Yeah, I agree. Texturing really does make or break an image. I find that bump mapping, when used correctly, is a huge start right there. There's a texture I used a lot in Majesty, which is supposed to be cement. It started out as just a gray cube, but once I added the texture, poof! It was cement! (of course later I made a more accurate texture for it, but I was amazed by how realistic just a simple bump map could make an object. The one type of texture I haven't been able to make is the metal rusting through, scratched paint thing. sigh.