Earlier this month, I was met with every gamer’s nightmare and every college student’s persistent, nagging reality: I was out of spare gil.

I looked at the store shelves in Best Buy, Walmart, Target and others to see such enticing delights: “Red Dead Redemption,” “Lost Planet 2,” “3-D Dot Game Heroes,” “ModNation Racers,” “Alan Wake,” “Blur,” “Super Mario Galaxy 2” and “Split/Second” specifically come to mind.

But alas, I had not plucked from the carcasses of wild monsters sufficient vendor trash nor cash. I had some money to spare of course, but not enough for a new game. And so, I wept as the world passed me by.

That is until I realized something: I love mediocre games.

I know some of my readers will rejoice at that statement with a finger-in-the-air poo-poo I-told-you-so face, but I’m completely serious. When it comes to games, we have to think: What do I want out of my game? Why am I going to play it?

To have fun is the obvious answer, but that doesn’t quite dig deeply enough. You want to be aware of specifics.

As I’ve admitted before, art direction and story execution are two of the most powerful attributes of a game in my mind. I can forgive lackluster graphics, occasionally twitchy game-play and so on so long as I’m exploring a fantastical plot. I want to see new, dazzling sights. I want to hear engaging, witty dialogue. I want to be tested in challenging, creative ways. I don’t need to put myself in the poor house to do that.

Let me put it to you this way:

Say you want a steak. A thick, delicious steak. You want it for the pepper-and-salty deliciousness, the juicy tenderness and the smell that wafts into your nostrils begging your mouth to hurry up already and take that first bite. There are two restaurants in town. Restaurant A will serve the distinctly better steak — better seasoning, better presentation, etc — and Restaurant B will give you the hunk of cow on a plain paper plate. Now, you can’t afford to go to A, but you really want a steak. You decide B will do, and you have a satisfactory meal.

The pieces were still there, your meat was cooked to order because you knew what you wanted, and although the seasoning may have been less flavorful, you’re still getting a steak.

All these new games that have come out this month, those are the expensive steak. While I would love to sink my teeth into them, I just can’t afford it right now. So I head to the cheap alternative and browse through the menu. If I can learn to let go of my elitist taste, I can allow myself to enjoy this selection. I may not enjoy it as much as I would the more expensive option, but I’m having my desires met all the same.

So what did I opt for, you may wonder? Why, the current-gen “Tomb Raider” trilogy of course. It was just what I was looking for, it was me. I’m an explorer, I root for girl power and as nerdy and glued to the TV as I am, I’m still fairly lithe and spry. Had I taken gymnastics when I was younger I’ve no doubt I’d be practicing my backflips every other day. You tell me those descriptions aren’t Lara Croft to a T.

I’m also a duelist, a denizen of a mythical fantasy realm. So despite the improvements to user interface, control and world construction made in “Fallout 3,” I still prefer to travel to the lands of Bethesda’s earlier work, “Oblivion.” I deal with the bitter taste of listening to a mere half-dozen voice actors and the ungodly-long travel time to and from quests because those aren’t what I’m looking for.

And of course, I’ve got my dark side to me. Sometimes I want to hunt, to take vengeance, to crawl through the Lovecraftian depths of the underworld. That’s when I grip the “Soul Reaver” and take up my righteous quest to restore balance to Nosgoth. I cringe at the convoluted plot, incoherent history and repetitive combat, but I deal with it because again, that’s not what I’m looking for.

You starting to pick up what I’m laying down? We all play games for different reasons. Whatever yours are, be proud of them and seek out the titles that will allow you to explore those opportunities. Don’t wait around for the next Triple-A release if there’s a perfectly adequate experience waiting for some love.

This column appears courtesy of Sophie Prell’s blog, “G3 – A Girl’s Guide to Gaming.”