Check out my previous post
The grass pop in is likely because the game is incomplete. Not even Xenoblade suffered from that, as it employed a graceful fade in approach for its LOD models.
Anyway, if you think it's not a technically impressive game, that's good and all, but I beg to differ. Take this shot for example:
For one, the draw distance is as good as it gets. It's clear as daylight with no standard current-gen fog to cleverly limit the draw distance. It also doesn't look sparse like many games with high draw distances. Sure, it uses LOD, but the majority of open world games in existence, whether console or PC, utilize LOD, or else you'd be stuck with crappy pop ins. It's not really a 'trick', but a standard design choice employed to maximize performance.
Another thing to note is the high quality self shadowing. The sword is casting a smooth shadow on the player's back. A lot games now do employ self shadowing though only to a certain extent, as the majority of its implementation is limited to main characters only and a limited amount of props. Take a look at the following GIF:
Pay attention to the smaller enemy. Not only is there self shadowing, but there is also a highly detailed shadow cast from the tree above onto the enemy, meaning there's dynamic projective shadowing cast from static environment objects onto dynamic objects. It's all realtime. When taking into account the scale of the game, that's bloody impressive. Also, as mentioned in my other post, the foliage is marvelous.
I also just realized the environment casts a reflection onto the water in both GIFs. Not a big deal at all, but at least we're gone from the awful Xenoblade water
This screen capture also shows that high-resolution normal maps and specular maps are being used, since even at that close distance, the detail on the enemy still holds up well.
Guess that's where the added RAM comes in handy. If the game manages to keep a locked framerate and a minimum 720p resolution, it will certainly be
a lot more than just decent in comparison to PS3 and 360 titles.
Time will tell I guess.
Also, IIRC, Skyrim does use LOD, though probably not as effectively as some would've hoped.