The Graphical Update

[Vahlnir]

That's fair, but then why is a shader that going to do a little more than what Gshade already does for me take over a year to implement?

I'd much rather they focus on a completely new engine and bring this game into the 21st century.

Probably because they have to juggle doing that along with everything else. It's a no brainer that significant graphical upgrades will take a good bit of work and time. What we are seeing is essentially an engine upgrade in progress.