Spider-Man 2

Converting the city of Manhattan for Spidey sensibility didn't seem possible to the developers at first. The game was origininally just going to have bigger levels. It was encouragement from the team behind another Activision product - True Crime: Streets of LA - which convinced Treyarch to take the plunge and go the streaming, expansive route.

Being able to swing on webbing is perhaps the coolest transportation mode of all time, and Treyarch has devoted a great deal of attention to perfecting it. Says Moriwaki, "We focused a few months, devoting almost the entire team's efforts towards [swinging]. It was on everybody's minds. We have several coders and designers working pretty deligently on a system that is both advanced and interesting."

The developers are going great lengths to give the wall-crawler inuitive combat with which to defend justice. Don't expect a lot of gory finishing moves though, as Moriwaki says, "We're sensitive to anything too violent or too malicious. Even kids feel like they don't want Spidey to be too violent. It's the culture of the hero." Still, you'll kick plenty of ass just the same. Battles are replete with combos, counter-attacks, and pain-inducing grapples. Each attack is hand animated, and transitions are seamless between moves.

IN the free-form world of Spider-Man 2, there is a long list of linear missions that follow a course of events inspired by the movie. The majority of these take place in the same cityscape that you can freely explore. To reach them, you'll need to swing over to a specific location or chase characters to designated areas. Treyarch wants this part of the game to extend past the 20-hour mark, in terms of gameplay for the average player.

The motion picture is months into filming, and released July 2, 2004, with the game coming out around the same time. There hasn't been much communication between Activision and Sony Pictures yet for this sequel, but John Heinecke tells us that the company will be receiving full cooperation from the moviemaker. He comments, "They're more than wlling to do extra stuff for us this time, because they realize the impact. They're sharing looks and set visits, and they're trying to get us assets and talents. They realize that that's going to help us sell more copies of the game in the long run and make a better game, too. There's a lot of good that came out of the success of the first one. I think Sony's really looking forward to helping us one the second one."

Pick up the May edition of GameInformer magazine for more info