Really loved the original but couldnt get into this one (or the 2nd). I have waited a long time to give it a shot because I thought how can the series possibly recover from the dumbing down of the 2nd title, but people were saying it was better and stuff.

Overall the game felt way too much hollywood for me, with dialogues cutscenes giving me an urge to skip them rather than immerse me in the world. Story was uninteresting, feeling more of a remake of W1 rather than a sequel the way the whole witcher concept seemed to be reintroduced. Like mundane starting quests such as hunting a simpe gryffon for such an experienced witcher, the cliché moment of rednecks picking a fight outside the inn (reminded me of KotoR, which still felt stupid years ago). The overall eerie tone for a witcher universe. The way the very first true NPC encounter past the tutorial seems to open up a romance option (herbalist telling Geralt something like come back later for more or smth).

The Witcher 3 pretty much is a button mashing game

Don't be ridiculous.

Witcher 3 isnt a game for all gamers but people with negative opinions of the game are scattered. Theres always someone who complains that it doesnt deserve game of the year awards but i wonder what games are considered better because i cant think of any game since witcher 3 came out that is better than witcher 3

You just haven't been to Crookbag Bog yet if you complain about the lack of eerieness.

Maybe its hard to find current gen games better than W3 but if you go back in time a bit pretty much any RPG . I wouldnt give a higher rating to W3 just because other modern games suck in comparison

Strange that you're in a very small minority with that view. Even your question proposes such.

Im a minority because most gamers are only aware of the current gen.

What I found is that most people who enjoyed the game can hardly explain why for reasons other than 'i liked it' or 'because its a good game'.

I'm not a fan of the RPG genre. I own dragon age 1 and 2 on origin, mass effect 1 and 2, tried elder Scrolls 4 and 5, tried a bit of neverwinter, fallout 4 and tried the demo of the latest mass effect and dragon age. I didnt enjoy any of them as much as witcher 3. I find it really hard to see your point of view on this

Whereas your eyes are clouded with nostalgia.

Or the sting of sour grapes.

I confess I don't have a lot of experience with Griffins, They are pretty rare around here. Last time I was in Canada, I don't recall any there either.

Having played Witcher 1 quite thoroughly and Witcher 3, the story lines are hardly similar.

If you take the trouble to read the books especially The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny, you will get so much more out of it all. Not to mention, putting many things into context.

Enjoy your gaming.

Having played the game for maybe 3 hours, I can't really explain why I enjoy the Witcher 3 either. A can say however, that "I enjoy it" and "it's a good game" as you commented. This is in the context of playing a number of other games such as:
Battlefront2, DragonAge3, ESO-Skyrim, FFXIV, GW2, ME-Andromeda, SWTOR, Skyforge, Warframe, WoW, to name a few recently or currently played games. So far (for me), The Witcher 3 has an interesting story and I'm enjoying it. I find it to offer more story driven content and less hack-n-slash pewpew shoot-em-up (which gets monotonous) than the games I mentioned.

I'm looking forward to playing Kojima's "Death Stranding" which appears it will be an interesting story as well. Also, I've watched and enjoyed gameplay of "Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice" (IMO, the best video series for this is by Vulkk on Youtube). Although it does have a fair share of Hack-n-Slash, the story is utterly fascinating and the immersion is complete, IMO. I believe Death Stranding and Hellblade are pioneers of a new genre of game the industry may evolve to. Also, having done extensive research into CDPR's Cyberpunk 2077, I bellieve it may be in this new genre as well (best one-stop channel with lots of content on it is the Youtube channel: "Madqueen Show").

I'm in Canada. We don't have Griffins??? omg you've just broken my heart!!! :-) I laughed when I read your post. thanks,

I'm an old school WoW player (12 yrs now) and I'm looking to try something different - was thinking of The Witcher set.

Witcher 3 won't play because it says my GPU doesn't support direct X 11, but when I run dxdiag, it tells me the GPU is running direct X 11--help???