yeah i got the same problem as you..they "upgraded" it aka, the urls are prettier, but the rest kind of doesnt work.
I definitely like your newest rock texture. The problem everyone seems to have is that its not a "comic style"; well, you do kind of need to wait until everything is contextualized, you cant expect just one graphic to carry over a different style, no matter how subtle the change in direction is. I would only say, perhaps try and match it to the original hue of the original texture...this way, if you do so for all textures too, then you will not have to worry about tonal value issues and harmonys, as the artists working on the game will have (read: should have) taken care of that.