TW 2 controls weren't the best thing ever, but they were passable (sort of). TW 3 feels completely unnatural, holy shit. I own a X360 gamepad and I've tried both input methods. They both suck, no reason to argue which is better. Stiff movement all around, terrible controls both in and out of combat. Target selection mixed with camera movement? OH YEAH, why not? A character that can't stab a guy right in front of him before doing a triple flip? YESS, WE JUST LOVE TAKING DAMAGE FOR NO REASON. Because everyone ELSE is capable of doing fast-non-flamboyant-attacks.
Playing Tank-Geralt is not fun, so I'll ask the hivemind a simple question: is the story as good as TW2? Is it worth suffering through this game's shitty gameplay? Because I loved TW2's story and plot twists, but found the gameplay pretty mediocre. Only reason I'm bothering with TW 3 is because the characters are great and I DO care about Yennefer, Geralt and Triss. Potato devs should've written the story and handed gameplay design to someone else. Whoever is responsible for tank-geralt deserves to be shot.
Oh yeah, and I must make the mandatory DARK SOULS DID IT BETTER commentary. Sorry guys, you know it's true.
I should be done with the main plotline tonight or tomorrow night, and will develop a better overall opinion then. But, so far...
...I'm not really sure. I'd say story and writing are very close to W2, with one prevailing over the other on certain occasions, and vice versa: overall, though, I'd say W3 is more enjoyable, more varied, and definitively has better pacing. The general feeling is slightly less grimdark, actually, much less grimdark. To me, W2 seeped with melancholy and bitterness, while W3 is often more lighthearted, while still featuring some seriously grimdark/woah content (mostly confined to the first half of the game). It even goes full-out mushy-feels towards 3/4. There are no C&C of particular relevance, but there are more emotional moments and outcomes than in W2.
There definitively are some flaws in the writing and in the plot, especially the irritatingly abysmal conversations (very limited choices, and an unnecessary lot of "forced" conversation outcomes) and some filler content here and there (a lot of it, as you approach endgame: still better than the abrupt/rushed finale of W2). In W3's favour, the game is definitively longer than W2: took me some15 hours for a completionist run on Dark difficulty, whereas I'm playing TW3 on normal, I'm only pursuing the main quest and I'm already at 25 hours or so (and I haven't finished it yet).
In conclusion, if you set the difficulty to easy, thus spare yourself the horrible spastic popamole pain that combat is, you should be able to enjoy a fairly good story and the spledidly built world, delivered via an endless sequence of cutscenes and some minor "active" gameplay (run there, use witcher powers here, kill something, etc...). Also, bubs.
Tl;dr - Very good plot, better than W2, not as good as W1 imho; great writing (better than basically 99% of the AAA titles oput there, except for GTASA); great world (visuals and lore). Mediocre C&C (honestly, they're not really much: but I guess in this day and age, mediocre is the new "good", when it comes to C&C). Dreadful everything else (combat, movement, controls, world interaction, "RPG elements").