You only concentrated on graphics. Have you tried playing around with UE SDK?
The things you can do are crazy. Och Zero noticed it, physics for example.
I mentioned scalability which is most important factor here. You can create same game on Android Phone/iPad and big platform like PC without having to step back.
If you were to compare what UE can do, it's best to compare it to same quality optmized engine, Valve Source (now dated, but if you played HL2 you know what I mean).
CryEngine, although beautiful, cannot even be compared here (system hog), FrostBite 3.0 (same story, system hog and only runs on x64 platforms).
Graphics =/= gameplay.
Gameplay is something devs are responsible for after all not engine they use as base (Fox Engine is awesome for MGS, but PES Team didn't manage to utilize 50% of it for football).
We shall see what PES 2015 will be like as this should be first truely Next-Gen PES.
I do believe sportgames are more difficult to program compared to a shooter or a GTA game.