I dont think polish applies until the core game is finished. Couldnt polish half a shoe. And it is those little extras, like repeat clicking on the characters, or the exploding sheep.

Real "polish" usually goes unnoticed. A flawless installer (and a clean uninstall!). A managable UI that looks good and allows players to perform essential functions in an efficient manner. Effective hardware compatibility testing is also part of polishing a game.

Someone mentioned double clicking units - that is polish. You can play the game and never realize the double-click affect. And you don''t care, because it''s still a fun game. When you accidentally double-click something after playing the game for a week, you suddenly realize that you are playing an incredible game.

Blizzard does a great job on their games. My only gripe with Blizzard is that by the time they release, the technology of the game is not to the level of some other current games (Diablo2 comes to mind).