So unless you're living in a nuclear fallout shelter somewhere, then you know that Spider-man 3 was released in theaters last week. Along with the movie release was the video game release for Xbox 360. Before fighting through the crowds to see the movie, my fiance surprised me by buying the xbox game for me! I was all kinds of tickled pink, I couldn't have been happier...which is why I almost cried when I found out how much a dissapointment the game was. I can't say I was expecting the next great game after the release of Guitar Hero II and GRAW 2, but knowing how well Spider-man 2 was received with it's web-slinging, button-mashig, Grand-Theft Auto style of play, one would expect something a bit more than what Spider-man 3 the game offered. Actually, a lot more.

As usual, this is no where near a full review, just a crash course on my initial impressions.


First off, the graphics aren't anything to go crazy over. Yes, Spider-man 3 does have it's moments when the graphics are pretty good; namely spider-man himself and the city. But everything else in the game hardly seems like it's made for a next-gen console.

Second, the combat is OK at best, but can be rather dull. Even though you have numerous combos and some pretty awesome sequence moves at your disposal, it all comes down to some random button mashing and hoping for the best. But even that became boring part way through.

The God of War II like Mini-games isn't bad, except that you have no idea that they are coming up so you just have to be ready. At least if you fail you usually start right before the on-screen button matching sequence.

And finally, my biggest gripe with the game....the horrible camera. One of the worst features of the game, the camera never centers itself, and you are constantly fighting with this thing to move where you want it to just so you can see around you! The camera problems get even worse when you're wall crawling and in combat. It seriously feels like the camera just spazzes out. And not in a good way. The camera can get that bad, to the point of serious frustration. There has been plenty of times I've played this game for only 10 minutes and would have to turn it off because the camera seems to trip over itself and then I get nauseated.

Aside from all of that, the most enjoyable moments this game came from web slinging throughout the city. The camera still has it's issues but is a bit more manageable...or stomachable.

But in the end, it was really the whole issues with the camera that turned me off. It just made the game very unplayable for me. And trust me, I wanted to play this game and I wanted to enjoy it. Even more since my fiance was the one that dropped $60 on it.

There will be fans that enjoy this game, and I really hope they do. I'm really hoping that others can have a lot of fun with this, and I'm just part of the small crowd that was overly annoyed with the crack-addicted camera. If you can, read some reviews, rent it, or find a way to play it first before you decide to jump into this game. Spider-man 3 didn't seem like a bad game, just gave me some bad experiences. And as we know, the bad experiences stick around like they know you.

The PC version is good, but controls are insane. I need an Xbox pad.

It could have been a lot better if they'd taken the time to polish it a bit more instead of pushing it out the door to sync up with the movie release.

Quote: Originally Posted by Baka Sempai instead of pushing it out the door to sync up with the movie release.

Would you expect anything different from a movie tie in?

Quote: Originally Posted by Zaltan Would you expect anything different from a movie tie in?

Good point...

What's even more disappointing is that a majority of the reviews for the spider-man 2 game were very positive and everyone seemed to love them. And then most of the spider-man 3 game previews boasted about how similiar the two games were....so after all the hype and excitement we're given a game that missed on a lot of opportunities.

Oh well...picked up Rainbow Six Vegas last weekend, so that made me happy

Spider-Man2 was produced by a different set of programmers, designers, testers, well you get the point. Movie games have a bad rep for being "PUMPED OUT" they recycle code, are rushed through testing, and are really on a strict license lease. The producer must work way too fast, and in rushing things to market little bugs in the camera are not enough reason for suits to care. I feel Spider-man 3 got the rush and push.

Hello my name is Anime-fan-man an old school pimp-rig member just dropping in to let you know I'm still alive.

I rented spiderman3 and it is probably the first time I returned something long before it was due. I played nearly every spiderman game, the movie ones, ultimate, hell even the snes one, but some reason I couldn't stand this...it was just so.....painful.....kind of like I'd already played it a thousand times....same with superman returns, unfortunately my brother bought that for me, so I feel bad returning it or anything.....