I personally believe Skyrim is the game of the year for me; possibly for all time. However, Witcher 2 is still incredibly close to as good for me, and I was wondering what people's opinions are. I get that they have a different focus and feel to them, apples and oranges and all that. But in a year of good RPGs, these two seem cream of the crop for me.

Witcher 2 has better visuals story and combat; Skyrim has more freedom and more things to do.

I think I enjoyed the Witcher 2 more on release than I do Skyrim, and there's of course the fact that it's a PC game, and consequently better optimised for PC.. plus CDPR consistently patch and release free DLC, which puts them ahead of Bethesda. If it were a choice between the two for me, I'd pick the Witcher 2 every time.

I haven't played W2 since the 2.0 patch but as someone who never played the first one it was pretty frustrating learning the game. The monster battles were cool but really the world in the game doesn't hold a candle to skyrim in how limited you are in where you can go and what you can do.

Personally, I think the Witcher series is crap.

That said, Skyrim and The Witcher may both be RPGs, but they are completely different types of RPGs. Comparing them beyond graphics and story = stupid.

Lol out of interest why do you say that?

EDIT: and I disagree that comparisons beyond graphics and story are stupid. The game mechanics and open vs more linear are not exclusive to the games themselves, but are the basis upon which the games were built, and so are grounds for comparison. For example, first person gameplay makes for arguably a more immersive experience, but third person gameplay undoubtedly makes for a better combat system.

Never liked it. Honestly, I never thought the visuals were that impressive, and the story was...meh.

Witcher 2 had better implementation due to it being created specifically for the PC, so it has that. Better visuals and less graphical glitches within the game, with a pretty decent story. Skyrims menus across all platforms are shaky at best, but the game itself has extraordinary gameplay. I have played both games and would be hard pressed to make a decision between the two. If I had to make one it would probably be Skyrim, due to the outrageous amount of open ended content within the game while The Witcher is rather closed off.

witcher is linear predicatble with next to no customization so to me it loses by default for even being compared to skyrim.

I suppose it was a stupid question really to ask a Skyrim forum which one they thought was better

I own Witcher 2 and had fun with it but once you finish the game which can be done in under 20 hours there really is no point in playing again....

I don't know, really. I thought it would be cool. I played through the first one. The first one was really bad with bugs, so that is why I hate that one. The second one just, I don't know... It didn't feel epic to me and I never finished it.

Plus, I get bored really easy with those style RPGs unless the story is constantly pulling you in.

I played both for different reasons, and I like both for different reasons.

I enjoyed playing the Witcher 2; thought it had great visuals, an interesting story and I enjoyed the combat system a lot once I got used to it. It has some replay value as well since there are 2 sides you can pick but I personally only played it once. It definitely didn't keep me busy as long as Skyrim will.

IMHO :

The Witcher series is an RPG game which focus on the story ( the game divided in chapters , the choices you make which have consequences on the world/characters/story , gradual access to locations ) and 3rd person hack ad slash swordplay

Skyrim is a sandbox action/adventure and RPG game which focus on freedom in a virtual world and exploration on an open map

So the gameplay is quite different , it's difficult to compare them objectively but my own opinion is that the Witcher2 has a much better story , voice acting and characters , whereas Skyrim has much better "wow" factor when you explore and play the first 30 hours , better music , has better variety in the gameplay and potential for modding (i'm sure the modding will make skyrim much better than it is one year from now )

In term of replay value , despite being very short for an RPG , the Witcher2 has a lot of it since making different choices can change the story and locations you visit , whereas in Skyrim , despite the fact that the main story is not dynamic , the replay value is enormous since you can always replay the game with a pure mage , warrior or thief/assassin and the main story is not the main focus of the game , so it depends what people like in a rpg , if it is the story then the Witcher wins , if it is freedom and sandbox rpg style of gameplay , then Skyrim is better

I gave up on the witcher 2 after, I realised how broken and unusable the quest log/ journal system was. I was meant to find some ostmurk or some crap, but I didn't tell me where, how, or what it was, I read the quest text and it was speaking in past tense like I'd already got it, then I preceeded in looking through my inventory trying to find it.. blah blah blah, it was just incredibly annoying and bad, and the combat was spammy. I might try it again when I forgive the developers for putting random quest markers in random places for no reason.

I hate Dark/Realistic Fantasy, so Skyrim wins in my books.

Wicher 2 is the better game of the two, BUT Skyrim is endless...so yeah

Witcher 2 is GOTY for me.

Skyrim is good, but not that good.

I wish bethesda was more ambitius.

Yeah, The Witcher 2's quest system is a bit buggy. It was kind of immersion breaking when I already met one person and then Geralt proceeds to say to someone, "Where can I find this person?". Really?? Poor attention to details in my opinion. So far, Skyrim hasn't given me that, yet. To me, I prefer sandbox games AND being able to JUMP, so Skyrim is GOTY for me, or GOTD However, I played and finished The Witcher Enhanced Edition, and that game has atmosphere, just like Skyrim has. The Witcher 2 seems completely devoid of atmosphere, and I know this is a very common complaint about the game.

Oh, yeah, and I can't stand the randomly generated NPC names! I mean, what were they thinking???!

I don't like The Witcher series. Mainly because I don't like the god awful mouse combat. Its primarily why I use the console, Skyrims combat feels so much more fluid with the game pad IMO.
Also people complain about Skyrims UI, The Witchers wasn't much better...

The Witcher 2's UI was horrid! The Witcher 1's UI was BEAUTIFUL.

Honestly? Id still prefer the first Fable over the witcher2, let alone Skyrim. Linear story (with choices going as far as taking the left road or the right, both ending with a slightly different view of the same thing, and a crafting system that still haunts me at night. I did like its maturity, the graphics and the story, but in my opinion doesnt hold its own against a titan like Skyrim.

(Minor fanboyism perhaps, but wth xD)

As a PC gamer myself I'd go with The Witcher 2.
Few game developers would put that much attention into a PC game nowadays. Skyrim is good but obviously Bethesda cares more for console gamers than PC gamers, much more.

the witcher 2 does not have better combat, what you basically do in Witcher 2 is throw down a shield tap the attack button as much as possible, and if it is a boss throw down a yarden and chuck bombs at them

in Skyrim you actually get to use spells, dragon shouts, magic, shields, and 1/2 handed weapons, also you get to wield whatever you use in both hands, whereas in the witcher 2 Geralt could never actually figure out that he could pull out both swords

I played some Witcher 2, and personally I thought it svcked. I like Skyrim a ton better.