2.0 environments are they more interesting?

[Mirage]

Things look really good with ambient occlusion though!

Wish I had a graphics card that didn't choke on a million dicks if I turned that on...

I agree though. Character models and gear is where most of the good graphics are found. Some HDR effects look really nice too, but sometimes it kicks in way too strong for partially reflective surfaces.

The roll-on textures as you walk forwards look really really bad too. What were they thinking?

Water effects look nice, though.

[Seif]

Things look really good with ambient occlusion though!

Wish I had a graphics card that didn't choke on a million dicks if I turned that on...

I agree though. Character models and gear is where most of the good graphics are found. Some HDR effects look really nice too, but sometimes it kicks in way too strong for partially reflective surfaces.

The roll-on textures as you walk forwards look really really bad too. What were they thinking?

Water effects look nice, though.

Don't get me wrong I'm not disagreeing with you but that comment was about the graphics and not the visual design.

Let me crudely simplify it this way:

Current thanalan: canyons desert nothing surprising really, few rocks and cacti

future thanalan (?) and yes I'm just guessing based on one single screen which is admittedly pretty weak: canyons desert and few rocks with rotated cacti

My point (and damn is it hard to put this into words, I'm sorry!) is that I hope these screenshots are from the least visually interesting areas and that there is a lot of visual coolness happening all around them.

If anything I think SE has proven that they can do it. Also some of the concept art looks amazing in the road-map pdf.