I only have the problem of ASCII being physically straining for the eyes. I have a 1920x1080 resolution and everything is positively TIIIIIIINY in ASCII, so I'd rather use a tileset than get blistering headaches after an hour :/ Otherwise I'd probably go hardcore too.
If I remeber correctly you can actually zoom in the game (mouse wheel in my linux version).
They redid the engine in openGL a while ago, so the fixed character size is no problem anymore.
