I like the Witcher series but I have to admit at this point in time I'm feeling a little deflated, I was under the impression that you get to explore the whole map??? but so far it seems I only get to visit certain parts of the map like DAI,
How much of the game have you played?
I was a little disappointed when I found out the game wasn't one single open map of the world. That was compounded when I was brand new to the game, I was in White Orchard and found myself hitting the "edge of the world" quite frequently while exploring.
Then when I moved onto Velen and realised that White Orchard was essentially a prologue area, not at all indicative of what to expect from the size of the "zones" in the game, I started to
get it more. Velen alone feels bigger and more detailed in every respect than the entirety of something like Skyrim. Having edges to maps doesn't break the immersion since you rarely have any reason or opportunity to get that close to the edge of the map, particularly in Skellige.
Just think of Witcher 3 as taking place in two gargantuan open-world zones (Velen and Skellige) with a few other smaller zones in different parts of the world. It's nothing at all like Dragon Age.