Starring none other than Black Cat, the err, other cat who is not at all like that cat from that other... well, you know, you get the idea.

Anyway, as promised, Insomniac's brilliant Marvel's Spider-Man gains its first of what we hope is many post-release content drops in The Heist.

Actually, technically its full name is: "Marvel’s Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps – Marvel’s Spider-Man: The Heist", enough for any comic book writer of yesteryear to be shown the door, but alas, we live in a different time.

At any rate, Ryan Smith -- Spidey Game Director wrote some words over at the PlayStation Blog, which we've abridged right here for you:

This chapter includes new missions, enemies, suits, and, of course, a new story starring none other than Black Cat herself. While investigating the robbery of a New York art museum, Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson find themselves closing in on criminal super villain Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat. The chase will take Spidey and MJ deep into Manhattan’s shadowy world of crime families.

Players will be able to unlock three new suits, including a new, original Resilient Suit designed exclusively for Marvel’s Spider-Man by famed Marvel illustrator Gabriele Dell’Otto. You’ll also be able to discover new collectibles and earn trophies from challenges...

Marvel’s Spider-Man: The Heist costs $9.99 USD MSRP on its own, or you can buy all three Marvel’s Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps chapters for $24.99 USD MSRP either at your local retailer or on PlayStation Store. You can purchase the whole bundle to get the best deal, which is available for pre-order now*! And for those of you who haven’t played the main game yet, you might consider the Digital Deluxe Edition of Marvel’s Spider-Man, which includes all three Marvel’s Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps chapters* along with all the cool content that comes with it for $79.99 USD MSRP.

We'll be taking a look at this over the weekend and sharing our thoughts, after we've wrapped up on something else first, so stay tuned.

By selling over 3.3 million copies in its first three days of sale. A stellar effort for what is definitely one a contender for Game of the Year. As per our review, "From a combat and traversal perspective, the game is nearly flawless." And it doesn't stop at launch, with Marvel’s Spider-Man: The City that Never Sleeps DLC dropping October 23.



In other record news for ol' Spidey, the game was also the highest pre-ordered title in Sony Interactive Entertainment’s history - with over one million copies sold ahead of launch.

Sweeping initial fears under the rug, like Peter Parker hides his Spidey costume from Aunt May, we've swung through Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man and come out the other side still broke (like Peter), still confused about our love-life (like Peter), but better people for having ever been this version of Spider-Man (like Peter).

And as a result we'd just like to say a massive thank you to Insomniac for giving us this webslinging journey to go on. It's been one of the best rides we've had in a while. Here's some words from our review:

What’s helpful too, is the missions that take place not as Spider-Man (even those as Peter). These gameplay breaks both ground you in terms of the sheer size of the game-world here (they created an almost 1:1 Manhattan, New York), and also make you realise how freaking cool it is being Spider-Man. This juxtaposition is a fantastic way of not just breaking up the flow of gameplay, it helps you see the game from unique and informative angles. It also reminds us that Spidey is never alone, which is a large part of the Spider-Man transmedia universe. And Insomniac has completely embraced all of this. Their story-telling alongside the actual plot is built from pure confidence in their ability to become a premier Spider-Man storyteller -- much in the same way Rocksteady backed themselves to do the same with the Batman: Arkham series.

What elevates an already amazing story here, is every member of the voice cast is perfect. Yuri Lowenthal as Peter Parker and Spider-Man is a revelation. His portrayal, comedy timing, tone and ability to shift in an out of demure Parker to annoying Spider-Man is seamless at best, and perfect at worst. Expect Spider-Man to be in heavy award contention at the end of the year, even with the looming Red Dead Redemption 2 next month.

Click here for our full Marvel's Spider-Man review.

We recently got the chance to get some serious time in with Insomniac's Spider-Man, which releases exclusively on PlayStation 4 next month. And while we're aware there are clear Batman: Arkham comparisons, we swung away a little more impressed with the more personal side of the game.

That is to say that Insomniac has wholly embraced not just the world of Spider-Man, but also the haphazard world of Peter Parker with a more drawn-out experience than the ones we've had with Rocksteady's Dark Knight outings.

Here's a snippet:

What stands out here from a positive note is that the team at Insomniac is happily wearing influence on its spandex sleeve, and that’s okay. Because the big differentiator between both of these (hopeful) series is that Spider-Man’s world -- while dangerous -- is light and full of expansive options. The Arkham games have always been contained to within a 24 hour narrative period, but here there’s a longer narrative that includes living the life of the hapless Peter Parker. In fact, it appears the Spider-Man side of the game is just one part, with Peter constantly juggling his modular life; Aunt May, Mary Jane, science and tech and paying the bills. And while I didn’t get the full exposition of how this will work, I had a quiet taste in a mini-game/sub-game component that I won’t spoil for you other than saying this part of the game requires now Spider-Man suit, no combat and no web-slinging, but it goes a long way to fleshing out the large game-world before us.

Click here for our full hands-on with Spider-Man.

All eyes were on the release date for Spider-Man -- the exclusive Insomniac Marvel adventure starring everyone's favourite "Neighbourhood Spider-Man". Thankfully, we now know it's coming this year, just leaving us with questions around its gameplay setup...

We've explored this before but we're happy to know the game is in this year's release window, arriving exclusively on PS4 this September 7. Here's the official line:

The Digital Deluxe edition will include a copy of the game as well as new story chapters with post-launch DLC series – The City That Never Sleeps. The Collector’s Edition includes all of the digital content from the Digital Deluxe Edition, as well as a Steelbook case featuring the iconic white spider, Mini Artbook from Titan Books, and Marvel’s Spider-Man statue by Gentle Giant.

Various editions are available to pre-order now via select retailers and PlayStation Store, including:

• Standard Edition – $99.95 AUD RRP
  
  
• Digital Deluxe Edition – $114.95 AUD RRP
  
  
• Special Edition (Steelbook) – $119.95 AUD RRP
  
  
• Collector’s Edition – $249.95 AUD RRP

You can read more on this over at the PlayStation blog, and there's also a trailer we've embedded below.

For Sony to have closed out its pre-E3 press conference with Insomniac's Spider-Man speaks some volume about where they feel the product is at, but we're not so convinced. At E3 we also had a chance to catch a (almost identical) behind closed doors presentation of the game, while also being able to speak with one of the game's key developers about our very concerns. Were they able to right our rocky Spider-Man boat with their answers?

You be the judge, but like our initial thoughts on the game, we're still not convinced. Here's a snippet from our thoughts and Q&A:

What would be ideal is for games of this nature to show at least two variations on the same demo. So, let Sony and Insomniac have their big action-heavy, scripted gameplay reveal at the pre-show event, but then in the BCD sessions, go off script to let everyone see that there is freedom afoot and any and all concerns around a QTE-heavy game can be alleviated. And some devs and publishers do do this, so it’s a bit telling that Spider-Man, inasmuch as what we saw twice, barely altered in its delivery. Moreover, Intihar’s reluctance to deep-dive on the driving questions raised alarms. We highlight his use of the word “big” when talking about later reveals where the open-world part of the game is concerned, because it was encouraging, but that the “core Spider-Man mechanics” seem more centred around the Arkham-like combat (no judgement here, Arkham’s combat is still flawless, so borrow from the best we say), and less around the freedom of being Spider-Man. Which just adds heavier Comic Sans question marks into our cloudy thought balloons, and across several panels.

Click here for our full Spider-Man E3 2017 deep-dive with developer commentary.