I enterily agree with you Evil_Level_Desiner :
the shaders are not the essence of a game :
if you are poor at modeling , texturing and level design :
Shaders won't help you !

Doom 3 without shaders would be a beautifull game also that not lot of people
could do with 3DS in terms of modeling skills ans texturing for levels
and models !

some shots to show you
very low models with great textures are beautifull when you are skilled :
http://spellforce.jowood.com/screenshot.php?lang=en&ss=24
http://spellforce.jowood.com/screenshot.php?lang=en&ss=45
http://spellforce.jowood.com/screenshot.php?lang=en&ss=32


But i also like shaders on my radeon 9800 XT !
(i hope to see a parallax bump shaders one day done with 3DGS)