Except for uniform lighting--the cheapest trick in the book. It saves a ton of processing for other things, but makes everything look pretty bland. NG has gorgeous character and superbly detailed level models, but the lack of lighting hurts it a lot, even moreso than it hurts the DOA games, since in an adventure game like NG you pay more attention to your environments than in a fighter.
Take another walk around in RE4, and look at how Leon's character is lit by the level, moving into and out of shadow, and how his belt light affects the environment and himself when it's on. Even just turning him around in daylight lets you see subtle shadowing changes. It's so well-done, you don't even think about it. It just looks right. Graphical beauty isn't only in environmental detail (although I'd pit RE4 against anything else in that category), it's about atmosphere and weight.
Now take a walk in NG, and you'll see none of that. Ryu (and everyone else) are always lit exactly the same, no matter whether they're in light or shadow, outdoors or underground (although they did at least redden Ryu's model for the lava part). The environments are just pre-lit, which was last gen's way out of realtime lighting. They're often just set up with angular shadows, and so is Ryu--a shadow that is always there, whether under the sun or underground, and always the same--because it's not coming from any light source ('cause there aren't any). I know, there are some flickering lamps, etc, here and there, but overall the game reminds me of what my UT levels looked like before I applied raytracing. I'd call it cartoony, but even cartoons can have good lighting and shadowing.
Which 'tricks' are being used in RE4 that can compare to that?
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