God of War III

What's Hot: A great action experience, with plenty of thrills and memorable moments; improves upon the franchise formula in almost every tangible way.

What's Not: It doesn't bring the story to a satisfying conclusion and the attempts to make sense of Kratos' journey ultimately fall flat.

Final Word: God of War 3 is more than an action game: it’s the conclusion to a commercially successful and critically acclaimed series that acts as the ‘face’ of Sony’s entire gaming brand; what Master Chief is to Microsoft and Mario is to Nintendo, Kratos is to Sony. As such, God of War III was burdened with a Herculean set of tasks. But while it lives up to the high bar set by the previous installments, it can’t quite bear the weight of bringing the epic story of Kratos to a meaningful end. It’s still a finely crafted action experience that fully showcases the PS3's immense capabilities but it isn't the satisfying conclusion that fans both want and need.