and wish this talented team success in their future endeavors."

Now Activision, aided by developers Treyarch and Shaba, seek to rescue Spidey from bad video game hell with the release of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, a decidedly darker take on the classic tale of irradiated spider-infected man versus evil alien symbiote. Will they save the day, or is it too late for the webbed wonder?

Loved
Spider Combat: The innovative combat system was a big focus of Web of Shadows, and it shows. This is probably the closest any game has gotten to capturing the essence of the ol' webhead in battle. While you could simply use the same attacks over and over again to beat the game, experimenting with different combinations and unlocked moves greatly enhances the experience. This is the first Spider-Man game where I've actively sought out aerial battles – that's how much they've nailed it.

The Choice Is Yours: The battle between Peter Parker and the alien symbiote inside him plays out nicely through a series of choices that effect how the game plays out. Using the black suit as an excuse to explore the darker decisions Spider-Man could make is an intriguing mechanic. Being able to finally choose the Black Cat over Mary Jane gave me happy little comic fan chills.

Fan Service: It's quite obvious that Spider-Man: Web of Shadows was lovingly crafted by fans of Marvel comics. It shines through not only in the dialog between characters, but in actual gameplay. One boss battle has the enemy you are fighting stopping throughout the battle to ask you trivia questions, trying to ascertain if you are the real Spider-Man. Bonus points awarded for Spidey calling out Luke Cage on his 70's tiara.

Epic Boss Battles: While the meat of the game is spent completing missions (see below), there are several extremely entertaining boss fights to be had in WoS. With one exception, most fights offer something beyond simply beating your enemy into submission, be it conditions to meet, civilians to protect while the battle rages, or the aforementioned trivia challenge.

Hated
Mission, Rinse, Repeat: The vast majority of missions in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows fall into the standard “defeat X number of Y” format. While there are some protect and escort missions, for the most part it's all about beating up a large amount of foes, and once you're done, optional missions open up requiring you defeat even more. The combat is highly enjoyable, but not so enjoyable I want to spend all day pointlessly doing it.

Camera Sense Disorienting: One of the major issues I ran into as I played the game involved the camera. Running up buildings would often lock my camera in a position where the action was obscured, and trying to reposition it would simply move it about wildly until I managed to reset the damn thing. I got used to it as I played, but I shouldn't have had to.

Hello, Extras?: One constant in the 3D Spider-Man titles from Activision has been the sheer number of unlockables, from comic book pages to alternate costumes to concept art. You'll find none of these in Web of Shadows. There are collectibles, but they are more akin to the agility pickups in Crackdown than anything really interesting.

Blackbolt Sounds Less Painful: With such big names on the voice cast for the game, it boggles the mind how a relative unknown got cast in the titular role. When players begin yearning for Tobey McGuire, you know you've made a mistake casting Spider-Man. He comes off like a totally unlikeable, obnoxious, whiny little punk. Pretty sure we were supposed to like our main characters.

Swinging From What Now?: Ah, so we've regressed back to the early days of Spider-Man, when his web line can attach to the very clouds themselves. Developers may call it a design decision. I call it a crutch.

I just cannot fathom why developers find it so hard to make a good Spider-Man title these days. They were really on to something with the first Spider-Man movie title, did an amazing job with Spider-Man 2, and since then they seem to have forgotten what made those two titles great. Treyarch and Shaba have accomplished something amazing with the combat system for Web of Shadows, but by focusing so much on that one aspect they seemed to have omitted a great deal of what made the previous titles fun. It's almost as if there is just half of a game here, just waiting to be filled in with more Spider-Man goodness.

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows is an interesting exploration of Spider-Man's darker side for fans of the comic books, but less fanatical gamers might want to spin their web somewhere else.

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows was developed by Treyarch and Shaba Games, published by Activision. Released on Oct. 21 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii & PC. Retails for $59.99 on PS3 and 360, $49.99 on Wii, and $29.99 on PC. Alternative versions available on PSP and DS. Reviewed on Xbox 360. Completed game.

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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]

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows Behind the Scenes — Combat Redefined [GameTrailers, thanks Tyson B.]

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!]