I wanted to ask how close the books and games story are, and if there are big differences where they are.
I also wanted to know how close the games are to the new Netflix series and whether it would be advisable to read the books first before playing the games
The Netflix series is based on the books and all books play before the games.
You took the story of the books and then built your own sequel to the story for the games.
The story of the games has nothing to do with the storyline of the books. Events from the books are of course taken up. As a result, certain characters play a more important role in the games than they have in the books.
One understands the plot of the games but also without knowing the books.
I was a little surprised at the beginning of the first Witcher game because it showed a scene that I knew from the series but after that no reference was made to it. Now it makes sense
Yes, the intro is the story with the Striege from episode 3, so to speak.
The books form the actual story of Witcher Geralt.
In principle, the Netflix series is supposed to be a film adaptation of the books. If you know the books, you have clearly noticed that there were clear differences. Both in the interpretation of the characters and in the course of the individual sections of the plot.
Unfortunately, without spoilers, I can't go on with this. But let's just say: when it came to filming in the first season shown so far, you didn't adhere very exactly to the template, but rather followed the first two short story volumes ("The Last Wish" and "The Sword of Providence" very vaguely. You can see the individual portrayed short stories again - but sometimes notices clear differences.
The actual "Geralt Saga", consisting of the 5-part romance cycle, has not yet started in the series and will be made into a film in the following seasons. So you can't yet know exactly how they will implement this.
The games have their own plot. The author of the books - Sapkowski - sees this as not belonging to the canon of the Geralt saga. The plot of all 3 Witcher games takes place a few years AFTER the events of the books. So there are no "differences" in the action here - they are different actions. It should be made clear, however, that the characters in the games sometimes talk about the storyline of the books - and that is why you get a lot of spoilers if you play the games without reading the books beforehand.
So if you want to decide whether to read the books before playing the games, you have to ask yourself
what you like most (book or game)
and whether it would bother you if you snapped rough spoilers on the plot and end of the books about the games. If occasional spoilers on the books don't bother you, you can start playing. The books are not a prerequisite for understanding the plot of the games. The games have enough "lore" to be understandable.
If that bothers you, you have to go through the books first. First the two short story volumes (in that order) and then the pentalogy. There's also a single novel (Time of the Storm), the plot of which takes place between the short stories. You can read it between the short story volumes - or later, more or less as a flashback.
