In terms of the new character graphics.. aside from the characters not being finished yet (as stated on the Eek! release notes), here's the thing...
The characters IMO are a huge improvement. Before.. they didn't react to the environment at all. They just looked the same everywhere. They looked *good*, but there was no definition, no reflections on hair and eyes, no fine detail in the face.. etc...
For instance, the lighting in the upstairs area where Brittney sits is awful. I think pretty much all the characters look bad in that room. But if you take Brittney downstairs to like the living room, she looks much better. Something about the lighting there, I dunno, but I notice that they look different in different areas. The reason I say it's such a big improvement is because this is also true in real life. Honestly, (And I'm sure Eek already knows this and is working on it) if they tweak the lights out a bit, fix the hair up, and fix up a few of the models who look a little weird right now, with all these changes, I think overall the game will look amazing.
Bottom line, I think you guys are noticing some of the negative side-effects of the unfinished process of implementing these new models and assuming that it's going to be the final product. Sure, there's some aspects that are not looking great right now, but overall, I can definitely see a huge improvement. This is an Alpha build. It's a work in progress. They honestly usually don't get all the polish in until the Stable Release.
