I can understand where you're coming from, but at least I, for one, am saddened that they decided to seemingly do away with a big portion of their dynamic lighting system. The flat, pre-baked-looking lighting now, along with far less prominent ambient occlusion (or is it completely gone? Anyway, that could still be forced from driver settings) is definitely a downer. Dark Souls II wasn't turning out to be a next-gen looker, sure, and the art style compensated for a lot, but good lighting and shadowing are just so integral to my sense of atmosphere that the drab look now seems like a big downgrade. Missing dynamic--flatly pre-baked--lighting and shadowing have actually even been some of my biggest pet peeves this gen (along with washed-out textures).