Ultimate Spider-Man

[Herr Matzat]

this might contain spoils if you havent read the current US comics (i think it´s up to 82 and annula one)

Just got it, gotta go out now so i had no chans to play it very long.

The story takes place 3 month after the Venom Arc in the comic (well the tutorial is taking place in that arc were you beat Venom at the school on a raine day but after that it scips 3 month) - so no big time wasted on the usual got bitten by spider crap that everyone knows anyway (that took like 4 seconds for them to work throu in this game.

Peter still is with MJ for some reason (bendis wrote the game so you should asume that he would have knowen that they are no more at the moment, Peter got Felica all over him and is dating Kitty Pride (wich made USM Annular #1 prolly one of the rar good comics of the USM series, i expected them to have them be frinds at the end of that book but they ended up with the big kiss..), Voice acting seems to be ok for all people ecept MJ (shes a slut anyway in USM) and The Flame (his voice is tons more nerdy than peters wich SO issent fitting)

Cell shaded GFX look horrid, it is ok in a few moments and i like some of the optic ideas they follow but cell shading just is ugly in most cases and that rull is proven here again.

They seem to follow the good parts of Spider-Man 2, free roaming in the city, and seem to have fixed some of the bad stuff (no one asked me to get a fucking ballon yet, YAY THAT ! - and there seems to be some sort of limit to the "city missions" (stuff like random robbers and such) so you don´t run into them 473 in a row, on the other hand you have to deal with a certain number of them to be able to progres with the normal story missions, but i barly got into that)

The time trial stuff seems to be replaced by races against the flame, for the first one i got extra swing speed and it looks like you have to earn all your skill points that way sinc there issent any shop in the menu.

More wen i actualy get to play the game a bit more, anyone elth got it yet ?

[Kaney]

Cell shaded GFX look horrid, it is ok in a few moments and i like some of the optic ideas they follow but cell shading just is ugly in most cases and that rull is proven here again.

Thats the main thing stopping me from getting the game. I can't stand cel shading, and it doesn't look particularly good in this either.

That being said, I loved Spidey 2, so to hear the gameplay follows that is good news. I hadn't read any comics in ages, so the continuity doesn't really bother me. Does it still feel as cool swinging randomly around as it did in Spidey 2?

Have you played as Venom yet? That was one of the major selling points for me, even if they did remove the symbiote spider symbol, for some reason.

[Herr Matzat]

nah, i basicly only played the tutorial as of now, the gfx of spidy 2 defenetly were far supirior, but i can understand them trying to make it different wen they try to establish 3 brands (there is a game Spider-Man Classic anounced for next year, and after that it´s spider-man 3, so if you do it the right way you can build your enging better every year but don´t feel like one of thes sports games that almost changes nothing again, if only becaus you change story and layout style)

i´ed be ineresting to see how the story is drawn in this game, usualy USM is HEAVY written on stuff that has nothing todo with webswinging untill the last book of each arc were peter finaly gets the tightys on to beat the fucker up (more on my hate for that in the comic topic that floats somewere deep in entertainment)

to sum it up, for now, it feels like fun, looks shitty, but i havent spend enough time to give out a fair rating.

[Guest Grapehead]

I don't get the cell shading hate, I love it personally, think it looks superb and it obviously saves some memory for extra story, always a plus in my books.

Game is pretty good, I've gotten to where you fight Electro with Venom, not very far, but I'm enjoying it thoroughly so far.

[Herr Matzat]

i love how the first thing you do with venom is drain the life out of a kid with a balon, that gave me so much joy i can´t even discribe it.

[Guest The Human Tripod]

How can you not like the cel shaded look in this game at least? It adds to it & gives it a nice, authentic comic book feel. The only times I have problems with cel shading is when it's overused.

[Herr Matzat]

becaus it looks fucking ugly and makes my head hurt.

[Kaney]

How can you not like the cel shaded look in this game at least? It adds to it & gives it a nice, authentic comic book feel. The only times I have problems with cel shading is when it's overused.

To expand on what Matzat so eloquently put, looking at screens like these :

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/...12021318869.jpg

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/...02054007375.jpg

Make me think the game looks shoddy, and hard to understand. For instance, in that first pic I can only see Spiderman, a kid and the front bumper of a car. Fuck knows what else is going on there.

It might be different playing the game, I don't know, but those screens don't make me think "Wow, I need to get this game", especially after the superior graphics of Spidey 2. I get that Spidey2 and USM are supposed to be different in both graphics and playability, but my point is that those shots don't really make a good case for cel shading.

Edited September 25, 2005 by Kaneanite

[Herr Matzat]

it looks better in motion, yet still it maks my head hurt and there have been way better comic style gfx engins (unlimited sagas sketch mothion for example looked badass)

just take a look at how sharp and welldrawn the comics look, this is a lot like a half ass used version of the Photoshop Filter you use to copy the KFC Logo Guy style (it´s called posterize i think)

missions were you have to follow oponents suck, and they suck even more wen the story cutsceen after you finaly figured out to follow the ideot fast enough tells you that he . . . GOT AWAY~!

Edited September 25, 2005 by Michael Matzat

[Guest NYJetFan86]

to me the game looks very good i just havent had a chance to play it since i dont have any of the systems its on

[Laice07]

If you want Cel sahding at its best, Zelda: The Wind Waker is the way to go, but my brother bought this game for XBox, and it does look fun to play(I loved spiderman 2), so no final rating for me either. But the graphics don't look that bad, but they don't look great either.

[Herr Matzat]

i just finished the game, it is very short and the story seems very half assed (it´s the exact oposit of the comic, in the comic you get month full of story with no fight at all, here you get a cupple of seconds that basicly introduce the next battel)

the game gains most of it´s length by you doing each part over and over again untill you made it, and it´s not the good kind of hard, its the bad kind (you figure out how to beat a boss, than he changes tackticks with a certain amount of energie left and sometimes this means instand death, so you do it over and over again untill you got the tacktick for that part, same goes for the "follow me" missions - i had no problem with them in Spider-Man 2, but i know manny people did, and in this one they even anyoed me, so i don´t want to know how people that already dident like them in SM2 will feel)

Overall i´ed say Spider-Man 2 was better in manny ways, they tweaked a lot of stuff in gameplay and worked on the "city missions" (stuff that happens wen you just swin by) but the core storyline was just better in the movie game.

After you beat the game you get an "unlocked venom" msg and are able to play in free roaming mode, i´ll check that out now, but i don´t think it will last to long.

Rent it for a weekend, thats an ok price to play this game and it will be enough time to finish it now that days get colder.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I want to see Venom get his own game

[Cactus Drags]

I hear Topher Grace (Eric in That 70s Show) is set to play Venom in the new movie.

From what I hear, USM's trying to make itself different as possible from Spidey 2, and fucking itself over in the process. I like the idea of making it look comic book like, but they went the wrong way about it, the screens I've seen are just plain ugly.

[tristy]

I want to see Venom get his own game

[MalaCloudy Black]

Holy shit. I have to play this