Agonizing Witcher 3 decision.
 

So I thought I'd try the witcher 3 for a bit and then shelve it and wait for patches or mods. In that time that it was sitting I was going to finish the witcher 1&2…

I'm sure anyone that's played the Witcher 3 knows where this is going. I can't put the game down. I've basically skipped all intro videos or any dialogue I thought might spoil the first games. So I could go back and finish them as they aren't spoiled. I have played the first game to chapter 4 but lost my save and the 2nd one I only messed with for a few hours. So both would require full playthroughs. While I liked both they didn't grab me like the witcher 3 has obviously.

So my question, that I'm sure you've seen coming for 2 paragraphs now is how much do save imports affect wither 3 and will I be doing myself a great disservice by continuing on with out the back story of the first 2?

To further exacerbate my dilemma, with my current schedule it would probably take me 3-6 months to get through games 1&2. This may seem like an easy decision for some, but trust me I have a serious OCD thing about doing things out of order. The Witcher 3 might be that good though.

Thoughts, advice?

TW2 save isn't necessary. No items are carried over to TW3 and, before the audience with the Emperor, you will be asked about the decisions you made in the previous game.
If you can't wait to start TW3 read this list of CCs from TW2. This way you will know which branches and answers are best for you.
http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/The_Wi…sion_checklist

I strongly advise against reading that list if you ever plan to play TW2.

I'd at least play TW2 play first, but that's just me. Playing TW2 will help you appreciate TW3 even more, and it's not a very long game anyways.

TW1 doesn't have much of a connection to the other games story-wise, and you could always play it later if you're still craving more Witcher.

I will second what JDR have just said. List is a one HUGE spoiler and should be read only if somebody wants to play TW3 without finishing TW2. And, just like JDR, I would advise you to play TW2 to get some proper background to to TW3.

I had the same question. Thank you.

Pibbur who now knows what to do. About the witchers. Other things? Maybe not.

So what will you do pibbur? :)

Play TW2.

Other than that? Well, right now its time for breakfast. And COFFEE!!!

Pibbur who also need to tale care of some housekeeping. The wife is visiting old friend this weekend. She's coming back tomorrow.

PS. Is grass widower a term used in English? We use it for males whose wife is away for some time. But she will come back, which may result in frenetic activity the last couple of hours in freedom. DS.

Yes it is. We also have similar phrase in Polish but we use straw instead of grass.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I will probably play the second one first then. Hopefully I can ignore skipping the first one but I'm sure it will nag me in the back of my mind. The compulsion I have to finish things in a certain order is very annoying.

I didn't use my Witcher2 saved games and I can so far I am glad I didn't. If for the only reason there is a part in the game near the beginning where you are being questioned about events in your past that are directly from the Witcher 2.

If in this part of the game they had used my choices from my saved game files it isn't how I would have answered the questions as I have played it 3 times and in each of those questions I had the different outcomes.

I am not sure what my choices I made in my last play of the witcher 2 so I wouldn't want them to impact this game.

Long and the short of it Yes play the second one for some of the character back ground and if you like your choices and out come of the second one use that file as I am sure it impacts the relationship and if some characters are even in your quest in this game.

That part never happens though if you import a save.

That is what I thought so I am glad I didn't use my saved files.

I don't understand your reasoning. Were you just not happy with the choices you made in TW2?

But if you don't import the TW2 save you can't have the pervert tatoo… (ok you can only have it if you did Roche's path and didn't have Triss remove it, but still it look awesome on my Geralt).

Read above, I played it three times and I can't remember how I played it the last time. I played it last year again late spring early summer getting for the fall release date of the game.

Beside that when answering the question I was able to answer them from all the information I had gather by playing it three times. I think if you had killed Letho in the first game which I did twice and let him live one he might not be in this game if you had killed him.

When being questioned I said I let him live. I am not a 100% sure on what the question trigger but I can say this.

One of the parts of the main quest I did yesterday for most of the day. Near the end you are given a very heavy timed choice. I played it out one way from the time choice to see what would happen. Then restarted and played it out from the other choice.

There is a big impact on what happens even in the story log that loads when you re load the game.

Ah ok, I should have read your post a little more carefully. So you didn't want to use your save because you weren't quite sure what decisions you had made.

You might want to throw some spoiler tags in there. ;)