I'm going to take a day or few days to poke around with the after-game a bit and then probably retire my completed game and backup the saves. I might possibly redo from a save game some end choices to see some of the different endings or I might just wait it out for future replays instead.

Then I think I'll have a bit of a Witcher vacation or rather a gaming vacation which might be a day or a few days or however long I feel the need for, then I'm going to once again restart Witcher 1 and go from the beginning through the whole game finally. Should be interesting to finally see it all.

But man, I have a shit tonne of huge RPGs in the backlog now too! The Witcher is my primary focus for some time now it seems going forward, but I just recently got Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, as well as Pillars of Eternity super holy shit everything edition. Countless others... not enough time!

Knowing myself, at some point I'll bite the bullet and play the games in order. Or alternatively, not play any of them, but still in order.

Having already heard that I should read the books first, I read "The Last Wish". It was OK. Being a huge folktale fan, I enjoyed the folktale references, but beyond that, there was little to write home about. I don't expect I'll read the other books (I know, novels vs. short stories, but still).

Out of curiosity, if Witcher 3 isn't, what are your favourite games?

Some of my own favourite games include:

Skryim
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle For Middle Earth II: The Rise of the Witch King
Tomb Raider 2013
Bioshock Infinite
Far Cry
Torchlight & Torchlight II
Diablo 1 & 2
Starcraft
Warcraft 2 & 3
Half Life entire game franchise
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 1 & 2 and in general the entire Tom Clancy game franchises leading up to these specific ones (haven't played any since then because $Ubisoft)

Probably could name dozens more that I really enjoyed though too.

A little late to the discussion, but I'd say that you don't really need to play the previous two games, and you don't need to read the stories either, in order to enjoy Witcher 3. It's fairly well self-contained, and your primary mission in Witcher 3 is independent enough from what you did in the first two games that you can probably jump right in.

Increasingly, as I get older and crankier, I find myself watching YouTube videos of games I probably wouldn't play, but might have an interesting story. If you finally decide to play Witcher 3 without the prequels, you may find that you can catch up on all the plot that you missed, simply by going to YouTube and seeing if anyone has posted "game movies" or "all cinematics" videos, which essentially gives you all the pre-rendered and in-engine cutscenes, and skips all the time spent running around and stabbing things.

I love TW3 and it's the best Witcher game for me but I won't put it as the best games I've ever played although I definitely reckon it as a top notch game. Velen is excellent in terms of sidequests go, Novigrad has a couple of interesting ones and I'm currently at Skellige which while absolutely breathtaking in landscape doesn't seem to offer quests with quality like Velen's so far. Combat feels hard and challenging, on Death March, at the start but it seems quite manageable, easy even now that I'm level 19, be cool if it's still hard and challenging. The choices and consequences are thoroughly made and felt through the game, few games can say they achieved that.
Wish they improved keyboard controls though, movement doesn't feel responsive enough, infuriating sometimes. Combat controls are fine. Heard it's better with a controller, might play my 2nd playthrough with my gamepad.

Oh, and Gwent is life. One of the best mini-game I've played in a game, probably the best card mini-game in a game, considering KOTOR, FFVIII, Fallout: NV and others.

Nice and refreshing to read a review that is so positive about a game +1.

That's an important consideration I wasn't aware of.

The only reason I continued playing KOTOR for as long as I did was the card game. And FF VIII is my favourite FF, first and foremost because of the card game.

Haha, hey, that's your opinion man and I respect that!

I agree that the 'writing' isn't anything particularly special, but I think it's more of a problem with the translations than the actual 'writing' (though I guess from a reader's point of view, it doesn't really make much difference). I have a Polish friend who tells me that they're well written in their original form.
With that being said, I don't think in the overall scheme of things it detracts too much. The books can still be enjoyed perfectly well.

I personally think that reading the books give a lot more insight and understanding of the characters than the games ever give. Perhaps it's just me, but I felt a much greater attachment to Geralt and co. having read the novels, than I got from the games alone. Especially in the case of the first game, where characterisation was relatively limited.
You're right that much of the core stories are covered in-game with flashbacks and what have you, making the books unrequired, but they do gloss over a lot of details and intricacies as well (and that's not taking into consideration parts that aren't touched upon at all). It's like comparing a novel to its movie adaption. Often an adaption will do a good job at presenting the overall story, but misses a lot of features that made the original so good.

I guess your point about appreciating the games for what they are is a fair point. Though considering that the games were based on the books and continue the story, it could be argued that for the 'full experience' the books are worth reading.

In any case, the books certainly aren't a necessity to enjoy the games, I just personally found that they enriched my experience and increased my enjoyment a lot. If people don't enjoy the books then there's nothing stopping them from jumping straight into the games. :)

Persona 4 and The Cat Lady are my two favourite games. Final Fantasy VIII is also up there.
Witcher 3 is certainly in my 'top list', (not that I actually have a strict list or anything) and I consider myself a big fan of the series, but its not my absolute favourite game.

Hehe, FFVI is my fav FF followed by FFVII. I disliked FFVIII :D