I'm right now playing the PS3 version of the game.
It is true: The game doesn't look good at all. One of the main problems I've encountered so far (been playing for an hour) is the notorious inconsistency of the color palette in the environments. This is a problem that I never encountered in the original Dark Souls. The first game was always coherent. You were either traversing evergreen forests with blueish patches of water, sunlight bathed cathedrals, greyish halls and corridors, dark wooden areas, etc. I never found any contradictions.
Dark Souls 2 looks hideous because it breaks the visual style that characterized the prequel. The tutorial area is athat has patches of green moss randomly placed on light grey corridors. There's sconces scattered everywhere that serve absolutely no purpose because the ambient light saturates your surroundings.multi branched forest
There are too many colors going on at the same time. I've found brown, gray, green, blue, orange, black and white and I'm yet to leave the area. It's just way too much going on. Your character's skin tone contrasts your own clothes/armor big deal and it doesn't blend within the environment.
It's several steps down in quality when you put it side by side to the original.
(Will share more impressions as I keep going.)
The use of colour was a promise of theirs though. Some people complained that Dark Souls was monocolour in certain areas.
They probably overdid it though.