Bloodlines, no question about it.


The plot, the gameplay, the music, the atmosphere, all top notch.

Bloodlines is pretty unforgettable. It's a game that (a bit like Total War in a different spectrum) manages to excel at many different genres, atmospheres, gameplay types, simultaneously.

I don't even know anything about Bloodlines but I can tell you that everybody here is gonna recommend Bloodlines.

Back in the days, Crysis was mostly known for being a "showcase" game, to push your CPU and 3D card to the limit and see some eye candy

It was praised at the time, but then it has been a bit forgotten, which to me it's a shame since it's a great FPS that still plays very well.
It's mildly open, very much like Far Cry 1, in the sense that you have a linear objective but a big playground to approach it, has satisfying gunplay, story is serviceable and voice acting nice... it has some weaker sections toward the end, but all in all is a great game worth trying, if you are into first person shooters

If you can only afford one game Bloodlines is the obvious choice. However, Dragon Age is also very cheap at the moment (I don't think it was ever that cheap on GOG.) and I would strongly suggest getting both.

If you can somehow scrape together a few more dollars I would also advise getting a third game: Dragon's Dogma. Even though it is a bit more expensive than Bloodlines and Dragon Age together this is an awesome game that is well worth the asked price at the current 60% off.

With these three games together you are easily set for 3-6 months of entertainment, depending how much time you can set aside for playing or how much of the extra content (side quests, DLCs, ...) you want to play.

Avoid Crysis. It's a bland, boring tech demo. It's not even that impressive visually, since while the graphics were (and possibly still are) technically great, the art design is just about as by-the-numbers as it gets.

Dragon Age Origins is a pretty good RPG, well worth playing. It's not gonna blow your mind if you have any previous experience with the genre, but it's well made for what it is, and the story is, if not very original, is well told and engaging enough thanks to all the choices you're given.

Why don't you check a section of some let's play video for each game, and see what compels you the most?

Crysis is good. Not amazing, but good. It suffers from quite a few glitches you'll have to deal with. I think the locales don't change fast & much enough, and so it ends up feeling like the same thing all the time, for most part. And I'd enjoy it much more if the enemies didn't feel so bullet spongy (it doesn't help that the most common guns just aren't as accurate as you'd like, given the longish distances at which you'll engage). It's definitely worth playing imho. Replay value is so-so. If you love the action, maybe you'll want to play it again (at a harder difficulty?), but it's going to be all the same all over again, maybe with sligtly different weapons & routes.

I'm probably not qualified to say anything about DAO but from what I've seen, it's yet another run of the mill RPG that pads the game with filler and uncompelling busy work. I'd avoid it, unless I were desperate for something to kill tens of hours of dreary boredom (not a problem I have anymore since teenage years.. I'm never bored there's always too little time, especially for boring long RPGs mostly full of filler with some tidbits of good story).

Mirror's Edge has decent gameplay and a lovely soundtrack. It's short and linear. Which is great if you're in for a focused experience that doesn't suck up all your free time. Replay value isn't great.

Bloodlines is good. There's plenty of variety; of the bunch, it feels like the only game that's more than a simple repetitive game mechanic applied throughout the entire game. There's choices, different ways to play, and so on. It's a little janky, but in a good way I'd say. And due to the variety, the replay value is much higher too. There's plenty of content, but it doesn't feel like it's packed with filler, and it doesn't really overstay its welcome; but make no mistake it is still a longish game. That would probably make it the most compelling of the bunch (well, except for me since I'm most into first person shooters). The big question is, do you like the kind of gameplay it has to offer? Do you have the time to dedicate to playing through it? If yes, get it. If not sure, check out some videos :)