well in MMO\'s you have to go lower because of the vast amount of objects, but the Crystal Space engine could handle quite a bit more polygons.
Currently I am a 3D artist for a 6 Degree of Freedom game (like the Descent series) for
http://www.highoctanesoftware.comhttp://www.cgcrafter.com/2.html is some old renders. I don\'t have any new ones up because my new ones are under NDA
See we will commonly have a 1 million polygon object, create a normal map, and apply it to the lower polygon object (like 4k)
it\'s like
http://crytek.de/images/gallery/polybump/poly_04.jpg only a little bit more detailed
but I suppose it is best for Talad to be so picky about the detail of the models, thought using bump maps and normal maps would aid greatly to the detail, plus HDR lighting for atmosphere. That way people with higher end PC\'s could get more from PS, and people with lower end PC\'s could just disable it.
Having said that, your models are great!
If you apply a blurred grungey bump map to the entire object it\'ll make it more alive. If you have photoshop, bevel and emboss are your freinds for getting ridges in the metal texture.
If you want you can send me the object and texture and I will show you what I mean. jk3d AT hotmail.com