This is completely wrong. CA designs the map and the art and Max Hoberman did the tuning of the engine. I believe it was in one of the panels that they walked through how they did the art.

: The excuse that devs needed to switch to a "Real is Brown" palette
: because of increased graphical fidelity is an excuse that's been around
: for a while. It's still a BS excuse.

I agree "real is brown" is a problem, but your equating the new Coag not looking like you expected to H2A being "real is brown" and that's accurate. You can't look at the new Ascension and Zanzibar and say that's how they look.

: Reach is still vastly more colorful than this. I still play Reach at least
: once a month, and most of its environments look wonderful in terms of
: lighting and color.

You're not the only one who plays Reach quite a bit. I can tell you, go back and look and people complained about the color palette and art style a lot. That game was just as "brown" as the new ones.

: I just wish the maps weren't such fucking eyesores in terms of color and
: lighting. Hopefully it isn't as bad as screenshots and internet videos
: suggest and it actually looks better in motion on my plasma screen.

Again, see Ascension and Zanzibar.

There's no satisfying the Halo community, no matter how much fan service they put out there.