Ya a few years ago when my HDTV was $1800 I might agree that HDTVs were still out of a lot of people's price range, but now (just after a brief search) similar TVs are $400-$500 and BETTER 40' TVs are $600.
I would love for you to post me a link to a place where there are good HDTV's for only a little over $100.
HDTVs are pretty ridiculously cheap now. In fact, I haven't seen an SDTV on sale in years and years. I even tried to buy one about 3 years ago and couldn't find anyone selling them.
But I understand the OP being on a budget - but you could always do what I did. Don't buy an HDTV. Buy a computer monitor. An LCD PC monitor with an HDMI input (17" or bigger) can be had for around only $100 dollars, and your PS3 or XBOX360 will plug directly into it using an HDMI cable - no further set-up required, and suddenly you are gaming in HD 720p and 1080p resolutions for very cheap. Especially if your console already came with an HDMI cable.
I feel your pain - Dead Rising and Mass Effect forced me to give up my SDTV gaming due to the small text - but that was
years ago. Unfortunately time and technology marches on. HDTVs were introduced over 12 years ago, and there comes a time for every industry or business to decide when to stop supported old technologies. Bethesda obviously decided that time was now for them.
Take my advice and use a PC monitor instead of an HDTV. It will save you a lot of money and give you the same beautiful end result. I thought my games looked fine on my old SDTV, but going back to that after getting used to HDTV feels like some smeared Vaseline all over the screen. Skip a couple of game purchases and invest in going HD. You'll appreciate the difference and all your past and future games will look better.