This is pretty solid evidence that artistic style is almost always more striking than photorealism. Now, obviously the models in the RTX version aren’t photorealistic, but the lighting attempts to be.
When you compare that to the stylized lighting of the original, it’s clear that the RTX version looks so much more watered down and homogenized.
diffusionx
got it right, soul vs soulless.
This is one of the reasons why the constant pursuit of closing the gap on photorealism in games has never excited me (past the PS2 era). It turns out most of real life looks pretty tame and boring compared to what an artist can create.