Seems like a more stylistic change than technical I think. I like the warmer feel of the retail lighting, E3 lighting looks way bright. Though I can see dialing down the lighting can mean having to do less with the shadows. And most of the enviro changes seem like adding further detail, esp more foliage. Of course changing time of day means light coming from a different direction, so that explains why some surfaces are lit up in E3 shot but in shadow in retail shot. But there must be actual game / cut scenes in mid day full sunlight so that's where the comparisons need to be.
Who really cares about downgrades in cut scenes anyway. It's how the gameplay looks in comparison, and I think they didn't show any gameplay until they were ready to show it on the retail version, which is smart, no disappointment that way.
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