I just checked, I got 418 hours in TW3.
...
Anyway, Witcher 1 is a great game, and CDPR did wonders with the Bioware Aurora engine. The Jacques de Alderberg story is pretty neat, it's very atmospheric and the music is fantastic. Sub plots are pretty good and the world is fleshed out nicely.
But... Combat is clunky and the game is for acquired tastes, like Sniper said... If you're not into RPGs, skip it.
Witcher 2 was fantastic for me, but again, it's an acquired taste.
The combat is still "adequate" at best, but the story, characters, subplot, quests, etc... Are all great.
It's got a very political story, whereas TW3's story has some politics but in the end, is more personal.
I loved TW2, it had it flaws, but it was a masterpiece from a growing studio.
That said, I think there's a decent chance you burn yourself out if you play 1 or 2 and then start on 3.
Get a video on youtube to get the basics of the lore, and a rough outline on what happened in 1 and 2.
For me, TW3 is the best game I've ever played (I've poured more house into Skyrim and Dark Souls series and Dota before that, but they're different games).
Geralt is fleshed out in a way that he feels more "mine" than any of the ME Shepards for example. He's a set protagonist, but he's "mine" and I care about him more than I ever did for Shepard in ME1 (which I loved).
Story is great, so are the quests - and the side-quests are the best you'll find in any game.
Here's why they work so great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkA3KKSHx9o
Voice acting is fantastic, as are the facial animations. Graphics and music is atmosphere is absolutely top notch.
Characters you'll love or you'll hate, but very few will leave you indifferent.
The amount of emotional attachment you get for some of the characters is ridiculous.
The world is massive and beautiful and rewards exploration. It's also very "believable" in terms of how the society functions - from the peasants being gullible and uneducated, to thieves and criminals swearing like there's no tomorrow, to the church being the presence that it was in medieval Europe.
The attention to detail in the game is flat out amazing, and its got loads and loads of artistic integrity - you can see that the devs put their hearts and souls into the game.
They also listen to the fans, correct mistakes and aren't afraid to make fun of their own cheesiness or errors ("killing monsters" scene with Lambert, etc.).
It's humor is also great, something underrated about the game, from the Kaer Morhen scenes to going to the bank to pick up a check etc.
Combat is, well... Adequate. But once you're used to it, put on the hardest mode (Death March) and "enemy upscalling" and it gets better.
However, I wouldn't want combat to be all Souls-like, it wouldn't mesh well with such a gigantic game and exploration.
If you want my advice, play it slow, explore, never skip dialogues, and you'll find yourself loving it.
It's The Wire of games, friends.
TLDR; like Sniper, Ar, and the guys said... maybe skip 1 and 2, watch a video or two to catch up on the story and dive into 3.
You can always come back for 1 and 2 later.
Also, if you got some patience, try Gwent. It's a lovely little mini-game (online stand alone game coming out soon as a consquence).
