As expected, Activision made a strong showing at this year’s E3. Of course, they headlined with their premiere franchise Call of Duty with Modern Warfare 3. But they didn’t forget about the rest of their games.

One of the games right now being most closely followed by us is Spider-Man: Edge of Time.  The followup from Beenox from Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Edge of Time tells a story about time being ravaged by the untimely death of the modern day Peter Parker and the ripples it sends in to the future.

In the latest trailer and screen shots below, one of the game’s first major villains is revealed with Anti-Venom. Anyone reading the current Amazing Spider-Man arc will be familiar with Anti-Venom who fancies himself as a cure on society’s cancers. Much like Eddie Brock’s former lethal protector mentality as Venom, Eddie’s personal delusions get in the way of his motives and inevitably put Spider-Man in the sites as one of his targets.

How this will play out in the game remains to be seen but it is refreshing to see Beenox putting newer characters in to their game instead of just rehashing the most famous of Spider-Man’s rouges over and over again.

Take a peek below at Spider-Man: Edge of Time featuring Anti-Venom, Spider-Man 2099 and of course everyone’s favorite modern day Spidey. Stick to The Flickcast for more on Spider-Man: Edge of Time as it becomes available.

This past weekend at WonderCon, Activision and Beenox gave the world its first look at their latest Spider-Man title, Spider-Man: Edge of Time. As we discussed last week, Spider-Man: Edge of Time is a concurrent storyline between two versions of Spider-Man, Amazing in the present and 2099 in the future.

Visually, there are a lot of similarities that can be seen in the trailer between Spider-Man: Edge of Time and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. It looks like even gameplay will be similar as well, as can be seen from the return of Spider-Man 2099’s freefall combat section shown in the trailer.

It has been revealed that two of the voice actors from Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions will be returning to Edge of Time as well, but strangely neither will be reprising their previous role. Sadly, Neil Patrick Harris will not be returning to the role of Amazing Spider-Man as it will be voiced by Josh Keaton who played Peter Parker in the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon and the Ultimate Spider-Man in Shattered Dimensions.

Spider-Man 2099 will be voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes who voiced Spider-Man in the 1990’s animated series and Spider-Man Noir in last year’s game.

Take a look at the screens and trailer after the jump and be sure to check back right here for more on Spider-Man: Edge of Time.

Writer Peter David must have found something very special within himself when he created Spider-Man 2099 nearly twenty years ago. Of all of the characters that came to be from the 2099 universe, Spider-Man 2099 is the one who keeps coming back.

Whether it was in Marvel’s “Time Stream” crossover or having a place on the Exiles or his most recent appearance in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Miguel O’Hara has earned his place as a true Spider-Man (unlike the much despised Ben Reily or Kaine).

Now, Spider-Man 2099 will be a part of Activision and Beenox’s latest adaptation of Spider-Man with the newly announced Spider-Man: Edge of Time.

Taking a cue from games like Singularity, Spider-Man: Edge of Time plays on the concept of actions in the past affecting the future as both the current day Spider-Man and the Spider-Man of 2099 both take actions to prevent a premature death of this generation’s Peter Parker which leads to a future that should never come to pass.

Here’s all the info you need to know from the official press release:

“The first Spider-Man entry by Beenox, Spider-Man™: Shattered Dimensions was touted as one of the wall-crawler’s best Spider-Man games to date from both critics and fans,” said Vicharin Vadakan, Director, Global Brand Management. “Beenox is once again taking a fresh and different approach to bring a fast-paced and high-octane adventure and unexpected story to life in Spider-Man: Edge of Time.”

Not many people snynomize Neil Patrick Harris with video games. They do, however, consider him one of the greats when it comes to awards show hosts. Which is why Spike TV’s decision to hire him as the host of this Saturday’s Video Game Awards.

G4 may have their own version of the awards, but Spike’s show is considered the be-all, end-all of video game award shows. You can expect to see guests like the cast of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Guillermo Del Toro, Nathan Fillion, Chris Hemsworth, Olivia Munn, and a musical performance by My Chemical Romance.

You can check out the full awards show live on Saturday, December 11th at 8pm ET/ 5pm PST. Here’s the full press release announcing the new host.

New York, NY, December 6, 2010 – Acclaimed television, film, stage and video game star Neil Patrick Harris has been handed over the controller and will host Spike TV’s 2010 “Video Game Awards.”  Broadcasting in over 175 territories worldwide from Los Angeles, the “VGAs” will celebrate the best in gaming on Saturday, December 11 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

After the kid focused Spider-Man: Friend or Foe and the somewhat redundant nature of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Spidey fans have been clamoring for a change in the Spider-Man formula. Since Spider-Man 2, most titles have revolved around a sandbox view of Manhattan where everyone’s favorite webslinger traverses back and forth in the city, sometimes racing against time, to match up against his more fearsome foes and crossing paths with various small time criminals committing minor offenses along the way.

While it has proven a successful formula, it had started to grow stagnant. Influenced by that criticism, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions puts together four versions of the Marvel icon, including two who have never been seen in video game form, in a variety of diverse levels and constantly changing gameplay.

Gameplay:

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions plays differently than most previous Spider-Man titles, and not just because of the change away from open world environments. While button mashing combined with Spider-Sense dodging is the focus of combat, traversing through the levels seemed looser in terms of control.

Slinging through levels doesn’t feel as natural or fun as it did in Manhattan in days of Spider-Man’s past. Possibly because of the level design system, less emphasis was put on traversing areas at fast speeds.

Combat also doesn’t feel as diverse. Because each Spider-Man only has three individual levels, there is not a huge diversity in combat abilities. Previous titles, because of only having one or two versions of Spider-Man, had a larger number of different attacks to work with.

With just under a week from the release of the most hyped Spider-Man video game release in years, Activision and Beenox have unveiled the final launch trailer for Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.  In it, a majority of the game’s villains are spotlighted as well as the voice actors of all four versions of everyone’s favorite web crawler after the jump.

As we are sure you have seen, we’ve kept a close watch on the upcoming title. We have brought you video of the alternate unlockcable attire, interviews with developers,  and even hands on feedback from our time with the game at San Diego Comic-Con.

But we’re not done yet. Be sure to check back for our review of Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions following the game’s September 7th release date. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions will be coming out for PlayStation 3, XBox 360, PC and the Nintendo Wii.

Recently following our developer interview, we revealed all of the alternate costumes for Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Two of the most intriguing reveals for the alternate costumes include the Scarlet Spider and the Negative Zone Spider-Man.

The Scarlet Spider was the center of the infamous Clone Saga of the 90s that some people view as one of the most confusing times in Spider-Man’s history. Yet, years later, the Scarlet Spider is still revisited through flashbacks, reboots, toys and now video games. The Scarlet Spider will be the unlockable skin in the Amazing Dimension.

A more obscure costume comes from Spider-Man’s Negative Zone attire. Appearing in the adjectiveless Spider-Man title in issue #90, while trapped in the Negative Zone, Peter was lent the Darkforce powers by a hero named S.H.O.C. which altered his costume. Haven’t heard of this story ever? There’s probably a reason for that. Regardless, this incredibly dark (and we do mean dark, it is almost entirely black) costume is a perfect fit visually for the Noir world of Spider-Man which is devoid of any color in it.

Make sure to check out the two vignettes after the jump of these two costumes in motion and stick to the Flickcast for all things Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions as it approaches its September 7th release date.

On Marvel.com, Activision has revealed all of the unlockable skins for Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. By playing through the game, players will have the opportunity to unlock new looks for their favorite wall crawler across the four dimensions of gameplay. Make sure to check out the gallery at the bottom of this post for screen shots of all the new costumes.

At Comic Con, we had the opportunity to sit down with Studio Head over at Beenox, the developers behind Spider–Man: Shattered Dimensions, Dee Brown. In our short time with Dee, he discussed with us the choices behind dimensions of the game.

He also mentions creating new villains for the game as well as the hype that has been coming out leading to the game’s release.

The Flickcast: First question I have, what was the thought process behind the four dimensions Beenox picked?

Dee Brown: Well, what we do when we start a project, we did what we always do when we start a project, a deep dive into the brand and we dug up a lot of the comic stuff of Spider-Man, and we did this big presentation to the team and the entire company.

Everybody loves Spider-Man of course, but nobody knows all the different universes and everything, so we did this presentation and showed shots of 2099 and Noir and all the amazing universes. People, like me for example, I didn’t know about Noir and when I saw it I thought “That’s amazing, that’s so great.”

One of the big problems with Comic Con is there is too much to be excited over. It actually ends up being hard to even keep track of all the things to look forward to. One thing we were able to keep focus on though was Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. At the Pre-Comic Con Activision event when they announced the fourth and final dimension for the game, we were able to get some hands on time with it.

Myself and the Flickcast’s Matt Raub both got to play through two sections of Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Unlike recent Spider-Man games, Shattered Dimensions most notably is not an open world. It is a more linear process where players for a more set storyline than traveling across the island of Manhattan back and forth, something that while intriguing the first time because tiresome by the third game to use this approach.

The first section was the Noir universe which didn’t feel like a traditional Spider-Man title by any means. Instead of running in cracking jokes as he dodged bullets, the Noir Spider-Man was forced to take a more Sam Fischer approach (Splinter Cell reference for those of you who are just comic fans and not big gamers). Using his environment as a weapon, Noir Spider-Man must traverse around a level picking off foes one by one and avoid direct combat. Attempting a head on attack would more than likely result in a Spider-Man riddled with Tommy gun bullets.

You’ve seen all four dimensions. You’ve seen Spidey square off against the Juggernaut, Hammerhead, the Goblin, Kraven and Scorpion. Now, Activision has released a new trailer for Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions featuring the Noir version of the Vulture.

Of any version of the Vulture, this is without a doubt the most interesting (yes, even more so than the “new” Vulture that spits up corrosive bile in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man). In Noir, the Vulture is a cannibalistic sideshow freak that has been recruited by the Goblin as one of his enforcers. Compared to the old man in the green suit, this Vulture more closely resembles one of the vampires from 30 Days of Night. The eerie image transfers great from the page to the screen as you will see in the trailer below.

Keep it here for more on Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions including an upcoming interview with one of the developers from San Diego Comic-Con where we delve into the thought process in the origins of the title and why many of the creative decisions took place.