I looked at this like six times before I noticed the very impressive DOF implementation. Nice!
Yeah, the DOF is very nice and softens a lot of the edges (some of the stills seem to have no or little MSAA, so the DOF helps with the edge aliasing).
I agree with Shifty that the material fidelity is amazing and really stands out. The resolution and filtering, as well as artistic quality, are outstanding.
As for the render target and unnamed CGI talk, the video isn't even close IMO. Artistically BF:BD kicks its arse 6 ways to Sunday. Both in regards to assets as well as camera work. But here are some glaring issues I saw:
0:15 Far back building has some popping and shimmering which DOF is helping hide
0:17 Stairs "pop-in" through the hole in the wall
0:19 Note the roofs shadow on the wall has significant aliasing and edge crawls
0:30 Some seeming/breaks on the character mesh in the strap
0:44 Right shoulder of the hispanic trooper shows another large break
And that is just rewatching the first 45 seconds really quick and picking out the things that glaringly stick out (along with some low poly/hard edged assets).
I mean this with no slight intended toward DICE and repi--
BF:BD is one of, if not best, in-engine demo I have seen. The use/quality of technology and the quality of the art are amazing and this game absolutely stands out as some of the best examples of graphical excellence we have seen on the consoles. IMO BF:BD is ahead of what we saw in MGS4 and Halo 3, which I thought very highly of both in the form shown. The former having a killer intro at TGS06 and the later's E3 2006 trailer made me think it may be asset based CGI. The character models are great, especially animations, and their eyes really have a great look for their art direction. The shadowing, lighting, and particles are also really good by game standards and the fideltiy of the textures is awesome overall. Overall the world screams "Quality! Detail!" And when you factor in you can actually destroy all the pretty asssets... wow. It isn't just a looker, but interactive?! Awesome!
But in regards to the fine
render details it is pretty far from CGI. The art is excellent, the quality of assets is excellent, so in some ways BF:BD is graphically much, much more pleasing. And some of the rough edges of real time rendering are hidden by their excellent use of techniques like DOF that hides some of the rough edges nicely.
I can see where people like the art better than the CGI, likewise the asset quality. But what makes CGI a "CGI" IMO is neither of these (as a CGI or game are completely variable at these points), but specifically the render quality/fidelity is what differentiates a CGI from Realtime.