In leu of writing way too much, I'll say this; I got the bad ending and I'm sad. :(

fr tho, this game was amazing. The Witcher 2 left a HUGE impression on me when I played it almost exactly 4 years ago. Somehow this game met almost every expectation I had of it. I lament the turn the character driven story telling took from "Clearing your name with your merry band of misfits" to "WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER" and leaving a lot of that merry band on the sidelines through a lot of the main story (bar some quests and side quests). Though the writing didn't let up on that front either, definitely filling that personal gripe I was left with. Interacting with all the new characters was as fulfilling as my first time, all of them wonderfully real. The game is gorgeous (especially after that next-gen update), the score is beautiful, the combat is satisfyingly complex, and 96 hours somehow felt only like 30. I definitely recommend playing 2 before this game. You do NOT have to, but man does it make this game so much more potent.