Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, already deals with plenty of problems. Between his best friend Harry Osborn turning rogue as the New Goblin, the devastatingly powerful Sandman lurking about, street gangs causing havoc, Mary Jane (his girlfriend) demanding attention and a deadly symbiote forming over his suit, he really didn't need to tackle any more impossible odds. Then Activision released Spider-Man 3: Collector's Edition for PlayStation 3, a game crammed with so many problems that even our friendly neighborhood web-head can't make them right again.

Like previous film-based Spider-Man games, Spider-Man 3 ties in events from the movie with original content. Along with battling the likes of Venom and the Sandman, Spidey takes on other missions, ranging from the simple (taking photos for J. Jonah Jameson) to the more difficult (fighting street gangs). Along the way, Spidey also gets tasked to stop random crimes throughout the city. An indicator on a map points out criminal acts, and players choose which crime they want to stop.

Unfortunately, that's one of the few things the game gets right. Swinging through the city skimming tops of cars and surveying the Manhattan skyline feels fantastic. That euphoria wears off quickly, though, as from the game reveals its dark side. Treyarch tried to mix up the in-game combat with various moves with both Spidey's traditional red suit and the new "evil" black symbiote outfit. Even with this arsenal of moves, fighting turns repetitive. Spider-Man beats up some thugs ... and beats up more -- repeat for several hours. Boss battles change up the pace a bit, but also end up way too difficult. When Spider-Man runs into a street gang (a group of Goth girls called Arsenic Candy or the unintentionally hilarious Apocalypse), they're nearly impossible to beat because they all charge in at once. The game shows no progressive scale for difficulty, either -- it just ambushes right from the start. One of the early Apocalypse missions involves saving a man tied to a lowering crane before he drowns. Unfortunately, this means Spidey has to stop everything and hit a button to raise the crane, which leaves him vulnerable to gunshot wounds and cheap attacks.

Spidey Sense tingles the wrong way as well. Players click the R3 stick at any time to activate this alternate power, which turns the screen black and helps S-Man see switches, footprints and other clues. Unfortunately, it only works in spurts, so the button continuously needs to be clicked. Spidey Sense also ties in to Quick Time Events spread throughout the game, where super-powered intuition helps the web-crawler avoid dangerous situations. Unfortunately, the timing feels wrong during these segments as well. Setting up punches to stop a chandelier from falling (instead of using webbing abilities) turns into more of a chore than it needs to be.

The in-game camera can't hide its problems -- it just plain sucks. During combat, enemies appear from nowhere, and the camera angles don't adjust quickly enough to let the player deliver due diligence with precision. The camera also gets stuck on buildings and around corners.

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