I liked part 2...loving part 3 so far... been playing for almost 15 hours...and haven't gone far in the main story... this world is so freaking huge and I'm only on the second map... soo much to do way way way more then witcher 2 ever had.

2 hour main quest 4 hour side quest and repeat. it will probably rival skyrim with the amount of stuff to do.

Alternately; people have varying definitions of "fun".

For me, challenge and depth is fun, I've been craving more advanced and difficult gaming concepts and products since the beginning of the 7th gen when everything started getting simplified for the sake of broader appeal.
You can't rightly use your own definitions when appraising other peoples preferences, I find Pokemon games to be absolutely dreadfully boring but I would never say that Pokemon games are for gamers who don't want their games to be fun.

Yeah, definition of "fun" that some people have around here is really strange - you mentioned Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale earlier, for cRPG fans those games are loads of fun, though most of todays mainstream audience (those same exact people that are buying Witcher 3 now based on hype in droves and actually have no clue what type of game they are getting in), would shit their pants after first enconter in either of them.

Do your homework people, this is not JRPG, neither is Souls or BB, this is in essence Gothic alike game that's, while being slightly mainstreamed, proper WRPG that we're not used to getting anymore so much with all the dumbing down that usually occurs when PC franchises go to consoles.

If you've expected Souls or BB, ask yourselves WHY, since there was absolutely zero reasons for that, and go trade in this game for Lords of the Fallen.

Agreed, there's a reason why the term "press win button" was born in the 7th gen; mainstream gaming took a sharp turn towards the simpler territory when it started catering more to average joe than to nerds, which isn't wrong in and on itself imo, but it's important to acknowledge that this actually occurred to understand why a game like The Witcher 3 fails to impress a great many gamers.

Recently started playing Lords of Xulima on PC, the first encounter with goblins managed to get three of my six characters down to 60% HP or so, which I think is great, that's what RPG's should be for me. Wading through hundreds of faceroll encounters with auto-attacks and near immortal characters is boring to me, quick-time events, regenerating health and simplified RPG mechanics which steal depth have taken hold of the industry and just like Call of Duty is the epitome of mainstream appeal, other genres which traditonally displayed more depth have followed suit in the chase for higher sales.

RPG's are perhaps the least suited for mainstreaming in that their core concept should not be stripped to the bone in favor of action, the "Role" part falls out and the "Play" part takes over the whole scene when you can get through games with any build, gear and experience level you may possess.
Mass Effect is another good example of mainstreaming; the second and third installments were more or less pure 3rd person shooters with light RPG elements as opposed to an RPG with light 3rd person shooter elements.

I'm not saying that buying and enjoying these games is wrong (heck; I own all three ME games myself) but one has to know the difference between the mainstream fodder simulators and the real, core experiences designed to challenge and make you think as much as you press buttons.

For me; "press to win" is out and games that go against these conventions of lowest common denominators are a breath of fresh air, I think that this is the primary reason why I've found so many Indie titles enjoyable in the past 4-5 years.

Wow. The first person on VGC that could understand the difference between the first ME and the sequels.

I was so disappointed by the Gearsification of it, that couldn't even reach the greatness of Gears itself. The worlds' diversity and space atmosphere were lost in the transition as well.

They lost all the space opera feeling by casting aside Drew Karpyshin (writer of the first ME) and focus on being a dating sim.

That's because you don't go out of the empire enough, others (including me) have said the same before about Me and its sequels =p.

Yeah, the drama was more tacked-on in the two sequels and the action elements started to override the core mechanics. The characters in the ME series had real potential but it became a dating sim, like you said, with every woman (or man) on the ship wanting to jump your bones after three conversations of a semi-personal nature. To make matters worse; if one did enter in a "relationship" with someone, it hardly mattered and I never cared about it, nor did it affect the gameplay or story in any profound manner.
In contrast; The Last of Us is a game that made me sad when a character died, even if I didn't know much about them, they were much more realistically fleshed out and seemed to matter more to the universe, the only time in ME I was fazed was when Garrus was killed in the "suicide mission" but this was simply because I was irritated since I had planned on losing a different member and the save was too old and I wanted Garrus' abilities in combat.

I still like both ME 2 and 3 but I find the first one to vastly superior to the others, it's like the set out to create one thing with their trilogy, only to change the whole recipe in the sequels, I was sorely disappointed when I started playing ME 2 and it threw me headlong into a long shootout in narrow corridors; it told of what was to come.
Not to mention how easy ME 2 and 3 were, there were instances in ME 3 where I could stand in the middle of the battlefield facing husks and just melee everyone without taking any damage.

I hate the combat in this game. I am practicing right now, but it is just awful. I can't get block to work, the magic sucks.

I might be posting now more on XE but that doesn't impede me to read other threads.

Also, VGC RPG talks are mostly JRPG, which I'm not fond of; so, you might not see my posts that much.

Whats wrong with the colors? It beats the shades of grey/brown often seen in games.

I agree that walking animations seem awkward. I also tend to have this issue in some Rockstar games. LA Noire was terribly clunky. GTA games as well actually.

I haven't played Witcher 3 yet but I loved 2 so I'll probably love 3 as well. Mostly for the world and story, although combat doesn't seem that bad to me. Maybe not as good as dark souls (or bloodborne) but it's a different type of game.