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.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

There has been 40 years of different comic books... Writers have had to really get into the characters of the superheroes themselves. They explore their relationships, their loves, their villains, their stories — there's so much more to draw upon...

In the world of video games, it's usually more of an environment or a scenario, not character-based...but they certainly could [be better]. There's World of Warcraft — what an awesome video game! It has such great, adventurous characters in it and such fantastic landscapes and rules... You could make a brilliant World of Warcraft movie — as fine as any of the best superhero movies — if you had the right writers and directors.

Hrm, if only Sam Raimi knew a talented directed able to adapt material to film. If only. There's more insight into this issue over at MTV. Check it out.

Do All Video Game Movies Suck? 'Max Payne' Stars Hope Not [MTV Movie News]

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.

When you talk about games evolving over the years and becoming more like movies, in many ways, they've gone beyond movies," he said. "To do a movie is difficult, but it's linear. There's a beginning, a middle and an end, and that's it — you write a story.

In a videogame, you're writing many stories within the story. It's a totally different structure and a totally different philosophy of writing and, I think, a much, much more difficult one. I get the feeling more work goes into these videogames than even goes into the movies.

I marvel at the fact the games look as good, and in some cases better, as the most expensive movies. [Those] guys are just geniuses. Now you watch one of these games and it's like watching the greatest superhero movie, except you're part of it. It's indescribable.

Yep, Stan Lee is awesome. But we knew that.

Games Are Exceeding Movies [Eurogamer] [Pic]

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]

Please stop putting Spiderman games in big open sandbox environments where you swing around and do oh so slight variations on 4 pretty dull mission types (chase/race/collect/etc) and then once in a while toss in a boss fight and/or a somewhat unique mission.

I LOVE Marvel Comics and I LOVE the promise of games based on Marvel Comics. But why can't you guys make a game that feels like a comic? I don't mean art style wise; I don't mean like Comix Zone with panels and cliche stuff like that. I mean feels like a comic in a story based, narrative way: a game that shows off the OTHER aspect that makes Marvel Comics so special: The characters/story. It's not JUST about the powers, you know. But your games are always ONLY about the powers.

Won't somebody be kind enough to let David Jaffe make a Marvel game? Just listen to that passion! Our Spidey Sense tells us he's got a great Marvel game in him.

Dear: The People Who Make Marvel Comics Video Games [DavidJaffe.Biz via CVG] Pic]

In Spider-Man: Agile Warrior, players control Spider-Man's feet via the Wii Balance Board to make him jump, soar through the air, climb walls and kick and cartwheel foes. The other Wii exclusive title, known as Spider-Man: Webmaster looks like it will ship with a game-specific controller that lets players flick their wrists to shoot web balls, aim their webs via the Wii Remote and use gestures to swing across Manhattan.

But that's not all. There are a total of fourteen potential Spider-Man games in development to some degree—though some may simply be nothing more than concepts. The full list after the jump.

Spider-Man: Agile Warrior (Wii) - Let's players control Spidey with the Wii Balance Board
Spider-Man: Hero Evolved (360, PS3, Wii) - Play as the son of Spider-Man in 2064 using spider powers and future tech to battle villains
Spider-Man: New Heights (360, PS3, Wii) - Upgrade Spidey's abilities as he moves from battling low level gangs to famous foes at New York City's skyline
Spider-Man: Gangs of New York (360, PS3, Wii) - Gangs take over the city and Spidey must pit them against each other
Spider-Man: Adaptation (360, PS3, Wii) - Spidey travels all over the globe, from Tokyo to Paris to Moscow to take out his foes
Marvel Team Up: Spider-Man Meets the X-Men (360, PS3, Wii) - Doctor Octopus and Magneto team up to take on Spidey and the X-men in locations like Manhattan and the Savage Land via two-player coop play
Spider-Man: Contest of Champions (360, PS3, Wii) - Destructable fighter for 2-4 players with Spider-Man, Venom, Wolverine, Electro, Doc Oc, Carnage and Green Goblin
Spider-Man: Mass Evolution (360, PS3, Wii) - Spidey's skills, from speed to strength to spider-senses are upgradeable as you play
Spider-Man: Chaos (360, PS3, Wii) - Spidey has 8 hours of frenetic action to save the city from certain doom
Spider-Man: Tactics (360, PS3, Wii) - A stealthy and strategic Spidey game
Spider-Man: Vision (360, PS3, Wii) - First- and third-person gameplay, Spidey style
Spider-Man vs. Marvel Zombies (360, PS3, Wii) - Spidey takes on the undead of the Marvel Universe in the future
Spider-Man: Webmaster (Wii) - Uses a web shooter game controller for third person action
Spider-Man: Webslinger (360, PS3, Wii) - Use precision web aiming to target enemies, build web slingshots and snipe enemies

Again, keep in mind that some of these projects may never see the light of day and will exist only as proposals.

Okay, we don't have any details, but it's Spider-Man and Activision, so odds are if you have a video game delivery device you'll be able to play it. We'll let you know as soon as we find out more about Spider-Man: The Apology Friend or Foe. Michael Fahey

Spider-Man: Friend or Foe Teaser Site [Activision]

Gotta love the pundits! The first two Spider-Man games took approximately $300 million in sales. Wonder how the third game is going to do? Common sense says "very well." But, screw common sense and bring on the sound bytes! Here's NPD video game analyst Anita Frazier who says:

The Spider-Man video games based on the first two movies are some of the most successful movie tie-in games in history. I would expect that the third would experience success as well.

And if that's not enough to seal the game's fate, quote-machine and Wedbush Morgan video game analyst Michael Pachter adds:

I think it's going to do extremely well.

Thanks Anita, Mike. Insightful. Brian Ashcraft

Spider-Man Games Chances? [Reuters]

Movies and gaming, no big diff! Don't believe us? Thespian and SPIDER-MAN 3 star Tobey Maguire explains:

One of the things I really love about being an actor is that I get to have all of these different experiences. I get to play different characters and really embody a different person, a different experience, a different life. It's been great playing Spider-Man because it's like being a kid and playing in the backyard and jumping off of things pretending I'm a superhero and now I'm all grown up and I'm still doing it. That's one of the things I like about playing video games is that you get to escape and go to a different world and be a superhero for a while. That will be the joke. Somebody says you have this meeting or this thing and come do this, and I'll go, 'Please, I'm trying to save the world right now. This is important stuff.'

The rest of the interview is rather light and fluffy — With Maguire saying that he owns all the consoles but doesn't have time to play. His favorite game? Maguire says, "If Spider-Man 3 sells a lot of copies, it'll be this one!" That Tobey, he's sure got film-tie-up promotion down. Brian Ashcraft

Tobey Talks Spidey Game [Yahoo]

While I may not have faith in the film franchise, I do have faith in Treyarch to deliver a solid Spiderman video game experience, each and every time. Take the same free-roaming gameplay as the previous outings, add in sewers and subterreanean tunnels, and get rid of those damn balloon missions and you've got a winner in my book. The PS3 screens below have a very 'angle you'll never see in actual gameplay' feel to them, but look stunning nonetheless. Michael Fahey

The official site for the upcoming Spider-Man 3 game adaptation is live, giving friendly neighborhood gaming fans a very brief look at the game. Featuring little more than a trailer, some wallpapers and a brief developer blog (all unfortunately wrapped up in a crusty, bitter Flash shell), the site promises development updates from developers Treyarch and Vicarious Visions. With only 93 days before the film and the game's release, let's hope they find the time.

The game trailer looks to be the same from clip from E306, which showcases little more than the "actual in game model" and some very dark environments. In other words, watch this space for actual updates.

Spider-Man 3 The Game is currently scheduled for the PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, DS, PSP and PlayStation 2. Everybody's happy! Michael McWhertor

Spider-Man 3 The Game Official Site

At least for Activision games. The company's CEO, Robert Kotick, announced the price of its first PLAYSTATION 3 title Spider-Man 3. The game will retail for around US $60 next year. This is at the bottom of the $60-$100 range Sony's Kaz Hirai had previously suggested. Kotick stated:

We have not seen a lot of consumer resistance at the higher price points and we expect that all of our next-generation products will be launched at $60 price points. [Spider-Man 3] is the most expensive product that we've created, and for good reason. You'll see how much it really takes advantage of the assets and the capabilities of the hardware.

And we were bracing ourselves for the worst. Fingers tightly crossed that other game companies will follow Activision's lead. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [PSLand] Thanks, B33!