I have played EVE off and on for nearly 10 years. I lost my original character because I lost my email account through disuse and CCP would not restore her to me. But in all that time it was not until last year that I bought a machine capable of running EVE at full throttle, so I always had EVE set to run at lowest graphics settings to ensure the best performance in other areas. It was a completely different experience launching EVE for the first time on this machine! And while the space and ship graphics are impressive, it was the character detail that really blew me away.
I gotta say though, and I am sure I am in a minority, but the graphics are extremely low on my list of priorities. Like the new gate jump animation…actually makes me a bit annoyed. I could easily think of a dozen other things on the spot I would like added or changed. Probably 100 if I put my mind to it. What do I get? A cut scene that serves no actual gameplay purpose.
But yes, a good job on the graphics, I can say that. But they aren’t really 17 years old as Scipio rightly pointed out.