The latest edition of FIFA 21 on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 is put to the test in a new comparison video, and it's a big victory for video game hair aficionados. Alongside racing games, sports games are often the easiest way to track progress in gaming tech, especially at the dawn of a new generation. Because they're based on a real-life pastime and come out each year, sports games can effortlessly showcase how much technical progress occurs in a year, or even between generations. In the case of FIFA 21, players can see how the next generation of EA's Frostbite engine improves the world's most popular sport.
The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 received their versions of FIFA 21 in early October, and the game received average reviews. Many players decided to wait on the next-gen versions before purchasing the game, and those who did jump in early were met with glitches that sent players flying into the air and a questionable match ranking system online. Screen Rant's own Rob Gordon said that the game was in a "holding pattern" in his review, and it does seem that the developers had something special in mind for the current generation upgrades that have arrived this month.
Digital Foundry has gone through every difference between the two generations of soccer games and come out impressed with the newer incarnations. As seen in a new video, both versions of the game maintain a consistent 4K output and 60 frames per second during standard gameplay, which is an impressive feat that has become a standard of the series for the past few years. This does drop to 30 frames during cutscenes and more zoomed-in moments, but the series is already starting off on a great baseline.
The new console versions really come into their own in terms of lighting effects and a new hair engine that renders out individual strands rather than the clumps seen in most gaming characters to this point. Even filtered through an online video, watching the new hair in action truly shows the power of the new hardware. Only star players are getting the full new hair treatment, and it's estimated that this is due to a performance bottleneck since the tech is very expensive to render. However, even less popular players do have some improvement in the follicle department compared to their last-gen counterparts, and the tech can only improve from this juncture.
The rise of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 has introduced a few curious graphical powerhouses like FIFA 21. While sports games do often have a noticeable improvement over what came before, it's generally not one of the standouts from among the launch games. However, due to limited launch lineups and the rise of backward compatibility, this soccer hair and a 2018 driving game are some of the best examples yet of what's to come in the years ahead. With launch games delayed into the new year and the world still rocking from a global pandemic, the next generation of video games will continue to roll out slowly in the year to come.
Source: Digital Foundry/YouTube