To be honest, the HALO demo I played some time ago...The textures weren't that washed out. The detail was far sharper. Perhaps it didn't look as good on the X-Box, I've never used one, but I think that the visuals are, somehow, a little toned down here. I didn't care for the game itself, it just wasn't to my taste. That has little to do with looks, however. In any case, since the beginning of the 32-bit era of polygon shooters, there's been no excuse for monotonous visuals - variety is easy enough - amateur mappers have been making complex, interesting maps as far back as Quake, and total conversions like Neil Manke's They Hunger for H.L. contained intricate, refined maps that were better than most of the retail outpouring of those years.