Theologic, Josh of Leadwerks wanted extra bumpiness in the normals. Those wacky programmers want to make sure you can see their effects
JPowers, as Dave said this is v2 of the engine. Version 1 was actually cancelled after a while in development. It was based on the Source engine style but that requires lots of different coding for BSP, static and dynamic meshes, terrains, etc. For version 2 here, everything is a mesh, and lighting matches on everything. This scene went from Max to engine with a running demo very quickly.
DaveW, now that you mention it, the tiles do look a bit plasticy to me as well. Not sure if it's my spec map that needs adjusting, or the shader. I'll check with Josh