Spider-man 3 goes HD for PS3 and XBox360

So the word was that Treyarch will be doing the third sequel to the Spider-man movie. Sweet! I get to do another "spin".

Not to mention that this will be ported to Sony Playstation 3 and Microsoft XBox 360. As soon as my duties for Ultimate Spider-man was done (and after a 2 week compensatory time), I was drawn back to familiar grounds. As an Environment Artist, my understanding was that I was basically assigned to contribute in building the city. But not in this case. This time 'round, I was assigned to be modeling "special case buildings", or Manhattan's landmarks. Architecture stuff. But the geometry as well as the textures going on will be more detailed than the ones that were made for Spider-man 2. But as always, there will be legal limitations on what can be modeled and what can't be modeled.

Everything starts with a map. Spider-man 3 pretty much uses the same map that was used on Spider-man 2. Building procedure is just as the same as Spider-man 2.

Similar base map from Spider-man 2 for the use of building Manhattan Island for Spider-man 3

Just as what was done is Spider-man 2, the same "LEGO" system was also used for building what represents New York City. Anywhere from a representation of a simple brick building to a modern glass skyscraper.

"LEGO" System assembly similar to Spider-man 2

To get an idea of what the assembled city looked like, here's a bird's eye view of the city based from the game's UI.

View above Spider-man 3's swinging turf.

To get a better look of the city assembled, here's a video where Spider-man starts from the rooftop of the Daily Bugle (The Flatiron Building) and goes swinging towards Manhattan Island's Financial District.

The amount of landmark buildings that I modeled in this game is pretty much the same as it's predecessor. With the exception that landmarks which are privately owned are modified to look different from the original. Pretty much like taking the Chrysler Building, make it look like the Chrysler Building but not in it's exact appearance and in color. Meanwhile, government buildings were modeled to look as close as the real thing. But due to memory constraints, it too suffered from limitations (in terms of amount of geometry, number of textures, and the number of landmarks I have on my plate) in terms of architectural detail, but the general shape and appearance pretty much exist in the game.

Appearance of city's basic street level with pedestrian and vehicular traffic

Buildings were not the only ones on my task list. I also had a fair share of building bridges that surrounds Manhattan Island such as The Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, George Washington Bridge. But due to the game's constraints, the player is pretty much limited to the Borough of Manhattan. The bridges were made just to convince the player that the venue is a close representation of New York City.

Player's area of gaming in Spider-man 3

What makes this game different? One thing's certain: this is where most Spider-man cult fans get to use the Black Suit.

Spider-man in the black suit as he hangs around what appears to be Times Square

Spider-man does what he does best: Swinging through the city of Manhattan

Spider-man dukes it out with Sandman/Flint Marko

Reception? Spider-Man 3 had mixed or average reviews on the Xbox 360 and PS3 according to Metacritic. On Game Rankings, these versions average between 53% and 67%. The key criticism for these versions is the game's similarity to its predecessor. The game was also criticized for not being the same version on each system. Some criticism has surfaced due to having New Goblin only fully playable in the PS3 and Xbox 360. It was also criticized for having a lot of glitches. However, Gameinformer liked the game, giving it a 8.0/10 or "Great" rating. Gameinformer praised the number of moves, Toby Maguire's voice acting, and the variety of missions, but criticized the soundtrack.

Playstation 3 Collector's Edition of the game Spider-man 3

And here's the trailer for the game.

And a few more screenshots of the game.

Spider-man scales one of the buildings in New York City

Spider-man whips a costumed thug with his webbing.

Best way to beat the traffic in New York City is to stay above it.

Peter Parker (aka. Spider-man) takes the fight above the streets with New Goblin/Harry Osborn

Spider-man deals with a thug

With my involvement in creating this game, this concludes my ties to the Spider-man movie games. I'd like to try something different this time. Maybe a shooter.