Conversely, I think it's the new one that looks like fake grass. The old one looks like a summer lawn, a bit parched and going bare in places, whereas the new one is just uniformely green. You do get lawns like that of course, but it just looks too pristine for a lawn that kids play ball on. I think the shadows look better on the old one too. It looks like a nice summer evening.
I agree. The sun was probably too low on the horizon to make realistic sense and the grass is obviously a texture map, but I can live with that when it gives a much more interesting sense of seasonal warmth to the scene. The new version really is generic, as if the home was under a dome.
The bigger issue, though, is that either image would have been acceptable, and probably should have been left well enough alone. Frankly, if there's one aspect of this game that never failed to deliver, it was the art. Trying to improve on it is an uphill battle at the best of times, so why bother? I realize a single render doesn't take very long, but when you keep revising scenes it does add up. I struggle to see how this one image could have been haunting Kentyrr for years, which makes me suspect it isn't the only one getting reworked. The fact that I prefer the original to the rework just adds insult to the injury.
