So, I was in Gamestop today, as my little brother wanted to pick up a PSP. He's had his PSP-1000 forever, and the UMD drive doesn't really stay closed anymore, and so he wanted a new one. I figured a used one would be the way to go, as long as it worked right.

In any case, while we were there, one of the screens popped up an interview talking about Dragon Age: Origins which, as anyone who may have been reading in the past little while knows, has taken up a significant amount of my attention recently. I casually mentioned to him that I really liked that game.

One of the salesmen overheard me, and grabbed a copy of the game to show me that they carried it. I replied that I already owned it, and really liked it. Apparently because I'd already made the purchase, he preceded to tell me that he didn't like the game because he "just couldn't get over the graphics, so I gave it back."

Now, I've heard this kind of thing before on the topic of this game, and I have to say that I don't understand the complaint at all. I've read it here on Gamespot, I've read it in other places online, and now I've heard it from a game store employee. So, I went back and turned it on today. And... I still don't get it.

Have we become such snobs that psuedo-realism isn't enough for us? I could understand if the gameplay wasn't great (it is). I could understand complaining that the storytelling was bad (it isn't.) I could understand just about any other reason, at least if it made the game not fun to play, but because the graphics were a little below some undetermined average, it's completely unplayable?

I just don't get it.

How could a game like Demon Souls (which has pretty good graphics but is a masochist's wet dream) be so overwhelmingly recommended despite its complete lack of storytelling and character development, and a game like Dragon Age (with excellent characters and powerful storytelling tools) be panned because of the art direction? It's like whining because the supersonic racecar wasn't painted in your favorite color.

Whatever, I guess. It just leaves me with an excellent, fun game to play, despite the strange standards that others seem to hold their game up to. And now, back to Ferelden.

- BK