Are CG cutscenes a thing of the past?

[CptGreedle]

Well yes, space wise the console would be limited to whatever the storage capacity can handle. Resolution as well. But the quality of those graphics would only be limited by the ability of the console to play the file. Either they look the same (resolution aside), or they are compressed, or they don't run at all.
A movie file on a PS3 game would probably take up an entire PSone disc if it is long enough/high enough quality.

So they would not be exactly the same as some limitations would still apply.. but I think you got my point too. The console does no actual processing during these scenes except what it needs to to play it. All the graphics are done and rendered before hand on much more powerful computers and using much longer render times to get better results.

Nice use of the foot in mouth smiley lol (and twice in one page lol)

As I said, by keeping the graphics consistent by using game play graphics, you can better immerse the player in the game instead of showing them something dazzling only to take it away once the movie file is over and put them back in a lower quality world.
Still, those movies are impressive, but I suspect they are headed out.