The usual reason given is that it's not particularly interactive. You basically click and watch Geralt do stuff, and it doesn't feel like you're actually doing it yourself. Also, people playing on the normal and easy difficulty modes will probably find the combat quite easy as well. So, for some people, they feel like they just click the mouse at a prompt and are otherwise basically watching a movie.

I did not feel this way; I liked the combat and the rest of the game, but I can understand the criticism.

I'm looking forward to the Witcher 2 though, as pretty much everyone seems to think the combat is improved.

By tedious I mean difficult to learn and succeed with and such. He seems to want it to be easy so he never messes up which annoys me. And it contradicts his complaint about monotony.
That's a valid complaint, but like yourself I love it anyway.

It is and isn't...you can click like crazy and pull off combos just fine, which is awful...but you don't have to and I found myself playing more like TW1, but with all the changes and enhancements. Also it gets pretty damn easy for awhile (even on Hard) so combat isn't as satisfying. Regardless, it's an amazing game.

Hmm, well, sorry you're annoyed by that but I don't see why you had to drop in with that first comment. When did I say I wanted it to be easy? In any case, I found myself staring at Geralt constantly during combat to make sure I didn't mess up my timing and not looking around me. You'll probably scoff at me, but I felt like it broke the immersion to concentrate so much on swinging a sword that you don't really look around. So it was a problem with MY personality and MY playstyle. Not yours. I only spent a few hours with TW1 so I will probably try to finish it, but I will most likely finish it after TW2. That's all.

I won't be able to play for about 20 more days, but I barely remember there being other cameras. If I recall correctly, I felt too zoomed in during combat. Might have just been my use of the wheel, but if there's another camera mode that fits combat better, I'll gladly give it a try. Not that it really matters since I already own the game, but how long does it take to finish TW1 if you do just about everything? And is it true that it takes place only in Vizima and some surrounding areas? Thanks for your reply.

There are four I believe. Use F1, F2, F3 to switch between them..and another for FPP I can't remember. This video explains the combat/cameras: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzsk6N1LL6Q

I haven't actually gotten that far, but from what I understand it's longer than TW2 which is about 40-100 hours, and yeah, I believe it takes place mostly in Vizima and surrounding areas. That's one of its strengths, though...it makes the world feel a lot bigger than it is.

I know. I read it 10 years ago. My point was that a book with one joke story and one canon story (although it had nothing to do with the witcher at the time of writing) is not enough to call "Something Ends, Something Begins" a short story collection about the witcher. Please forgive my engineering approach to definitions ;).