The lack of shadows? Yes, most videos definitely do show this, but I don't see this as an outdated game. It's a choice they made, perhaps because a full stencil shadow system would be too demanding of low-end PCs?

Anyways, no offense to you, but I've actually got the game and it definitely doesn't feel outdated. (It's my taste I guess.) Take for example a game like S.T.A.L.K.E.R and it feels much more outdated (even though it doesn't matter for the game experience itself I must say).

I do blame the hardware for washed out textures and things like that, if you compare the Xbox360 version and PC version with the PS3 version you'll see hardware matters,

Cheers