Those shots are phenominal. I have been wandering around this forum for years, but it is very rare that I post.

This is easily some of the best work produced for gamestudio, period. What is impressive is the fact that shaders aren't applied, and it still looks great, so if and when you decide to impliment them with noise, normal, or bump maps it can only get better. Recently I have noticed many sub-par UVs with specular shaders applied, and personally I think this is unimpressive, very ameture. It is always useful to start with a well-made base texture.

In reguards to the other tangent this thread has gone to: I think it's insane to imply that for a game to be successful a game needs to be loaded down with shaders. There is deffinately a fine balance, and I think there will always be a place for the texture artist in the gaming industry.

It's hard to argue with the many AAA titles released last year with little to no shader support. ie God of War for PS2, Metroid Prime 2 Cube (these are commercial games). Sorry to throw another log on the fire.