Try Witcher 2 first MailMan, even if just for an hour.
You probably won't regret it.
Everyone I know who tried Witcher 2 was disappointed. From what I read in this thread people claimed it was a different game for all the reasons they criticized DA2 for. DA dumbs down combat, "CRAP CONSOLE GAME BULLSHIT RAWRRRR", Witcher 2 dumbs down combat, "IT'S GLORIOUS!!!"
OK... If we put aside the bugged quests, the muddy default graphics, the atrocious UI, the wonky AI pathing, the feeling that your character has close to zero effect on the world... my main gripe with the game is the combat system. Spells are OK, archery is passable, but close combat is mediocre at best and only if you go with sword and shield. It's unresponsive and feels floaty...
There are very very few bugged quests, and they usually only pop up when you do something like clear every single cave before going and talking to the Greybeards. The UI is a subjective matter, I think it works pretty well. The AI pathing in most games is absolute garbage, I never saw any major issues with it in Skyrim. As for Character having no effect, that's because it's an open world game. By definition most of these games result in you not feeling like you have a huge effect. There are definitely moments where you feel more like you have an effect though, but they are mostly tied to the main story line. Obviously you going spelunking in a cave for someone's favorite book isn't a world-changing event.
Now, the Combat system definitely has its flaws, but I think they pull it off pretty well. I would say you have the order of balance mixed up. Archery > Melee > Spells. The Spells are completely underwhelming. The main problem is that they just don't scale with anything. There's no Int or Spell Power stat to passively increase the damage your spells do, and that makes it feel like they are always underwhelming. Where you can enchant and improve your Bow or Axe to be a killing machine, you cannot improve your spells at all, minus a few enchantments to lower the mana cost.
I'll probably be on tpb in a few days
