I agree OP. It's a boring game with uninteresting lore and it feels like it drags on forever. Not to mention the combat mechanics are terrible. Geralt controls like a tank who has a permanent Slow curse on him, whereas it should feel swift and involving. I gave up mid-way through. My time is better spent elsewhere.

seeing ppl critique witchers dialogue n story...but praising stuff like skyrim,fallout masseffect,persona and mgs story n dialogue? eeeeh different strokes for different folks i guess those games are good but story/dialogue is not the strong suit of none of them n some of them have downright laughable dialogue

And I love that about the combat. I am puzzled when people say the combat in witcher 3 is terrible. I absolutely loved the combat and the preparation i had to be beforehand

I assume you're pretty much in the minority thinking that way. I actually think TW3 has some of the most touching and meaningful stories to tell in all of gaming and it's the main reason why it is getting so much praise.

That's because you understood the combat for what it wanted to be, not for what YOU wanted it to be. You're right, preparation is everything in TW3 as it was in the past two games.

Yeah, the writing is awful and the general mechanics feel clunky but I still enjoyed exploring the world. If you haven't tried either Dragon's Dogma or Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, you might want to pick those up.

How am I, as a newbie to the series, supposed to know this. The game doesn't give you any indication that I remember. Seems like bad game design to me.

I know, it’s sounds like a strange concept, but read the manual.

This. So much this. It's as if Slimebeast is a visitor from opposite world, where everything is backwards. Wow.

The world in Witcher 3 is a reflection of not our modern world (per se, of course one can always draw parallels), but our medieval past. And that past was miserable for the common peasant. Poor, filthy, disease ridden, unfair and brutal. No wonder people are having a hard time. It's not as if they had to come up with all the misery, they simply portray what the reality of that era was. Anti-correctness doesn't mean that you have to revel in ugly things, it simply means that you don't pretend that they don't exist. The game doesn't glorify anything, it actually gives a rather balanced portrayal of all levels in society. Not every rich guy is an asshole and not every poor guy is a noble paragon. Even the emperor is a complex character, not just "pure evil". And the main protagonist is something of an antihero. Everybody is simply trying to survive with what they've got. Of course there are the added fantasy elements and within that framework they have come up with the elves being oppressed and such, but it's part of the lore and history of the world. To me it was an interesting way of bringing social tension to the mix and you can choose for yourself whether you want to see elves as a threat or not, it's not really spelled out for you. The point seems to be that everyone should be judged individually, not as groups, and that is the antithesis of everything that the SJW crowd is trying to push. Politically correct the game is not, far from it. Female characters are sexy but yet strong in the right way, demonstrating that strong female doesn't mean a bland everywoman who Mary Sues her way through every obstacle just because. Whorehouses and such are a common thing, as they would have been in a medieval setting, that's why there's no need to either frown upon them them or glorify them, they are simply a part of life. You can choose whether your hero makes use of their services or not. As a contrast, Bioware has gone full correct with its unsolicited expositions of politics and sexuality, that's why the Witcher was a breath of fresh air for me. Sure, it does have its own take on some issues, but it is very subtle and natural instead of rubbing it in your face. Bioware says "X is wrong and you should think like Y", whereas CDPR says "this is the real shit, make up your own mind as to what you want to make of it".

The only people who think "edgy" is a thing in videogames are the people who never play adult games. For the rest of us it's nothing special, it's a staple in many of these games. It's not the reason to play anything, it's just one facet of adult themes alongside violence and gore and whatnot. Sex is a normal adult thing, you know?