My opinions here are based on the PS3 version, but a lot probably applies to the PS2 version (although everything I've read seems to say the PS2 version is far worse).

The webslinging is still good, which is nice since it's the big draw. The city is also massive and has no pop up that I could see (I suppose the 2.6 GB hard drive install was for a reason).

Combat on the other hand goes from average at the best of time to make you want to throw your controller at the worst of times. Now I know everyone who's played a Spider-Man game before probably isn't that surprised, but I honestly think in trying to improve it this time around they actually made it worse in a lot of ways. Arial combat is useless. I can't tell you how many times I lost to the New Goblin in that game. I still haven't beaten him mainly since I got too frustrated and haven't played since I fought him on Wednesday. Most of the fancy new moves are utterly pointless; it's a button masher. It may try to be more, but randomly pressing buttons strings together combos as effectively as you'll ever need to. Using spider senses to slow things down and allow you to dodge is also fairly useless, mainly due to the camera. I got caught so many times by the Goblin coming at me from just off camera leaving me no chance to use the dodge move that I'm convinced that's why I lost.

Finally, they've included action sequences that involve pressing a button when it appears on the screen much like God of War used. The only problem is that when God of War did it they generally rewarded you with Kratos doing something excessively violent that you'd never be able to do without the scripted sequence. In Spider-Man 3, I've seen them use them for webslinging after a boss. Every time they use them, it's either for things you could do yourself (and be having more fun doing if they let you), or they use them in combat situations that are utterly boring to watch, making the act of sitting there watching them all the more boring, with very few, rare exceptions.

Overall it's a decent game, and you might like it if you've never played a Spider-Man since before Spider-Man 2. If you own either Spider-Man 2 or Ultimate Spider-Man though, I'd suggest you replay those rather than buy this.