The ghost of Dark Souls 2
Saw this walkthrough a "remastered" mod for Dark Souls 2 pop up in my recommendations and it got me thinking about the ways Dark Souls 2 mods try to capture the look of the game in it's pre-release state. They're not exact, mind, but the changes they make always gesture toward the kind of dynamic lighting shown in early gameplay footage, the increased use cases for torches and such. I've seen plenty crop up over the years and tried one out very briefly once and they've all given that impression. It's fascinating if only for how much that vision of Dark Souls 2 has continued to persist.
I played a demo of that version at E3 2013, but I couldn't tell you how closely it resembled the footage in the gameplay reveal. I was too taken by the fact that I was playing Dark Souls 2 because playing unreleased games was still a novelty for my second E3. Point being I didn't really notice just how different the release version looked when it came out, let alone whether the network test from a few months prior was any different either (it was, actually). Again, too focused on actually playing to take note. But it's stuck with people.
When the Flames of Old mod by Stayd first started making the rounds, the excitement was palpable. It's one of the bigger lighting reworks being made. You can see how much the mod transforms the game in the screenshots in this PC Gamer article. It's impressive for the sheer scale, certainly. It's a perfect example of how much that old version of Dark Souls 2 lives on in some people's minds to undertake this level of work across multiple years.