La famosa “Número Seis” de Battlestar Galactica, Tricia Helfer, se acaba de incorporar al equipo de StarCraft II, según declaró el director creativo de Blizzard Entertainment, Chris Metzen, en un foro dedicado a StarCraft, durante la BlizzCon 2009. Helfer prestará su voz para un personaje llamado Kerrigan. En el universo de StarCraft, Sarah Kerrigan es un miembro de la milicia Terran, quien es capturada por Zerg; y eventualmente transformada en The Queen of Blades.

Tricia se encuentra muy entusiasmada con el doble papel que interpreta porque afirma que es muy interesante encontrar las diferencias entre Sarah Kerrigan, quien es más bien inocente y The Queen of Blades, cuya personalidad es mucho más divertida. La actriz comenta que aunque se considera una persona muy agradable, es capaz de sacar ese lado malvado que requiere su personaje, sin olvidar que Sarah y Queen son en realidad la misma persona.

Helfer no es una veterana de los videojuegos, pero llegó a una franquicia bien consolidada y con una muy fuerte base de fanáticos, así que no tendrá problemas con su introducción a este universo. Para ella resulta intimidante entrar a un juego y hacer un trabajo del que no tiene el menor antecedente, además de considerarse virgen en cuanto a jugar se refiere, pero considera un honor estar en el equipo de StarCraft II.

En lo que Tricia sí tiene experiencia es en dar voz a personajes de videojuegos, como lo muestra su trabajo en títulos como Halo 3: ODST y Spider-Man: Web of Shadows.

Via:Geek

Wszyscy lubimy zamaskowanych facetów latających z majtami na spodniach, nie ma co tego ukrywać. Przemysł growy lubi ich dokładnie tak samo, choć większość związków ogranicza do miłości w pupę. Jednak nie jest tak źle, jak mogłoby się zdawać, bowiem od niepamiętnych czasów oprócz niegrywalnych crapów mogliśmy zagrać w naprawdę świetne perełki. I choć w większości tych gier przewijali się najczęściej ci sami bohaterowie (czyli Pająk, Nietoperz i Rosomak), to nie darowaliśmy sobie żadnej, byleby tylko poczuć się jak ukochani herosi. Czy dojenie licencji dla samej idei pieniędzy zostanie przerwane? Na tę chwilę wszystkie znaki na niebie i ziemi wskazują na to, że dobrą passę udanych gier na komiksowej licencji zapoczątkowaną przez Pajęczynę Cieni Spider-Mana podtrzymają jeszcze trzy wychodzące w tym roku pozycje – jedna w maju, jedna w czerwcu i jedna na jesień. Jeśli chcecie wiedzieć które gry mam na myśli zapraszam do rozwinięcia.

No cóż, ta trójka, to oczywiście X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Batman: Arkham Asylum i Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Fusion. Czyli męczenia najpopularniejszych ciąg dalszy. Jednak wszystkie te gry mają w sobie coś, co nie pozwala ich traktować jak kolejnych licencjonowanych crapów. Wszystkie zapowiadają się mroczniej, brutalniej i ciekawiej niż poprzednie pozycje z nimi w rolach głównych, każda aspiruje do wprowadzenia czegoś nowego do swojego gatunku. Jako fan amerykańskiej szkoły komiksowej mam szczerą nadzieję, że wszystkie plany się powiodą.

Najwcześniej doczekamy się Logana, którego gra wychodzi razem z filmem. Jeśli wszystko pójdzie jak powinno, to pierwszego maja czeka graczy małe święto. Nie tylko dostaniemy dobrą grę na licencji komiksu, będzie to także udana egranizacja filmu na podstawie komiksu. Sytuacja typu win-win. Wolvie uderzy mocno i do filmowej kadry doda kilku bohaterów, których nie będzie dane nam tam zobaczyć, z wysokim jak wieżowiec Sentinelem na czele.

Co nie pozwala nam zwątpić w ten projekt? Najsampierw spore doświadczenie ekipy Raven w przenoszeniu komiksów na ekrany naszych telewizorów, chłopaki mają już na swoim koncie dwie części X-Men Legends i pierwszą Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Po drugie, to właśnie oni dali nam świetne Jedi Outcast i Jedi Academy. I po trzecie, brutalności nauczyli się przy Soldier of Fortune. Geneza Rosomaka ma być beat ‘em upem utrzymanym w staroszkolnych klimatach z prostym, acz cholernie sycącym systemem walki. Słaby i silny atak oraz chwyt ponoć mają nam dać blisko 100 różnych ciosów. Nie słyszałem o czymś takim od czasów God Hand, ale jestem za. Jako wielcy fani komiksowych bohaterów Kruki przykładają wielką wagę do wyglądu gry oraz zachowania samego Logana, w swoich notkach piszą, że jeden z podstawowych ataków w grze (Lunge Attack – rzucenie się z pazurami na przeciwnika) od pierwszych projektów, do stanu ostatecznego przeszedł przynajmniej dziesięć całkowitych zmian i setki małych usprawnień. Słabo? Komiksy, nie film, są ich podstawowym źródłem ispiracji.

Sama walka to jednak nie wszystko. Tym, co wyróżnia Wolverine’a oprócz jego adamantowego szkieletu jest wysoko rozwinięta zdolność regeneracji. Pierwsze podejście do tego tematu było proste, Logan miał być nieśmiertelny, niestety średnio sprawdzało się to w samej grze. Przerzucono się więc na bardziej standardowe odnawianie energii do którego dodano jeden ciekawy patent. Otóż, jeśli zdjąć z kogoś skórę ujrzymy pod nią mięśnie, a pod mięśniami kości oraz resztę organów wewnętrznych, to samo będziemy mieli okazję zobaczyć w grze. Kiedy Rosomak zostanie poczęstowany z bliska strzałem z shotguna odsłoni przed nami to, co ma w środku, a my będzie mogli patrzeć jak powoli leczy swoje rany dalej walcząc z nieprzyjaciółmi. Podziurawiony podkoszulek i wystające mięso wyglądają niewąsko, ciekawe jak sprawdzi się to w którymś z klasycznych strojów bohatera.

Jest jeszcze jedna rzecz, która mnie niezmiernie cieszy. Choć nie, właściwie, to dwie. XMO:W będzie grą nastawioną na akcję, toteż nie uświadczymy w niej sekcji typowo skradankowych. Typowo, ponieważ przez wszelkie tego rodzaju miejscówki będzie można przejść zarówno zostawiając za sobą mięso mielone jak i pozbywając się po cichu ofiar. Dokładnie ten sam patent pojawi się także w nowym Batmanie. Drugą cieszącą mnie nowinką jest fakt braku quick time eventów. Autorzy mówią, że chcieli je w swojej grze, ale kiedy uświadomili sobie, że najbardziej sycące akcje będą przerywane wielgachną ikonką guzika do wciśnięcia zwątpili. Zamiast tego postawili na interaktywne przerywniki. Już tłumaczę na przykładzie jak ma to wyglądać: w misji w dżunglii gracz w pewnym momencie ma przejść przez most zawieszony nad przepaścią. Jednak kiedy tylko wbiega na niego z przodu i z tyłu otaczają go wrodzy żołnierze, co pokazuje krótka scenka. Z niej niezauważalnie przechodzimy do gry, gdzie trzeba dostać się na drugi koniec mostu, więc nabijamy biedaków na szpony, a kiedy uda się dotrzeć do wyznaczonego miejsca znów włącza się filmik i most zostaje przecięty (kojarzycie Indiana Jones i Świątynia Zagłady?). Logan trzymający się resztek przejścia zmuszony jest do walki z pozostałymi oprychami po rozwaleniu których odpala się kolejna cutscenka.

Trzeba przyznać, że zapowiada się nader ciekawie, z takim podejściem gra po prostu nie może się nie udać. Poprzednie dwa wybryki na podstawie drugiego i trzeciego filmu były średnio fajne, na szczęście już dziś, mając do dyspozycji tylko trailer i zapowiedzi, można powiedzieć, że X-Men Origins: Wolverine będzie przynajmniej dobry.

Miesiąc po Loganie zaatakuje Bruce Wayne w poszarzałych kalesonkach. Biedny Batman rzadko dostaje jakąś grę dla siebie, ostatnio miał swoją szansę przy premierze Początku. Choć może to i dobrze, przynajmniej on nie jest zbyt często bezczeszczony. W każdym razie, Batman Begins był podobno niezłą, choć krótką grą. Wcześniej kojarzę tylko Batman Vengeance i Rise of Sin Tsu, też nie takie złe pozycje, a ostatnia gra z Nietoperzem w jaką grałem, to The Adventures of Batman & Robin ze SNESa. Staroć, ale mega miodny. No ale nie o tym miałem pisać.

Azyl Arkham rozpoczyna się w momencie złapania Jokera przez Batmana. Kiedy Mroczny Rycerz dostarcza klauna do domu wczasowego ten wszczyna bunt i okazuje się, że cała ta akcja została zaplanowana. Batman i pracownicy ośrodka zostają zamknięci razem z więźniami. Dzieje się grubo. Oczywiście strażnikowi Gotham mogą naskoczyć, bo sam wydostanie się bez problemu, ale co z resztą? Batman postanawia dowiedzieć się co skłoniło Jokera do tego przewrotu i skończyć z nim raz na pewien czas. O fabule warto pamięć, ponieważ scenariusz napisał sam Paul Dini (scenarzysta kreskówkowych przygód bohatera, ostatnio serialu Lost), więc na pewno będzie ciekawie.

Gra stawia na modny ostatnimi czasy free roaming, lecz zamiast puszczać Nietoperza na miasto autorzy pozwalają nam pobiegać po wariatkowie. Oczywiście bezsensowne błądzenie po korytarzach ośrodka nie jest celem nadchodzącej gry, Batman co jakiś czas będzie otrzymywał nowe informacje o uwięzionych i miejscach do których powinien się udać od Wyroczni (Barbara Gordon, była Batgirl), która będzie jedyną jego pomocą. Zero Robina. Mroczny Rycerz, jak na badassa przystało, wie, że to on jest tu panem, dlatego pewnie chadza po Arkham, wykorzystując strach i zaskoczenie przeciwko pensjonariuszom. Tu pojawia się podobieństwo do wyżej opisanych przygód Wolverine’a, ponieważ Batman będzie mógł obijać brzydkie mordy zarówno z pieśnią na ustach jak i skradając się. Z tą tylko różnicą, że to on jest tu drapieżnikiem. Oprócz tego przydadzą się także jego detektywistyczne umiejętności do rozwiązywania zagadek rodem z CSI. O nich niestety jak na razie autorzy nie wspominają.

Gdyby nie zaprezentowany niedawno gameplay (do obejrzenia poniżej) pozostałoby samo gdybanie, na szczęście już wiemy jak gra sprawdza się w akcji. Trudno nie być pod wrażeniem animacji ruchów Batmana, widać po nim, że czuje się pewnie jakby szedł na popołudniową herbatkę. Do tego jego sylwetka, Nietoperz jest wielki i budzi respekt nawet u gracza, co dopiero u jakiegoś podrzędnego bandziora. Podobnie zresztą prezentuje się reszta ważnych postaci, które trochę zmieniły się od komiksowych występów. Ale zdziwienia nie mam zamiaru psuć Wam screenami, wystarczy, że będziecie czekać na Jokera, Harley, Killer Croca, Bane’a, Riddlera i wielu innych, dobrze wszystkim znanych super kryminalistów. Aha, ważna rzecz, powracają Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill i Arleen Sorkin. Fani wiedzą, że warto się cieszyć.

Właściwie jedyne czego można się obawiać, to samo studio Rocksteady, Arkham jest dopiero drugą ich grą. Ale jak na razie wygląda wyśmienicie, powinno być dobrze. No, starczy, słowa nie zastąpią obrazu, oglądnijcie ten arcyciekawy materiał z Batma: Arkham Asylum.

Ostatnia z gier, Ostateczne Przymierze Marvela 2: Fuzja, wychodzi gdzieś pod koniec roku w miesiącach jesiennych. O nią właściwie nie ma co się bać, ponieważ może być tylko lepsza od pierwszej części. Choć zamiast Raven wzięli się za nią Vicarious Vision, który do tej pory trzaskali tylko porty poprzednich gier Kruków na mniej ważne sprzęty i skodowali genialnego Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro na PSXa.

Fabularnie MUA2 rozpoczyna się wydarzeniami z Secret War, czyli małej inwazji Nicka Fury’ego i grupy super bohaterów na Latverię, ciągnąc się aż do końca Civil War, będącego największym i najbardziej znaczącym konfliktem dotykającym całego uniwersum Marvela. Fani od kilku lat czekali na ujęcie tych wydarzeń w grze, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows delikatnie zasugerował, że niedługo może do tego dojść, Fusion nareszcie pozwoli nam stanąć po stronie Kapitana lub Iron Mana. Kogo Wy popieracie?

Druga część pod względem gejmpleju nie odbiegnie zbytnio od pierwszej, wciąż będzie to action RPG z kamerą zawieszoną nad głowami czteroosobowej drużyny herosów. Drzewka rozwoju, levelowanie, zbieranie przedmiotów, to wszystko zostaje na swoim miejscu. Największa zmiana czeka łączenie mocy, czyli tytułową fuzję. W pierwszej części użycie w tym samym momencie dwóch odpowiednich technik owocowało prostym połączeniem ich nazw i zwiększeniem siły, dwójka natomiast wprowadzi całkowitą zmianę wyglądu i działania ciosu - Human Torch i Storm stworzą razem płonące tornado, Spidey zawiesi przeciwnika pod sufitem, by Iron Man mógł zmasakrować go swoimi promieniami, łapiecie o co chodzi. Mamy dostać orgię wizualną i uśmiechać się bez końca widząc jak ulubieni bohaterowie współdziałają ze sobą. Czy zmieni się coś więcej trudno powiedzieć, bo VV milczą jak grób pokazując nam jedynie dwa trailery, które niestety nie grzeszą piękną grafiką.

Gdyby ktoś pytał o występujące postaci, w jedynce swoją drużynę można było skomponować z ponad dwudziestu herosów, a w samej grze wystąpiło ich spokojnie kilkudziesięciu. Myślę, że dwójka przebiję ich liczbę przynajmniej dwukrotnie, w końcu w Wojnie Domowej brała udział większość bohaterskiej nacji Ameryki. Co ciekawe, decyzje gracza mają mieć na tyle duży wpływ na rozgrywkę i fabułę, że stając po jednej stronie konfliktu będzie można przeciągnąć do siebie kogoś, kto w komiksach pilnował drugiej strony barykady, czego najlepszym dowodem jest sparowanie Iron Mana i Wolverine’a w zwiastunie.

Jak wspomniałem na początku, o Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Fusion boję się najmniej, Vicarious Vision mają po prostu przebić albo przynajmniej dorównać pierwszej części, nie ma bata by to zchrzanili. Jeśli wszystko pójdzie zgodnie z planem, gra stanie na mojej półce obok starszej o prawie trzy lata poprzedniczki.

Shinigami

Przy okazji, to jest nasz setny wpis, możecie gratulować wytrwałości

Venom makes himself very much at home.

With great franchises, come great responsibility. No, I’m not quoting Uncle Ben, I’m quoting myself, damnit. The thing with Spiderman games is they can either be stunningly brilliant, Spiderman 2 for example, or horrifyingly bad, like the film-to-video game incarnation of the first Tobey Maguire film. It’s a nightmare getting it all right, but if you’ve got the right tools, a taste for sandbox game development, and a colossal passion for comics, it’ll be a success.

Spidey: Web of Shadows is most definitely a success. From the moment you hear Tobey Maguire’s voice vanish from underneath the ‘ole Red and Blue, you know things will be different, and Spiderman will be a lot less wimpy. I for one, actually prefer Tobey Maguire. He looks, sounds like and is Spiderman, to me; slightly annoying, funny when he wants to be, and intimidatingly furious whenever things go sour for our arachnid hero.

You’re essentially playing in Manhattan, though sadly it is just Manhattan, this time. Spiderman 2 was a lot more open-ended due to the added Roosevelt island and various other additional landmasses that made the gameplay area a lot bigger. However, with the amount of things to do in Spidey, there’s not much reason to expand the area past 20 by 100 blocks or so. The atmosphere is brilliant, people walking around, driving cars, sitting in parks, gang warfare, street crime; it’s New York as you know it, just with the added superhero element.

You could say you’re going to see this vision of New York through two very different pairs of eyes; those of Peter Parker, hero of the people, and the white, soulless eye-sockets of his Venom-skinned counterpart. At the click of the left analogue stick, you can switch between the old-school suit and the slick, black, evil costume that comes with a lot of physical power, though ends up as a magnet for police bullets, as if you’re not bothering to save anyone and constantly making evil choices, people aren’t going to be your biggest fans.

Honestly, the most frustrating choices come in the form of whether or not to be good and bad on a personal level. Spiderman’s history with Black Cat stretches back tens of years in comic book history, and she’s probably a pretty darn sore subject for Mary Jane. So, you can either side with the good girlfriend, made to look “tough” by dressing her like a deranged prostitute and adding a combat shotgun, or side with the even more whorish Felicia, who’s catsuit is questionable to begin with.

What the hell is wrong with game developers? Where’s the choice there? There’s no good person for Spiderman to be with, simply two complete nutcases who dress like they’ve just stumbled out of a club at four in the morning. I’m not a woman, but my God, even I find that extremely offensive. Predictably, Black Cat gets her suit slashed to ribbons at one point in the storyline, and lo and behold, my “frat boy” alarm starts to go into overdrive. Soul Calibur, Spiderman, X-Blades, Bikini Samurai Squad, Flirt Up Your Life… it’s all getting worse and worse. I’m all for freedom of expression, but borderline pornography is something I’ll never support. If you’ve got Xbox Live, and therefore an internet connection, go to seedier places to get this odd “fix” of yours, and stop polluting entertainment.

Ranting aside (you got off lightly, trust me), the actual game itself is very engaging. Swinging around feels as natural as it did in Spiderman 2, even though my girlfriend was clever enough to point out that half the time, the web isn’t actually attatching to anything. Seriously, pan the camera up 90 degrees and watch that sucker float in mid-air. It’s disturbing. That said, I think the camera needs a ton of work in general. When locked onto something, you’ve got two choices. Up, or down. The camera will either face your feet or the sky, and there’s no in-between to help you out, here.

It makes combat difficult, which is irritating because combat in Spidey is ridiculously complex to begin with. I’ve never seen so many hidden quick-time events in a title before, not to mention the obligatory four quick-time button pushes in order to defeat every single boss fight in the game. Look, guys, just because you’re telling the player to “press X just before you reach the bad guy” doesn’t mean I’m not going to translate that as “press X to not die”. I’m not stupid. I’m fine with open quicktime events. Bar the odd time-based button mashing, the regenerative health system is actually remarkably well balanced. Low on health, you’ll have to make sure you’re hiding for a fair while in order for it to return, but then again, swinging around on the same web so they can’t hit you for a minute and a half also does the same trick, disappointingly.

The graphics are, sadly, only what can be expected from a game that contains thousands of character models, and at least fifty to a hundred on screen at any one time. GTA IV was a brilliant game, but the graphics were questionable at times. Spidey suffers from a serious drop in frame rate when you’re swinging through the city at serious speed. I know my Elite makes a ton of damn noise as it is unless I install my games to the hard drive, but Jesus, I could really hear the thing chugging to make sure I didn’t swing into a fifty-story wireframe box instead of a skyscraper.

The missions are varied enough, with everything from evacuation supervision to flying about getting samples from the Venom-possessed locals, and they’re good for extra experience and passing the time. Experience is pretty important, as if you want the best moves, you’ll be paying through the nose for them at the Upgrades screen. Luckily, the game’s fairly generous with it, and you’re rewarded with more for mixing up your combos and the ways in which you despatch your foes on the New York battlefield.

A ton of old faces make an appearance, though my hands-down favourite has to be Wolverine. The moment he arrives, he attempts to kill you, on the assumption the Venom parasite has taken you over completely. He then, oddly, subjects you to several rounds of Marvel comic trivia questions before you can beat him. Erm. What? Now, I can understand questions like “what’re your parents names?” with trick answers like “Uncle Ben and Aunt May”, but “who refused to join the New Avengers?” Seriously guys, are you even looking at the target demographic? They’re not going to know that. I got a couple right, but most were trial and error. What’s worse is, you get Black Points (evil karma, evil points, you know the drill by now) for getting them wrong. Tell me if I’m whining too much, but isn’t that a bit unfair to someone trying to be a good character and being punished for not being Stan Lee?

All this aside, it’s an enjoyable experience, and with around 2260 collectible Spider-icons sitting around the city, not to mention side missions, unlockable moves and other content, this will last you quite a while. If you can get past the corrupted-by-men look of Mary Jane and CatWoman (which I did, just about, with a lot of groaning), it’s worth renting it at least. Which is, coincidentally, exactly what I did. In fact, I originally asked for SFIV and they sent me this as that was out of stock. Nice bit of luck there. It’s just a shame you can’t get Spidey to choose neither woman at the end of the game, really. He’d be a hero I’d look up to, then.

By my estimation, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows has no excuses. Its open world is predicated on the same approach founded by Spider-Man 2 in 2004, so the groundwork is practically already in place for improvement. Secondly, pre-release videos managed to get people excited (myself included) with its focus on seemingly innovative mid-air combat and cinematic battles. And lastly, the absence of a coinciding movie release hanging over Shaba Games’ shoulders should have granted them a little more time to make a truly great Spidey game. So where did it all go wrong?

New York City unwittingly finds itself in quite a state, becoming infested with the symbiote virus that classic villain Venom releases at the beginning of the game. Several Marvel characters are introduced to shovel a pretty awful and uninteresting plot about quarantining the city from the infested citizens. Even hardened Marvel fans will more than likely shy away from the hammy dialogue and terrible voice acting. I’ve never heard such a supposedly heroic figure like Spider-Man sound so much like a whiney, Halo-addicted tween.

As you progress through each subsequent mission, the repetition that precedes the last categorises grinding to new heights of tedium. Fighting skills you unlock tend to be useless in practice, with their minor complexity of combos being hampered by the easier method of just button-mashing until you win. You could argue that if you’re proposed with more interesting attacks than the initial set then it makes sense to use them; but when mindlessly abusing the basics works with little challenge in return, there’s no incentive to. Chaining together attacks in mid-air is the strongest mechanic Web of Shadows has going for it and is accessible enough to begin with, although its viability for defeating large amounts of foes stops being fun when the game essentially forces you to use it over and over again. In the same vein as Crackdown, glowing orbs placed on rooftops and hidden in alleyways are there for collectors to discover, which is an okay distraction.

Swinging through every borough and district is still a lot of easy-to-control fun and although the city itself doesn’t always look favourable (especially from the tops of high buildings), the sense of vertigo you get is palpable. On the whole, however, a very pallid colour pallet is further offset with a plastic-sheen to the game’s inhabitants, a design choice that unfortunately fails to encapsulate a relative comic book vibe. Save for Spidey’s swinging animations, the lack of detail prevents the world from opening up and sucking you in – it just feels sterile to the point of damaging the assets of the Marvel universe. Spidey’s paper-thin webs don’t even connect with buildings at times, instead grasping onto thin-air. That’s just sloppy.

Web of Shadows feels too much like gaming déjà vu. Even though it opens fairly strong, the gameplay doesn’t lend itself well to an entire game and no matter the enemy nor situation thrown, the same mechanics tire over time, simply resulting in an experience that is never incredibly fun, irrespective of how much you invest in its ridiculous story or boring side missions. Everyone’s favourite web-slinger surely deserves better at this point.

Better than Spider-Man 3 (just)

Dull to play

[Review originally posted on XboxElite.co.uk]

Jojopops in no way endorses the views expressed by Wolverine or Spiderman, but we do find them quite amusing. I was playing “Web of Shadows” last night and had to take a couple of photos of the dialogue, mostly because of the reference to “My Face” and “Emo Kiddies” genius! It does seem to a big thing in Marvel games to mention pop-culture as well as the frustrating amount of comic book questions that you need to get right to progress in the game – adds an hour to each fight for me – guess I should read more comics

I’ll preface this review by saying that I am a huge Spider-Man fan. I don’t know when I became a groupie for the wall-crawling arachnid, but I’ve been following his exploits in comics, games, and film for what seems like ages now.

Spider-Man in games, however, has been a rather mixed bag over the decades. Neversoft’s Playstation 1 title “Spider-Man” is probably still one of the best representations of ol’ webhead and his world, while Spider-Man 2 managed to truly capture what it felt like to swing between New York’s skyscrapers. Later games in the series either suffered from poor design, poor combat, or nerfed swinging.

I’d like to say that Web of Shadows is the type of game the Wall-Crawler deserves, but I cannot. Web of Shadows does do some things right, which I’ll address below, but it also misses the mark, in ways that I believe should be no-brainers in the series by now.

First, the good: Combat has been completely reworked from the abysmal Spider-Man 3, and gone is the feeling that Spider-Man’s web and wall antics are separate from his fisticuffs. Combos can be performed on a wall, in the air, and on the ground, with a nice mixture between using his fists and feet, and his webs to subdue foes. The feeling of swinging through the city, spotting a bad guy doing dastardly deeds, then plowing into him with a swinging kick is highly satisfying. The combos are also visually pleasing, with some cool little animations. Being able to rope an enemy with a web and pull yourself towards them for an attack makes fighting in the air a breeze, instead of a chore.

Depending on who you ally yourself with, you can also call upon a support character (like Wolverine, Black Cat, and Luke Cage) to come to your aid during your missions. These support characters are heroes and villains alike as you all try and rid the city of Venom’s “children.” While the feature is, for the most part, useless, it’s nice to have some backup during the “protect this target” quests you get, and things get a little to hairy for Spidey to handle.

Developers Treyarch and Shaba Games also added the use of the Black Suit to Web of Shadows, and I found it to be more enjoyable to wear that costume at all times. It makes Spider-Man stronger, the combos are different from that of the Red and Blue suit (it has it’s own skill tree in the menu), and most importantly, it lets you pick up and throw vehicles, and be an overall jackass to the citizens of the city. I admit to getting a wave of evil glee when I picked up a vehicle with passengers inside, and chucked it into a busy intersection, causing a massive explosion that destroyed all the cars in the vicinity, and sending people flying everywhere.

This evil comes at the price of “Black Points,” which counter the “Red Points,” and don’t seem to do much but alter the alignment meter and change which support characters Spidey can call on for help. I’d love to see this mechanic explored deeper in future Spider-Man games, because as most of us gamers all know, it’s so much more fun to be the bad guy, or at least an anti-hero.

Swinging through the city is as enjoyable as it’s been since Spider-Man 2, and I don’t have any complaints about that, to be honest.

So, combat is fun, swinging is fun, and they are arguably the largest parts of a Spider-Man game, so what’s the problem?

Well, everything else is where Web of Shadows falls apart.

First off is the story, which is decent enough (Venom infects the city with symbiotes, turning the citizens of New York into mini-Venoms), and is better than the stories of most of the Spidey games as of late. The way the story is presented is through cutscenes as you’d expect, and it’s unraveled via missions you do for characters ranging from Black Cat, to Luke Cage, to Black Widow and even the Kingpin himself.

Unfortunately, all of these missions ultimately end up being “Defeat this number of thugs.” In short, developers Treyarch and Shaba Games have turned Spider-Man into an MMO grind. You can’t progress along the story until you defeat the same enemies over and over and over again. While the combat is enjoyable, it wears on you after you’ve killed your 200th thug with the same attack, just so you can unlock the next set of skills and combos.

There are citizens that need saving, and it’s enjoyable to swoop in, grab them up in your arms and swing them to safety as only Spider-Man can do, but a troublesome lock on system often has you targeting a bad guy instead, and poor old Mr. Citizen finds themself turned into a symbiote before you can retarget and grab them.

Throughout the game, Spider-Man will also be faced with “Black Suit Choices,” and “Red Suit Choices,” which will affect which of the two endings of the game you recieve. Unfortunately, this does very little to affect the world around you. Like the Black and Red point system, I’d have loved to see this “Moral Choice” system fleshed out, and really worked into the game in a meaningful way. If Spidey has been throwing cars and knocking people down throughout the whole game, I want the citizens and heroes to react. I want them to chuck bottles at Spider-Man’s head, or have S.H.E.I.L.D. members intervene and try to bring you down, and if that doesn’t work, heroes like Captain America, Iron Man, Luke Cage, etc, step in to offer a random boss battle to bring the out of control web-head down.

The visuals are decent enough, but far below what we expect sandbox titles to be this generation. There’s practically no lighting and shadow effects, weak texture work, and outside of Spider-Man himself, poor character animations. It’s not a complete loss, as the last half of the game has portions of the city covered in symbiotic goo, and set ablaze, which was a nice change of pace from the spotless New York from the first half of the game.

My biggest complaint with Web of Shadows, however, is the voice acting for Spider-Man himself. I don’t know how old he is supposed to be in this title, but he sounds like a whiny 15 year old, even though characters like Mary Jane, Black Cat, Luke Cage, Wolverine, Moon Knight, etc, sound like mature adults. Spidey’s wisecracks during dialogue often fall flat (with very few genuinely funny moments; although a dialogue about Luke Cage’s old costume, replete with tiara did get me to chuckle, albiet silently), and the humor in the title is either forced, or just not delivered very well by the actor playing Spidey. Hell, the kid from Ultimate Spider-Man, or even Tobey Maguire would have been a better choice. I think my teeth literally grated in my jaw whenever Spider-Man would open his mouth to talk.

With all that said, I admit that I really enjoyed Web of Shadows, and spent a nice amount of time playing the game, even if it was doing the same mission over and over again. Swinging through the city and combat have been improved so much that it really was a joy to be Spider-Man again. A feeling I haven’t felt since the Neversoft original back in the Playstation days.

Even though I’m a diehard Spider-Man fan, I can’t recommend this game as a purchase, however. It simply isn’t worth your $60. I purchased the game, because what can I say, I’m a sucker for the web-head, but my final verdict for everyone else is:

RENTAL – The title is fun, and has it’s merits, but your money is better spent elsewhere. A rental should be all you need to get your Spider-Man fix. If you’re a diehard Spidey fan like myself, then I highly recommend it as a rental, and if you dig it like I do, a purchase.

Bad-Ass-Mo-Fo-Wolverine-Venom

Thursday is ebay hunting day, and the above is my find of the week, some skillfull model making dude has designed a Wolvie-Venom combo as seen in the new spider-man game Web of Shadows (which better not be crap as it’s my next big buy), its on eBay current bidding stands at $26, which works out at about £15. If I had this figure I would hide in the beds of small children as part of my continuing efforts to traumatise the worlds youth.

This is one bad ass bad boy super boy. Kinda a mixture of emo meets new romantic look, apparently this one is from when superboy was found out to be under that evil old baldy Lex Luthors powers, hence the skin head and the L….. for Lex. Only problem is superboys subtle limp wrists, implying perhaps Lex’s evil plan is for Superboy to get it on with Beast Boy.

currently  going for $80

http://cgi.ebay.com/Superboy-Evil-DC-Direct-Teen-Titans-Custom_W0QQitemZ140251360870QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

A pretty damn sexy game ina pretty damn sexy box

 Fallout 3 is a game which makes you feel like nuking a small town is not only a laugh, but your duty as a decent human being. Us poor bastards in England only got the bobble head in the special edition, while in the US of A vault dwelers are treated to the classy as fuck pip boy clock, normally this has been going on Ebay for over $150, this one is for $85, which is still a bit of a rip for what amount’s to a LCD clock, but look at it, it’s a Pipboy, A PIPBOY, I NEED IT.

No hay duda de que Spiderman es el superhéroe más prolífico del mundo de los videojuegos. Por algo es el personaje abanderado de Marvel, habiendo aparecido ya en más de una treintena de títulos como protagonista y en otros tantos como artista invitado. De la mano de Treyarch, conocidos principalmente por ser los desarrolladores de las entregas de Call of Duty que no realiza Infinity Ward además de los títulos basados en la trilogía de Sam Raimi, nos llega lo que sin duda es el mejor título hasta la fecha del trepamuros, recogiendo todo lo mejor de las últimas entregas y añadiendo un argumento y diseño de enorme calidad. Nueva York está sufriendo una plaga de simbiontes, y sólo Spiderman puede detenerlos, pero para ello deberá recurrir a utilizar el traje alienígena que tantos problemas le ha ocasionado en el pasado. ¿Seremos buenos o por una vez nos decantaremos por “el lado oscuro”?

Artículo para Rincongamer

Argumento:

En esta ocasión el juego está ambientado en la continuidad tradicional de los cómics, ubicándonos en la situación que Spiderman ha vivido durante los últimos años hasta la llegada de la polémica saga “Un día más”, por lo que lo veremos felizmente casado con Mary Jane y codeándose con los miembros de los Nuevos Vengadores, agrupación de la que forma parte.

La historia gira en torno a una extraña plaga que comienza a extenderse por la isla de Manhattan a medida que avanzamos en la aventura, donde nos daremos cuenta que se trata del simbionte alienígena de Veneno, la conocida Némesis del personaje, que busca por todos los medios propagarse y poseer a todos los habitantes de la ciudad. Por mucho que las autoridades o nosotros mismos intentemos frenar la invasión, la situación se hará insostenible, y la propia Shield, administración independiente del gobierno para asuntos relacionados con superhéroes, pondrá en cuarentena la ciudad y tendremos que hacer lo posible por evacuar a los supervivientes y erradicar el problema de raíz.

El guionista Brian Reed comenzó su relación con el personaje cuando ejerció de productor en el título Ultimate Spiderman. Actualmente trabaja como guionista en la propia Marvel, con aportaciones a cómics de la envergadura de la última macrosaga de la compañía, “Invasión Secreta”. Reed ha utilizado varios personajes secundarios tanto del rico plantel del trepamuros, como del universo Marvel en general, para enriquecer el hilo argumental del juego. Interactuaremos con caras conocidas como El Buitre, Veneno, Electro, Rhino, Kingpin o la Gata Negra, así como con otros originales y carismáticos secundarios como Luke Cage, Lobezno, El caballero luna o La viuda negra.

En la dualidad está el gusto:

Uno de los mayores atractivos a la hora de jugar radica en la posibilidad de vivir la aventura eligiendo diferentes alternativas, motivadas por la capacidad de nuestro héroe de alternar en el transcurso de su periplo entre el traje rojo y el alienígena. Tanto en los cómics como en la tercera parte de la saga cinematográfica vimos como cuando Peter Parker viste el simbionte se ve inducido a actuar de forma violenta y radical, lo que va totalmente en contra de sus ideales y hace de contrapunto a la fuerza sobrehumana que es capaz de desarrollar cuando lo porta.

Aquí sucederá lo mismo, podremos cambiar de traje en todo momento de forma instantánea, haciendo que al llevar cada uno de ellos utilicemos un estilo de combate y unos movimientos totalmente diferentes. A medida que superemos “misiones” y derrotemos enemigos, ganaremos puntos de experiencia con los que compraremos nuevos movimientos y golpes para cada uno de los trajes, aunque algunos no tendrán demasiada utilidad y acabaremos realizando casi siempre los mismos de siempre. Además, en momentos clave de la aventura se nos dará la posibilidad de elegir cómo resolver determinadas situaciones, si de forma honorable o con malas artes, lo que nos irá otorgando puntos de honor o maldad según las decisiones que tomemos, y que en última instancia hará variar el desarrollo de varias partes de la aventura así como la conclusión final, lo que hace atractiva la posibilidad de rejugarlo para ver diferentes alternativas.

Gráficos:

Como todo buen sandbox que se precie, disponemos de una enorme extensión de terreno que corresponde a la isla de Manhattan, y que adquiere una nueva dimensión jugable (la vertical) al tener total libertad a la hora de balancearnos por los edificios. El nivel de detalle no llega a las cotas de barroquismo minimalista de GTAIV, eterno baremo de medición en estos casos, pero cumple de sobra a la hora de mostrarnos una gran variedad de edificios y vida en las calles en forma de peatones, vehículos y mobiliario urbano de forma bastante ágil, máxime si tenemos en cuenta el frenesí y la velocidad con la que nos moveremos de un lugar a otro dada la extrema velocidad del protagonista.

Los modelos poligonales de los personajes son bastante satisfactorios, cumpliendo su cometido sin alcanzar grandes proezas. Algunos diseños son incluso mejores que sus análogos del cómic a lo largo de su historia, como los trajes de Electro, el Caballero Luna o Rhino. Las expresiones faciales son bastante agraciadas en cuanto a lo que desean transmitir, remarcando las escenas de La Gata Negra, cuya personalidad ha sido perfectamente representada, estando a buen nivel en general. Los enemigos, aunque no demasiado variados, cumplen igualmente: Ladronzuelos callejeros, terroristas con servoarmadura y diferentes tipos de simbiontes son algunos de los escollos a los que deberemos hacer frente. Quizás los modelados menos agraciados sean los de los transeúntes que deambulan por la ciudad, resultando algo inertes y mecánicos.

Sin muchas filigranas gráficas, este “Reino de las sombras” luce bastante bien en su conjunto. Las animaciones son bastante acertadas, en especial las del protagonista, pues no se cansa uno de ver la soltura con la que salta entre los edificios, siendo muchos de los movimientos calcos de lo que pudimos ver en las películas, aunque todo es fruto de un reaprovechamiento del material de los títulos anteriores por parte de Treyarch, que ha sabido tomar lo necesario y rehacer lo que no estaba a la altura en todos los ámbitos.

Música y sonido:

El acompañamiento musical hace mucho más intensa la experiencia de juego gracias a unas melodías orquestales que siguen los pasos y acordes de la obra de Danny Elfman para la saga cinematográfica. Las melodías que escuchamos casan completamente con la escena que estemos presenciando, siendo además totalmente interactivas al variar según estemos balanceándonos por la ciudad en solitario, combatiendo a los enemigos y para más inri, según el traje que llevemos, oscureciéndose la instrumentación al igual que nuestro traje.

El juego está totalmente doblado al castellano, aunque no con demasiado acierto. La dirección de doblaje es meramente testimonial, y la interpretación de algunos personajes denota cierta dejadez al no relacionarse la entonación con la situación en la que se está diciendo. Es una lástima dado el excelente trabajo por parte de los dobladores yankees, que utilizaron a algún que otro artista de renombre para las voces, como Tricia Helfer para dar vida a la Gata Negra, conocida por muchos por su papel del ajente Cyclon nº 6 en la serie Battlestar Galactica. De todas formas, siempre tendremos la posibilidad de cambiar el idioma de la consola en el dashboard para disfrutar del reparto original. A gusto del consumidor.

El resto de apartados sonoros cumple sin más. Golpes, explosiones y el permanente latigazo de nuestro fluido arácnido al lanzarlo serán el pan de cada día mientras juguemos.

Jugabilidad:

Como ya he comentado anteriormente, el juego sigue una estructura de sandbox con total libertad para deambular por la ciudad, aunque además de Manhattan visitaremos otros lugares como la prisión de la isla Rickter o el helitransporte de Shield. Los pnjs nos encomendarán misiones de diversa índole que consistirán en acabar con un número determinado de enemigos, viajar a cierto lugar, recoger objetos, defender alguna zona o perseguir a personajes, amén de otras tantas situaciones originales. Además, nos encomendarán varias misiones secundarias con las que adquirir experiencia y por lo tanto, mejoras de combate. El argumento está hilado tan fino que la variedad de situaciones, lugares y personajes con los que interactuamos hace que no encontremos ningún atisbo de monotonía, salvo en las misiones secundarias que no son más que repetir las mismas acciones un número de veces, en su mayoría acabar con determinado número de enemigos.

Para realizar todas estas tareas dispondremos de un enorme abanico de posibilidades a la hora de movernos por la ciudad. Spiderman, además de balancearse con su red y realizar diversos combos, puede caminar y pelear en vertical, pegado a las paredes de los edificios, o incluso ir saltando de un enemigo a otro aunque este no tenga sus pies en tierra. Gracias a esto se presentan momentos tan memorables como un combate aéreo contra el Buitre, en el que tendremos que ir saltando de un enemigo volador a otro para alcanzarle y no caer al vacío. Y es que las peleas contra los “bosses” son el plato fuerte del juego, pues si bien la dificultad general del título no es demasiado alta, son en estos momentos cuando tendremos que sudar la gota gorda y elaborar enrevesadas estrategias para acabar con nuestro objetivo, además de verse aderezadas las escenas cinemáticas en estos momentos con los ya típicos “quick time events” en los que tendremos que pulsar los botones que nos vayan marcando en el instante oportuno.

Otro entretenimiento del que dispondremos será la recolección de 2000 marcadores araña esparcidos a lo largo, ancho y alto de la ciudad. Estos harán que aumente nuestra velocidad y capacidad de balanceo progresivamente, existiendo once niveles de progresión a medida que los encontremos.

El juego no es demasiado largo, y siguiendo exclusivamente la historia principal podremos acabarlo sin ningún problema en unas diez horas. Dependiendo de las decisiones que tomemos y el camino que escojamos existirán hasta cuatro finales diferentes, por lo que la experiencia es bastante rejugable, dadas las diferencias argumentales y conceptuales que hay entre portar el traje normal o el simbiótico. Una de las mayores críticas al respecto que se lee por ahí es que si comenzamos una nueva partida perderemos todos nuestros progresos y perderemos todos los marcadores recolectados y habilidades adquiridas, pero no es así. Al acabar el juego, eligiendo en el menú principal “continuar partida” y visionando un par de veces los créditos finales volveremos al inicio del juego manteniendo todas las mejoras, con lo que todos los jugadores completistas lo tendrán más fácil a la hora de llegar al tope de experiencia.

Conclusiones:

Que estemos ante el mejor juego de Spiderman a la fecha no quiere decir que esté carente de fallos y cosas por pulir. A veces existen problemas con la cámara, sobre todo cuando corremos verticalmente por una pared, se echa en falta un mayor número de enemigos y la duración global del título deja un poco que desear. Aun así, gracias a un guión tan trabajado, una fabulosa labor artística y un control más que llevadero, disfrutaremos como nunca metiéndonos en la piel de nuestro héroe arácnido.

Nota: 8

Faz anos que Homem-Aranha vem ganhando jogos horrendos. Uma reciclagem em cima de outra reciclagem. Com missões repetitivas e que pouco acresciam a franquia. Web of Shadow veio para melhorar um pouco a qualidade da franquia. Sem a carga de ser baseado num filme, a produtora pode muito bem relaxar e fazer um game mais divertido do Aranha consertando vários erros dos games anteriores. Ainda não chegou na fórmula perfeita óbviamente, entretanto, pela primeira vez em anos, temos um game do Aranha que vela a pena ser jogado. Clique em “mais” e continue lendo!

Dados Técnicos
Plataforma analisada: Xbox 360
Players: 1 Player [off-line]
Desenvolvedora: Shaba Games
Distribuidora: Activision
Lançamento: 21/Out/2008

Web of Shadows é uma montanha russa…

Esse acaba sendo a melhor definição, pois o game está cheio de altos e baixos. Existem vários motivos pelo qual os gamers poderiam ignorar este game apenas com base na experiência dos games anteriores da série, entretanto a Shaba Games conseguiu fugir o máximo desde estigmas e o resulta é um melhor game do Homem Aranha do que vimos em anos. Para se ter uma idéia, como o game é um Sandbox, achei que a variedade de missões é muito mais diversificada que a de Grand Thef Auto 4, por exemplo, que resume-se apenas de ir para um lugar ao outro e matar o que se mover. Web of Shadows trás o herói percorrendo carros, resgatando civis em altos de prédios, defendendo locais e fazendo o possível para combater uma investação de simbioses que coloca toda Nova York em perigo. Claro que GTA IV tem outras qualidades melhores e não é este o mérito da questão, e sim de que finalmente apareceu um game do herói da Marvel ontem o gamer não fica naquela de sensação de estar fazendo a mesma coisa a todo o momento.

O gameplay também impressiona pelo equilibrio em que os movimentos do Aranha são destravados aos poucos e não logo no início para não deixar o game tão fácil. O sistema de combate aéreo foi melhorado dando agora aquele efeito em camera lenta para que o jogador possa escolher o que fazer e qual combo executar. Também vale um elogio para a Nova York digital que vai mudando ao longo do game de uma cidade cheios de pessoas comuns a uma cidade invadida por simbioses zumbis e prédios gosmentos.

Ainda falta muito, é claro, para que seja um game desafiador. Não há momentos de Game Over. Você até pode falhar numa missão aqui e ali, mas não é nada de difícil. A questão aqui é se divertir pelas situações que o game impõem e é claro, pelo prazer de se balançar para tudo quanto é lado numa cidade digital, mesmo que esta careça de mais detalhes interativos (não há um prédio onde seja possível entrar).

A Shaba conseguiu colocar no game um sistema de parceria que quase chega a ser interessante. É possível ao longo do game convocar um inimigo derrotado ou amigo conhecido para se juntar a batalhas. Um recurso dispensável se for pensar, pois são difíceis os momentos em que não é possível dar conta sozinho. Não seria muito melhor permitir que estes parceiros pudessem serem controlados por um segundo player. Não estou pedindo para que seja feito algo como o horrível Spider-Man Friend or Foe do ano passado, porém jogar com amigos é sempre mais divertido.

Os gráficos desta vez não fazem feio, apesar dos contantes slowdowns, no terceiro ato do game – Invasão. O som agrada em alguns aspectos e irrita em outros. As vozes estão sensacionais e tem uma bela interpretação, já a música chega a ser irritante pela falta de variação. Em dezenas de momentos ela acaba e eu fiquei mais aliviado por andar pela cidade no silêncio do que com a música. Os efeitos sonoros também cumprem o que prometido, principalmente os golpes e cenários sendo quebrados.

Em termos de replay o game não chega a impressionar, mas também não abandona por completo quem procura algo mais depois de fechar o game. Existem 2.160 símbolos do Aranha para coletar e o game traz 2 finais, um com o uniforme Vermelho e outro com o uniforme Negro. Digo que ambos são bacanas. Tais finais são alcançados através de decisões tomadas ao longo do game onde há a opção de escolher a decisão correta ou a decisão errada.

Acertos e Furadas!

* O primeiro ponto positivo do game é bem claro: Esqueça a porcaria dos games do Aranha baseados em filmes. A Shaba Games fez um trabalho excelente em Web Of Shadows em dezenas de aspectos. A produtora fez uma bela faxina na franquia e trouxe bastantes variações durante o gameplay.

* Infelizmente nem tudo é perfeito. A versão análisada foi a do X360 e nela havia uma quantidade considerável de slowdons a partir do terceiro ato do game – são 3 atos ao todo – e chega a ser irritante em vários momentos, tanto que o game chegou a travar 2 vezes nas 2 vezes que eu o encerrei. Os slowdons são devidos a imensa quantidade de inimigos e acontecimentos ocorrendo em volta do Aranha, mas se fosse pra isso acontecer, seria melhor se diminuissem então tais elementos, que diversas vezes são mais enfeites do que zonas de gameplay.

* O enredo do game é sensacional. Tem uma boa história e ele é consistente, não há exageros ilógicos. Para se ter uma idéia, o game tem apenas 4 vilões do universo do Aranha: Venom, Rino, Abutre e o Rei do Crime. Ainda há os heróis como Gata Negra, Luke Cage, Wolverine, Cavaleiro da Lua e a Viúva Negra no comando da S.H.I.L.E.D.. Tudo começa numa batalha contra Venom, que começa a infectar Nova York com sua simbiose, incluindo aí Peter Parker. A infecção gradualmente vai ficando maior até tomar toda a Cidade e o caos reinar.

* Certas missões opcionais chegam realmente a irritar. Principalmente no terceiro ato. O game sendo jogado sem cumprir nenhuma destas missões acaba em poucas horas, por isso o jogador deve fazer algumas. No X360 só é recompensado por uma conquista quem fizer tudo. O game dura 3 vezes mais com estes missões.

* O sistema de combate foi muito bem elaborado. O jogador possui 2 Aranhas, o Vermelho e o Negro. Cada um possui um sistema de combo distinto. Fora que os comandos são variadíssimos. Existem combos aéreos, no chão, nas paredes, com teias e por aí vai. O jogo ainda equilibra eles num sistema de compra, ou seja, o jogador cumpre missões principais e opcionais, ganha XP e com elas compra os movimentos.

* O jogo tem excelentes momentos em tratando-se de missões e chefes. A batalha contra o Abutre no meios dos céus de Nova York ou a Batalha no beco contra Wolverine são sensacionais. Algumas missões também impressionam como a que tem como objetivo defender uma Igreja contra dezenas de Simbioses.

Finalizando…

Spider-Man: Web of Shadow consegue subir o nível de qualidade dos games do herói. Acerta muito bem no novo sistema de combate, aposta numa história criativa e bacana para todos os fãs do herói e traz bastante variações para um sistema que tende a ficar se repetindo. Ainda não está perfeito e os slowdowns são irritantes num games na atual geração, entretanto, vale uma alugada e com certeza é esperar e aguardar para que o próximo consiga melhorar mais ainda a franquia.

Treyarch and Activision bring us a new Spiderman game just in time for the holiday season. However, with no new movie in sight, the story is original and not restricted to a preconceived movie script plot. Players will be treated to an original Spiderman adventure that takes place in the heart of New York City. Along the way you’ll run into allies and various other characters from the Marvel Universe as you try to stop an all out symbiote invasion from taking over the inhabitants of NYC.

The Pros
As soon as you enter the game you are thrown into a bevy of conflicts from fighting off a symbiote invasion, to getting caught in the middle of gang war, as well as a conflict within Spidey himself. One of the main aspects of the game is the ability to switch between his traditional Spidey suit and the dark Symbiote suit, each with their own specific moves list and advantages. How often you use each suit and how they sway decisions you make in the game will slightly change who will be your ally when you call for help and how the story progresses and ends.

The action is plentiful enough to keep a player interested if the story doesn’t. You have the ability to meet a number of allies throughout that can come and aide you when help is needed. As you progress through the game your move list for each suit will evolve as you unlock more attacks. Combat is also open which can happen almost anywhere in the environment. From mid-air, to the side of buildings, there is no real constraint as to where you can take the fight. As the story goes forward you’ll encounter a diverse set of enemies who utilize specific environment settings (like air and the side of buildings) to their advantage and which you must adapt to using your own skill set. The boss battles are also generally fun as you encounter familiar faces. In the battle with Wolverine, he actually tests your knowledge of the Spiderman character since he is in doubt if you are genuinely Spiderman himself.

Spiderman and Wolverine get it on...

As with all recent Spidey games’ swinging through the city is quite enjoyable in itself. Especially with a more open world to roam around, it is definitely the most pleasurable form of transportation in the game from going to point A to B.

The Cons
As you begin the game after the initial action sequence; you start the “training” with Luke Cage that, in ways, sets your expectation for the game ahead. The training with Cage is boring and repetitive. As he shows you new moves, he first makes you try it on him a multitude of times, and then he takes you to a set of gangsters to try to move on multiple times as well, he will then send you on missions to beat up a specific number of the same bad guys. This sets the course for the types of missions you must go on through out the game and as you meet new characters. It’s usually the same type of missions but just at a different point in the story and maybe with a different enemy set. You’ll meet an ally; they ask you to beat up a certain number of bad guys, then you fight a boss where you just end up doing the same moves over and over until they finally die. The missions can be broken down to handful of generic different types that differentiate from one another by the people giving you the missions and the enemy targets.

Spidey's job never ends.

The moves lists for each suit almost seemed insignificant as there was no real reason to apply specific moves in a brawl. Button mashing was the usual plan of attack and every so often you will fall upon one of those special moves that are still pretty spectacular to see (but not necessary). When facing enemies where a specific move is needed to get through them, the game almost overkills it making you do it over and over again until the initial “neat” impression is worn off.

Though it is an original story, it doesn’t seem to delve deep into any specific story line but instead tries to add as much characters and shallow storylines they can fit into the plot. This leads to an archaic plot structure that doesn’t seem to get you attached at all. It doesn’t help that the voice character for Spidey plays the role almost obnoxiously too well.

Here’s the Deal

If you are a fan of Spiderman, the game serves as a good enough fan service for those people with an original story, and plenty of Marvel cameos. If you strip away all the Spidey moves, and characters, the game just becomes a generic brawler. The game is still entertaining in its own way but I suggest you pick this game up (if you really want) after you get through the litany of better games released this season. 6/10
Sean C.

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows definitely takes a unique twist to the previous Spider-Man games. The twist? It’s not based off any films so Trey-Arch had as much freedom as they wished when creating this project, and they definitely took some liberties with that freedom. Did they take too much though? Let’s read on…

I’m a huge fan of the Spider-Man character. Probably one of my favorite Marvel superheroes. That being said, I had a pretty high standard set for this game launch.  For the most part, I would say that I’m pretty pleased with it!

Story starts off comic book style. Really enjoyed the opening sequence in this game and it helped set the mood.  We no longer have the voice talents of Toby to do a half-arsed attempt of being 100% digital Spidey. The new talent is pretty good in some parts, and pretty whiny in other parts… give some, lose some I suppose.  It’s still fitting with the all around feel of the game.

One of the big things this game touts is to make your decision between good and evil.  Based off your decision it can change the face of the city, your enemies, your allies… and all sorts of twists.  This is pulled off fairly decent. The decisions are usually after a boss battle and how you handle the bosses. The one thing that doesn’t make sense is that the story is still set on Spidey going through a tough time from start to finish, so even though I’m 100% good in one saved game, I’m still getting flack from Mary Jane about my behavior.  So, meh.  It’s a nice concept, the ideas are cool, but it’s just a couple of unpolished corners that doesn’t sell me on this aspect.

The combat is probably the biggest highlight of the game other than swinging around town.  The combat is just fun.  There is your basics. You have a ground attack or chained attack button… you then have an Air/Web link button as your two main offenses with some support from throwing webs at the enemies that are just a little quicker than the norm.  The ability to do the Web-Link maneuvers are an absolute blast.  When you are airborne, you shoot out a web and collide with the enemy mid-air, it definitely makes for some memorable, “Hell yeah!” moments. The boss fights have great endings… it’s a pain in the arse to do the same combination of moves over and over and over to wear them down.  The ability to change between Spidey’s Red & Black suits help… but still not quite what I was hoping for.

As mentioned, the swinging around town is a great way to relax, oddly enough.  There’s TONS of crimes that are always happening down in the streets, and plenty of side missions of “Kill 150 of these bad guys” to keep you going down for the occasional knuckle-duster… but it’s just repetitive with that aspect. I wish they would’ve kept in the side-missions such as the pizza delivery gigs, the random civilians in distress, or the races against the clock.  Instead, it’s a straight forward clean the streets type gig with the occasional and very frustrating citizens system.  Occasionally you’ll have a citizen trapped in a burning car in the middle of your heated fight, and you have a split second to save them… however, the auto-lock system makes it really difficult to target the civilian when you have enemies around.  This makes air-borne rescues of civilians a difficult task that usually ended with me earning “Black Points” instead of “Red Points” in the Good/Evil system.  I found that very frustrating.

So… It’s almost everything I was hoping for, the polished combat system brought some life back into it, but even tossing in the favorite heroes and villains didn’t quite impress me as much as I was hoping for.  With a lack of Trophy system for the PS3, and the achievements for XB360 being very… generic at best, I’d have to tag this game with a Rent It quality. Just not what I was hoping for, it was fun, but I’ll probably be trading in my copy after I beat the game. Not really going to bother going through it again as a Black Suited Spidey.

Thanks for reading!

Hey guys! 

You probably have heard of the new Spiderman game, Web of Shadows which is has just been released on Friday. I played the game on the xbox 360 with a mate and it is awesome! 

There’s loads of different moves you can have fun with while you’re out exploring the city. One of the best thing about it is when you can change from the red-costumed Spiderman to the evil dark-suited version of him whenever you like which come fully equip with new abilities too. How great is that?!

There really is character and an overall great feel to this game and you can have so much fun on there for hours on end (I sound like a loser but hey lol). Definitely is the best Spiderman game by far. You should sooo try it out. Let me know what you think =)

ESRB Rating: T
Release Date: 2008-10-21
Genre: Action
Platforms: Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PC Games, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Sony PSP, Xbox 360

To watch the trailer visit Static Multimedia “Spider-Man: Web of Shadows Trailer” Games Video Item

Zombies and spider-man? Okay i dont know about any of you but those two categories sound amazing to me=]. So here is the story, New York city is out of control. In the beginning the city is just rampaging, it’s not like the old spidey games where you just siwing around with nothing to do. Become spider-man in this crime filled game, take contoll from the city tops looking down and soon the invasion will begin. Spider-man becomes infected unleashing his black suit. But is it really worth it? After being infected by the symbiote your black suit is your evil side and rumor says that choosing to use it could alter story line farther into the game. So team up with wolverine and upgrad your characters stats as you fight to save New York city from destruction as Spider-Man. This game was released on Tuesday October 21st, sorry bout the late update, just go see it for yourself=]

GameCrammer, Shae

Holy crap… October is always a pain for gamers… why? Because of the massive amount of heavy titles that get launched.  The titles usually roll into November as well, but let’s have a look at at the current gaming news and all the things I’m looking forward to.

So here it is! Little Big Planet! Due out tomorrow! Due out next week? Well isn’t that a shame.

So, here’s the rundown without following the link.  I’ve been excitedly waiting for Little Big Planet. It’s a great concept of a game which I feel has a very high potential regarding material and uniqueness. So what happened? Media Molecule, the company that created LBP, included a soundtrack which had phrases from the Quh’ran which were potentially offensive. Due to that error, we won’t be seeing this game until next week now.  Ah well.  Win some, lose some, and we’ll just have to be patient a little while longer.

Dead Space: So… I’m really on the fence on this one. This isn’t a title I originally planned on purchasing, however! Now it’s getting rave reviews, all my gaming pals have YET to say a negative thing about this game.  The only review I can find that was remotely negative was the Eurogamer review. Then again, with comments like “the game has basically stolen the meat of the control scheme from Resident Evil 4″ and the tone it carries throughout the review, I get the impression it wasn’t a genuine “how does this game play” approach rather than, “What game did they knock off to steal fame?”

All that aside, I’m hearing nothing but positive things about this game from the people who actually play the game, so I might have to buckle down and go snag a used copy if they have one available yet at my local gamer store.

Now for the next one…

Here we go… you just read it correctly, I have a XBox360 game that I picked up.  All I have to say is… incredible game.

If you’ve not played the first Fable, you won’t be too lost.  The only thing would be the concept of the game but you quickly pick that up as you go along.  Basically you start as a child, which for this game they made it either male or female characters rather than being locked into the male’s perspective. From there, the new elements are just incredible. The dog mechanic is very well thought out, and what I feared would be a tedious “micro-management” task ends up being minimal and actually natural when you reward your dog.  That’s all it really takes to keep the dog loyal is to the occasional treat, or re-encouragement “social actions” with the dog to get it back up to snuff for the challenges at hand.

Other than the new mechanics, the story is very well driven, the co-op gameplay adds a whole new realm of fun to the adventure, and the aspect of every action has a reaction is kicked up into this game.  Very superb and would recommend it for the gaming community.

Now here comes a personal favorite of the gaming world, well, at least since Spider-Man 2!

Here’s the history of the Spider-Man games: Spider-Man’s first sandbox experience appeared… it was nice… except it was really linear, and for some reason you could web onto anything and everything… including buildings that didn’t exist! Which made it easy to web swing you way all over to the Statue of Liberty… Except that there wasn’t the option to go visit Lady Liberty at your own free will anyway.  Spider-Man 2, The Video Game hit.  It made me a happy little geek.  It is, arguably, the best of the Spider-Man games out there.

Enter Web of Shadows… I was sceptic as the last renditions sucked. Both the Spider-Man 3 and the Friend or Foe comic versions of the property were pretty bad.  Then I caught the trailer to this one… it changed my opinion dramatically and I rushed out to reserve it.

Fallout 3… holy !@#&. So… anyone familiar with the series knows that it has a really rich Role-Play element.  It’s a very history rich series with plenty of advantages to being familiar with the world.

Basically… post-apocalyptic world where everything takes form around your actions. Similar concept to the aforementioned Fable 2, but on a higher level of tensity.  It’s touting over 500 endings to the game.  Yes, read that again, 500 endings.  A friend of mine who went to a major gaming conference was treated by a representative of Bethesda Software to that information which… leaves me wondering… is there really 500? If so, holy crap, EVERYTHING I do will have an alteration of the ending.

Lot to digest, but it comes out in a week, so here’s hoping for the rumors to be true! Should be exciting if nothing else.

So that’s my gaming updates! Feel free to leave thoughts and comments on the post.

Me  costo encontrarlos en YouTube, pero aquí están, los últimos dos videos liberados del próximo juego de Spider-Man. El primero es el trailer final (que esta bien bueno) y el segundo es un video casi humorístico de S.H.I.E.L.D diciéndonos como enfrentar y reconocer simbiotes.

Solo un comentario…¡¡QUIERO JUGARLO YA!!

Em 21 de Outubro a cidade de Nova York estará infestada de simbiontes alienigenas. Por isso a S.H.I.E.L.D (Superintendência Humana de Intervenção, Espionagem, Logística e Dissuasão) lançou um video de instruções de como proceder nesta situação.

]]>