Is that with or without Viva Seifert's win?

Congratulations, CDPR.

Can someone who has played both TW1 and TW3 briefly compare the two? I am playing TW1 at the moment (just began last chapter) and would love to hear specifically what's better or worse or same in TW3 compared to TW1.

Quite impressive. Congratulations! :)

So... "GGOAT" Edition next? :D (Greatest Game Of All Time Edition)

TW 1 and 3 are more similar to each other than part 2 id say. The world/areas in 2 were quite small, but the game was a lot more story driven overall, didnt really miss the bigger areas. W1 and 3 definitely give more room for exploration and side quests. 3 is the clear winner when it comes to that imo.

Combat is completely different in 2 and 3 though, it feels more direct, but is missing the timed combos from part 1. I guess most people would prefer the fighting in the later games, so do i overall, but once you get the hang of it (it feels odd at first) its really quite rewarding in W1, and seeing Geralt "dance" his way through enemies was actually pretty cool. W2 had the best boss fights i think, pretty hard (on hard) though.

Levelling is more rewarding in Part 1, i really liked the skill tree and distribution system there. In 3 its much more simplified, 2 is somewhere in between. Similar for Alchemy id say, less flower picking but i like how its solved in W3.
Balance feels a bit off in W3, if you do most of the side quests before leaving an area you're seriously overlevelled once you travel on and it takes a while until the main quest catches on (and you get experience again)... its something id love to see adressed in an enhanced edition ;)

No spoilers but i liked the story in W1 the most, but the presentation in part 2 and 3 is way more dramatic (and pretty flawless at that).

If i had to rate them id say W3 > W1 > W2, but they are all great, in my opinion.

Awards like this don't really mean as much now as they did 10 or even 5 years ago because there are just so many now. Plus people are so quick to dismiss an award if a game they liked didn't win or a game they didn't like did win.

A lot of the awards that the Witcher 3 won for 2015 were also won by Dragon Age: Inquisition in 2014 and the reactions I remember the most were that those awards "Don't count" because DA:I was the winner. This year was a lot of the same thing but more because certain indie titles did not win so people complained that they were being overlooked for the triple A developers.

Great. Thanks. I plan to play TW2 in 2018 and TW3 in 2020.