Oh yes, some positive thinking before people think I am grumpy:

Thanks for fixing the weapon pad issue! I now get a weapon every time I hear the beep of the weapon pickup. In the situations where before I would've got none, it now takes a while longer than normal, but it works! It's still not perfect (IMHO it should be like in Wip3out, instantaneous) but it's much better than before.

The lighting has indeed changed, now objects cast true shadows See this tiny beam of light, it will actually affect an individual area on the ship, not like before. Awesome

And now some mitigated:

Fire effect has been downgraded on your ship, but it now shows up on all ships, not just yours. It is very ugly on your ship, but looks ok on the others. Sometimes it's barely visible in a race on other ships but the red light effect is always there.