Really? I found it to be the exact opposite. I got the feeling that they are really stretching the hardware with this game.
The scale of the first level is huge, but as a result the textures are horrible.
Examples: Anderson's suit, your suit, the buildings, the backdrops, the Cannibals, ect. ( Though Anderson's face is much better than it used to be)
Also the fleet shown in orbit looks much lower in detail than the final battle from Mass Effect 1.
There are jaggies everywhere, and the framerate drops lower than it ever did in ME2.
The FoV is much tighter as well, less to render on screen but it makes seeing whats going on in those huge vistas quite difficult.
The second level fared better (smaller scale) and was more similar to ME2 in texture quality.
There are definitely improvements, some of the faces are better, the lighting is noticeably better, ect. but those improvements definitely were not free.
It is compromises like this, and clear cases of the hardware not being able to keep up with the developers vision that makes it clear that Next Gen consoles are long over due.