I actually think it has nothing to do with age, and more to do with them figuring out how drake would look as a real person. As much as your eyes fooled you at the time, the U3 Drake does not look like real person.

Whether intentional of not his face was much fuller before. In making him real they added details which change the overall appearance of his face. His face is more scultpted and gaunt probably because the higher poly count, his eyes look completely different, again just down to more realism.



Realistic lighting will also offer far more divergence in how someone will appear. Where U3 Drake always looked the same, U4 drake will look different depending on angle and lighting. As far as I'm aware the below image and top left are the exact same model. Just different lighting and detail, I think the bottom one is raw from Zbrush and is showing different expressions.

Because Drake have change profile, and now is calling Ryng.

To me Nathan Fillion does not look at all like Nathan Drake.


The reason is probably because ND that have one of the worst character designers IMO went to far trying to make him look realistic. For me its uncanny valley material. Whereas the old Drakes looked like Video Game characters.

Also he looks very old.

Uncharted 3 Nathans eyes look crazy.
He looks like he has Graves' disease, other than that It was a good model.