I agree with everything everybody's said so far, and I think Neo is spot-on in that last post.

So I'm just going to gush about the freaking amazing camera in this game! This series has consistently had such stunning camera work, by far the better of anything in the genre. I am in firm opposition to the whiners who say that this series needs a controllable camera. Santa Monica always chooses the best view for every conceivable situation, and in a game this vast and varied that is no small feat. I love how it seamlessly transitions from up close, over the shoulder type views and then can pan all the way out until Kratos becomes a playable dot.

It's hard to talk about this game without spewing out what sounds like hyperbole, but the game is pretty much the most "perfect" gaming experience I've ever had. Just the right balance of combat, puzzles, and exploration. Just the right difficulty. Perfect pacing, unbelievable camera work, unmatched combat... Unbelievable creativity in visual design, boss battles (and those finishers!), and storytelling. It takes every single thing that was ever good about the series, and somehow "fixes" them. Every weapon is useful, every boss is a stunner (not one that made me want to break things), the world is unbelievably organic... *hugs GoWIII*

Also, kudos to the team for making me actually care about Kratos again. The first game's story did a great job of making you feel some empathy with this monster of a man, and as brilliant as the second game is, that is the one thing it failed at: it never made me care about him. The storytelling in this game is leaps and bounds above its already impressive predecessors. By the end of the game, I actually genuinely cared about the sociopath, and a lot of that credit has to go to just how well they handled (SPOILER)Pandora's character.

So... yeah... God of War III is everything that modern game design should be striving to achieve. Literally the only thing I can fault the game for is when it tries to synch newly earned Trophies during a cutscene, it often freezes the cutscene for a couple of seconds. Thank god I'll be replaying the game right away and won't have to worry about that anymore!