The Witcher 3 for stories, Elden Ring for exploration. The Witcher 3's side quests are the best-written in any open world and its combat is merely adequate. Elden Ring reverses that exactly: the combat is superb and the story is fragments you assemble yourself.
Both are huge open worlds with strong art direction and both reward wandering off the main path — for completely different payoffs.
Full voice acting, real characters, and side quests that would be main quests anywhere else. Blood and Wine is one of the best expansions ever made. The combat never gets better than fine.
Nothing is explained and nothing is marked. What you get instead is the best combat in the genre and a map that keeps opening downward.
More like this: games like Elden Ring.
The Witcher 3 for stories, Elden Ring for exploration. The Witcher 3's side quests are the best-written in any open world and its combat is merely adequate. Elden Ring reverses that exactly: the combat is superb and the story is fragments you assemble yourself.
Better is the wrong question for these two — they are close enough that the answer depends on what you want from the next twenty hours. Pick The Witcher 3 if you want to be told a story. Pick Elden Ring if you want to be shown a world.
No. There are no scores anywhere on this page. This is a written opinion about what each game is for, so you can judge whether it matches what you are after.