Well in the case of Deep Down, not only were they doing real-time 3D fluid simulation for the fire, it was also using voxel cone tracing for its lighting. Other details like the area shadows are something we don't see this gen.
As for 1313, overall it's not that amazing, it's mostly really good design but the city views are defininitely something not achievable this gen. The BF games certainly don't look anywhere near as good. BF1 was downgraded from it's initial teaser. Polygon count, materials, lighting, particles, etc... all took a hit.
Edit: heh, I guess it's another for the thread. Next-gen Battlefront sure is gonna look nice: