If so how do controls compare to mouse+keyboard?

there is no invert for look so it makes it hard to use the controller. hope there will be a fix soon.

Witcher 2 is a console game. ;)
The UI, the controls, the gameplay all pretty much follow the console-style.
No complaints here though, hard mode feels ok depth-wise. Does not feel dumbed down.
Switched to the gamepad after trying both kb+mouse and gamepad for an hour.

Also, you can invert the gamepad camera as well. It's how I am playing right now.
Go to \Documents\Witcher 2\Config on your computer and edit the user.ini in notepad.
Find the line that says "IK_Pad_RightAxisY=(GameKey="GI_AxisRightY",Value=1)".
Change it to "IK_Pad_RightAxisY=(GameKey="GI_AxisRightY",Value=-1)".
Voila!

There is no IK_Pad_RightAxisY=(GameKey="GI_AxisRightY",Value=1) in the user.ini file but there is a line like that in the QWERTY ini. I will edit that one to see if it fixes the controller problem.

Ok it worked. its not in the user.ini it's in the Input_QWERTY.ini.

The more I play this game with keyboard and mouse, the more I am tempted to use my wired 360 controller. The controls for cast magic and block feel unnatural (mainly block). I was actually playing the game for a few hours before I realized that pressing Z wasnt for magic. A definite palm-face move, but I'm just glad I didnt go off on a rant about the staggeringly disappointing magic, and it's lack of effectiveness, haha.

I'm just worried that once I try it with the 360 controller I wont want to go back to the Mouse and Keyboard. More and more PC games are just making more sense to use a controller for it seems. The UI of TW2 seems very streamlined though, in order to make it more easily accessible for just that reason.

I dont understand why you don't just use Xpadder and configure your controller however you want. I thought everyone learned 5 years ago that it was stupid to rely on PC game support for gamepads.

I am using a Razer Onza and it works like a charm but the standard camera control needs to be inverted. So tonight when i get home from work, i will try to edit the settings.

You can change the controls in the Video and Language menu of the Launcher. Theres a button for Input Options then a Gamepad tab.
The only thing you can't change is the movement controls on the left stick. Theres a way to lock onto your target with the keyboard but I forgot which key it was. Alt I think? Kind of a tricky key to press for me, but you could change it if you wanted.

Yes but you can do all that and more with Xpadder, and it works for everything.

I'm using my ps3 controller and xbox360 gamepad emulation and it works fine.
It feels very natural, if they put this game on the console than it would work very nice.

For certain games you'll love having a 360 controller. For others, you'll wish you were using a Keyboard. With a PC game and a 360 controller that works with your PC, you can choose for yourself. It won't make your Keyboard and Mouse useless for games for you. Unless the only game you ever play is Witcher 2. Which then, it might.

Using Logitech wireless rumble pad with 360 emulator. Working great for me! Will probably switch to a logitech custom profile but cant seem to stop playing long enough to set one up

I started the game using mouse and keyboard and played maybe 2 hours that way. Then saw that it was indeed optimized for a controller and plugged one in.
Apart from the inventory controls i prefer the 360 controller.

Also, until i disabled mouse smoothing in the ini, I had a hard time hitting buttons in the menu. Felt like i were running on ice or something.

yes i play with a wireless 360 controller.

feels very good using it.
apart from no ui scaling on my 1080p tv, the game seems designed with controllers/future console ports in mind.

only thing i dont like is that the controller doesnt work correctly in the attributes screen. simple movement causes the selection icon to zip at a million miles an hour making selections impossible.