Depends how many side quests you do. So yes, because you'll do ALL the side quests.

I lost a couple of times and gave up on it until I'd finished the main story, at which point I idly considered giving it another go…. now I have a full blown gambling habit and Geralt spends his time obsessively roaming the world to find merchants to acquire cards from. Take from that what you will.

Play the witcher 2 from the end of act 1 at least twice (you'll understand what I mean); you will love it forever.

See, I love the Witcher 2's combat, but I can understand why people don't. It definitely rewards perseverance; I did a playthrough recently on hard difficulty and was happily slicing to pieces enemies that kicked my ass repeatedly on normal when I first played. TW3's combat is similar in this respect (though improved…

That plague demon quest is one of my favourites. The reason for this is that I cottoned on to its game not because I'm super clever, but because I'd been burned in a similar fashion during a quest in the second game - spirits often lie. This gives a whole new and awesome meaning to the term "experience point".