I'll claim at least partial responsability. The new beam cannon textures (included in the AoA DC and of course, because of that, WiH), and I'll admit, in some ways, they do look better ... at least if you don't look too closely. Here's a comparison of their respective glowmaps:
As you can see, the glowmap is brighter in some areas, particularly near the center. This may be part of the problem. Although...
Note, Insomniac, that your screenshot of the old maps is the only one which is mostly dark, whereas the first screenshot has a lot of light reflecting on the maps. The new maps don't look nearly as bad when there isn't a lot of light on them, so I'm wondering if the shine map isn't to blame as well.
Also, no more FRED screenshots, please. The lack of lighting causes the textures to look washed out, and while it does show the issue somewhat, it doesn't represent how the maps will really look in-game. And Insomniac, would it kill ya to use lvlshot?
I'll work on fixing these if people tell me what specifically looks bad, under what conditions it looks bad, and what changes you would like to see made.
