Lollipop Chainsaw!

Rayman Legends! I was expecting it to be better than Origins, but I wasn't expecting it to be the best damn 2D platformer I have played in ages!

Vagrant Story - I miss old Squaresoft

Parasite eve 1 & 2 - I miss old Squaresoft

Shadow of Rome - to this day one of the funnest 3rd person action games I've ever played. Thank god I gave every Capcom game a chance back then. The guy at gamestop gave me a demo and I was back at opening the next day to buy it new.

Ico - the guy at the counter told me I probably wouldn't like the game. He was right. I loved it.

Dragons Dogma - my initial reaction to the demo was a bit underwhelming. I played it again but killed all of my pawns so I could get a better sense of the mechanics without them killing everything first. During a solo battle with the Chimera fell in love. I played that demo 3 or 4 times a day in anticipation for a month until the game released. Quite possibly my GOAT. As a side note from map icons to stage design this game has a lot in common with Shadow of Rome. If you're a fan and you have a PS2 around you really owe it to yourself to check it out.

Just a shame about the story huh? I've played the game though a few times and still confused the hell out of me.

On topic, Dragon Age: Origins. I had no idea what type of game it was, saw a friend play it on PC and thought, it looks okay but nothing special. Borrowed PS3 version from a friend and was hooked ever since (I think because it was very similar to FF12, we need more games of this ilk).

Most recently for me its Sunset Overdrive. I almost didn't pick the game up and I am having loads of fun with it now.

Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning

Bayonetta & Persona 4: The Golden are recent ones for me. I didn't really expect much going in, but ended up really enjoying them. I still haven't finished either one, but so far they're both excellent.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf is another one. I had never played an Animal Crossing game before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I got hooked though, and its currently my most-played game on my 3DS! xD

EDIT: scratch this post entirely. I completely misunderstood the OP.

Still haven't gotten around to playing legends yet, but I got that feeling when playing Origins.  Wouldn't have played it if it weren't for ps+ then come to find it's one of the best 2D platformers of all time with one of the all time greatest soundtracks in video games (and typically I couldn't give half a shit about a game's soundtrack).

What made you dislike GOW: A when you liked GOW III? Its not like the games are vastly different in quality, yeah GOW: A isn't as epic and doesn't have as good story as GOW III, but the difference isn't that big.

Also, you should play the other 4 GOW games, all of them can be played on PS3 in HD. They are in some ways better than GOW III, but not quite as epic.