Well.. that is surely weird.
I play the game every day and I never have any graphical issues like that. I have the full retail version, though.
This is what the game looks like on highest settings, if anyone is wondering :P




I play this game to damn much >_<
But as for graphics
Sure they are outdated, the game is from 2004.
But, there is a massive up-side to having a game that has massive graphic scale-ability. Even people with low end PC's, can run the game. That includes windows 98, That is how they have so damn many players.