Starfield New Atlantis '22 vs '23

Maybe it's just me but it doesn't?

That tower in 22 looks like it's covered in some kind of goo and the lighting feels artificial even though it's outside.

It's not, the environment/atmospheric fog/scatter is what makes your eye define scales on earth like environment. The 2022 screenshot has non of that and looks very bad CG vibe.

these renders are very obviously at different angles and you can tell by looking at the edges, the city looks the same size and has realistic haze and lighting

I don't think it looks any different at all, really, just different lighting, probably different time of day or weather or whatever

I like the color of the first one, but the second one has a lot of atmosphere that the first doesn't. Hopefully neither of them are final, or that's just a bad screenshot for the second one.

Who speculates about games before they're ever released? Stop talking about it until it's out and playable.