Some of it could just be a different direction.

But they said Nintendo helped them to make it run better on the Wii U. Downgrading the graphics certainly helps with that.

Texture streaming; as he walks, his weapon pops into higher resolution.

Floor looks worse: Not really.

Character model changed: You can create your own character... All the directs the character had some differences. This is just the most dramatic one.

The Weapon looks pixelated: Keep watching, the weapon clears up. It's a pop in that hopefully will be fine tuned out by the finished product.

Lighting effect: True, but could be time of day. 

Criticizing the character model is silly. The hair is the same quality, different color. The armor is a different set, you seethe *exact* same armor from the 2013 trailer later on and it's quality is entirely unchanged from everything we've seen. The floor texture is worse, but that could be a technical issue with texture loading since that issue only appears in that one instance in the direct.

The direct was over twenty minutes long, obsessing over a small clip compared to a small clip from another trailer seems silly when you consider that the vast majority of the content of the direct matched or exceeded the quality of the majority of that 2013 trailer.  That trailer was more than that one clip.

In fact, for another point of comparison, compare the volcanic area seen at 25:57 in the direct to the same area in the trailer from E3 2013 (1:15). That area looks noticeably better in the direct and other recent footage IMO.

There certainly is a downgrade, though only a slight one

>monolith soft
> AAA

interdasting

Yeah, XCX ain't AAA; I doubt it cost a quarter of something like Assassin's Creed, COD, or GTA.

Mind you, I don't think this is a bad thing; I find most AAA games tiresome in their bloated, shallow excesses.

Yeah, the textures got a lot worse. Not like the game was ever a graphical marvel, though.

In that particular scene, sure, but in other scenes...