Mass Effect 3 or Battlefield 3? which one to buy if only one is an option?

Well this is a very difficult choice, especially for a avid gamer. And the first question that comes to my mind is "what console are you playing on?".

If you are playing on a PC(or Mac) then you will need to check to see if your computer can handle running any of these games.

Then you need to look at what you want from your game. Multiplayer, Story, Free Roam, Graphics ?

Battlefield 3 has a pretty good story mode but the main focus would be multiplayer for that(usually)

Mass Effect 3 has an amazing story mode (I would recommend playing the first two games first to build your game up) and it also includes a survival-type multiplayer

Skyrim has great Free Roam ability and possibly more active choices than Mass Effect 3, It unfortunately doesnt have multiplayer, but it is getting a DLC pack later this month or maybe in July.

All three of these games have really good graphics, so no narrowing down there.

Personally, I would pick Mass Effect 3 or Skyrim.

Mass Effect 3 is great if you have a character you brought from the first then second game. The ending is terrible and I don't know when the new ending is being released. Battlefield 3 is great for the multiplayer. I play BF3 almost every day on PC is has much longer play time with the online.

Mass Effect 3

Skyrim has, by FAR, the longest story out of any RPG I've ever played; it also has deep character customization, a system called "radiant story" instead of "radiant AI" like most RPGs (what that means is that, if you kill the quest giver somehow, you can still turn in the quest to like... their uncle or something) and it is so much fun and time consuming. That said, BF3 is also a very good option, but the multiplayer is really the only thing people ever play on it, and people who have never played BF3 multiplayer before having to use the cheap guns that DICE gives you instead of the beautiful guns that experienced players get, you have to be ready to die. A lot.

better buy mass effect 3 - with bf3 comes many expansion sets like the premium edition for which you have to pay again ~

even if both of them are great games, if you just have a gift card for one you shoul dget me3

Out of them all... Skyrim.

Skyrim is a very deep game. BF3 is not as deep. I do not know about ME3, because I won't be buying it until the WiiU comes out. (need some non-childish games to play on WiiU)

Without doubt. Just like man stated, he was correct. I recommend you should higher use keyboard and mouse for a fps, it might getting difficult in the beginning then you'll get used to it so you'll find mouse higher than controller.