I've played and completed Rage and currently Battlefield 3 (which looks a lot better with less hype). One thing that is immediately apparent is the lighting, or the bump maps - I can't figure out which it is - makes the experience on a high end PC a lot clearer and better looking.
What is the advancement that these games are making use of in Open-GL/Direct-X or the graphics cards that has increased the realism of the lighting engines so dramatically?