I think that you are one of many that bellieve that KZ is awesome and that looks like CGI.
Good for you!
After this is still much of a topic 10 pages later, and having just watched your previously linked Youtube video of Battlefield 4 "Fishing in Baku", I feel I have to address a few things that haven't been so far:
The Battlefield 4 gameplay video looks
very impressive. But what I think is most impressive about it, is that it captures the realistic art-direction very well. It's like CoD in that regard - realistic lighting, realistic art, realistic battlefield (well to a degree). What I also think it does rather well, is use tricks and especially smokes & mirrors to simulate an authentic battlefield.
KillZone, and I am assuming here you've never actually played a game of the series, is rather different. It's not attempting to offer that kind of "battle simulation" but is more a science-fiction shooter, based in a fictional world that offers quite different gameplay. In KZ, it's a bit like being placed into a sandbox with multiple enemies and they will find ways to tackle you, flank you, kill you. For this reason, the gameplay is quite a bit different and reminds a lot more of recent Uncharted games, rather than the gameplay you will find in CoD.
In CoD, it's quite different - you have places where there are endless enemy spawns and the game forces you through a tight but invisible corridor, while placing enemies in a realistic fashion. You rarely see them hunt you down and if they do, it's usually in a more limited, less interactive fashion. The Battlefield video has some of this as well - sure you have a wide open arena, but your team of friendlies pretty much tell you where to go, what to do to make the game progress. While you're still in an open arena (in that video at least), I'm pretty sure the A.I. is a lot more static in what it does, in order to uphold the authenticy of the plot and the battlefield. In games like these, a lot of the stuff you see is cleverly scripted - the enemies, how they react or tackle you, the helicopters or other "blockbuster" stuff you see.
Now, this is really just design choice. Many criticize the endless spawns in many CoD games or call the story mode a rather "dumb/shallow" experience due to a large majority of things being scripted. I don't. I enjoyed it for what it is, and as long as you stick to the path the game dictates for you (by having friendlies tell you what to do or be pretty much killed once you leave the designated path) the smokes and mirrors experience works flawlessly and IMO is quite enjoyable. It's certainly delievers a lot bigger Wow! experience when I demonstrate a level to non-gamers, rather than doing the same with a scene out of a KZ game.
As I said, KZ as a game is much different. Different tradeoffs, different art-direction - it all adds up. When you design a game to be as interactive as Uncharted or in this case KZ is, there is a drawback in that you are less likely to mask things that need to be compromised. A.I needs to be more interactive, so the environment has to accomondate for that to a degree. If the player is not confined to a strict path but can chose different paths or pretty much walk an entire 'sandbox' the size of a large football field, there are always tradeoffs.
Obviously, it's hard to compare Battlefield 4 and KZSF further, because both games aren't out yet. Comparing CoD and KZ2/3 on PS3 though - I did always think that to most less technically minded people, CoD always striked them as the more impressive looking game (despite all the flat textures, pre-scripted areas, but they didn't really notice that) - because it displays something that people can relate to. There's no doubt though that what KZ has done in the past from a gameplay perspective, is a lot more impressive. And because it's technically more complex, it requires a certain tradeoff.
A lot of what you're arguing about is simply art-direction. KZ isn't going for realism, which IMO is making it less appealing compared with games that go for realism and smokes & mirrors gameplay.
I will be getting both games for sure - and I think they will be both very enjoyable, even if for different reasons. Strictly speaking though and keeping the points above in mind, they are too different to really compare in a constructive manner.
BTW: Wow, that story trailer seriously has me hyped up!
