After a protracted and torturous development cycle, we finally get eFootball 2022 just as the big European leagues are about crown their champions. It may be a little late to make an impact this season but critics and YouTubers are actually pleasantly surprised that version 1.0.0 isn’t the complete mess everyone believed it would be.
Having bombed completely with their first attempt at a release back in Autumn, Konami seem to have pulled their socks up a little bit. But today, we are comparing screenshots across generations.
As always, we captured the images at 4K then downsampled them to 1080 using the exact same process.
PlayStation 5 screenshots are on the left, PlayStation 4 Pro on the right throughout.
Taking the Depth of Field
Perhaps the most noticeable and pervasive difference in the PS5 and PS4 eFootball 2022 versions is the after effects. Depth of field effects like bokeh and shallow focus are everywhere on PlayStation 5.
eFootball 2022‘s opening scenes are simplified on PS4 – pre-match scenes of the stadium as you tinker with options are static shots of empty stadia. PS5 teems with life; stewards preparing for the game, crowds trickling in and sprinklers at work.
During the eFootball 2022 matches, PS5 has extra furniture around the stadium lending a more realistic scene. PS4 Pro keeps up with crowd detail and density, something that’s very impressive for a last-gen system.
But the aforementioned aggressive use of these effects erased quite a lot of any potential buffs to background detail. In parts, the PS4 Pro’s lack of bokeh reveals immersive details.
PS4 Pro Tones It Down for the Better
TV cameras only have a blurry, out-of-focus background when zoomed in on players usually. A scene of player taking a corner or goal-kick with the crowd close behind tends to be mostly sharp. PS4 Pro actually follows real-life far more closely in this respect.
When the focus is sharp and the brightness level is in the sweet spot, lighting and shadows and how they interact with the added detail lend PS5 a somewhat ‘next gen’ look. Some of the shots show a half-generational leap from the PS4 Pro.
There are scenes when the LoD affects the crowd, using simpler models with limited animations on PS4 Pro. While it’s an immersive detail when visible, just like the extra furniture and added detail, it can be washed away by bloom and bokeh quite often.
Have you downloaded eFootball 2022 yet? Were you surprised by the positive response considering the abysmal first launch and general poor state of the game since that initial release? Do you lament the return of overdone bloom and blur to video games? Let us know in the comments below…
