I don't know, I might be wrong after all, but call it a guesstimate based on my déformation professionnelle - you kinda develop a radar for lot of things after a while in movie industry, though admittedly, one tends to see things much harsher than they appear to general audience.

Naughty Dog's writing used to be really good but their best writer is no longer at the studio and it shows. That's a big issue because Naugthy Dog, at least recently, makes games that live and die by their story telling. TLOU didn't get acclaim for it's gameplay, it got praise because of it's story telling. Insomniac games have story and gameplay to live on. Like Uncharted did in the past for ND. Insomniac has basically put the PS5 on it's back and released mulltiple quality titles. In the same time frame, Naughty has been re-heating and re-serving TLOU and TLOU2 to Playstation audience for what seven years (?) at this point.

Games, for me, at the end of the day are about an enjoyable experience. Slugging through a title with passable gameplay and bad story telling isn't going to cut it for me. This gets compounded if the games story telling and gameplay have a disconnect that dulls the effect of the message you are trying to get across. What makes great story telling isn't just what happens in a story but how the events of the story are conveyed. That latter aspect seems to have gone by the wayside at ND. Although it's not just them, it's become prevalent in entertainment as a whole.

Edit: This situation with Aloy's face bugs me for a different reason than most. At least I belive so. I'm tired of western developers expressing that women should not have to be beautiful while hiring beautiful women to model their characters. If you want more "average" looking women, then how about you employ them and pay them for their likeness. Paying someone to use their likeness and then altering it to the point that it looks nothing like them seems like a waste of development time and money. 

Agree on the Naughty Dog part. TLOU1 story was impeccable. Pinnacle of video games, IMO. P2 was clearly, CLEARLY inferior.

Tough for me to judge Insomniac because of Spider Man. Im just bored of it. Played the first one...very good. Got the dlc and everything. Think I got the platinum. Bought Miles Morales. Still very good. Got SM2....couldn't get through 2 or 3 hours of it. Its just more of the same. Im really bummed about it. I hope they can move on to other things because they are too talented to stay stagnated on that franchise. I did really enjoy Rift Apart, fwiw. 

I didnt really understand where you were coming from with Aloy's face but this explanation makes more sense to me. Frankly I'd be annoyed if they used me as a model for a video game (like that would ever happen) and then they made me uglier than I was IRL. But the paycheck probably makes up for it.

It's fine if you didn't enjoy TLOU2 it's probably one of the most divisive games ever. I liked Uncharted 4 and Lost legacy and would say they are more engaging than any game Insomniac has put out in recent years.

Spider-Man's story was fine but some of the gameplay sections were such a bore. Like those boring puzzles in the lab that thankfully could be skipped (guess they though they were bad too) and the forced stealth sections where you play as Mary Jane or Miles really bogged down the game. Spider-Man Miles Morales at least was made more fun by getting rid of those sections all together. Although I had issues with some of the writing in that game mostly pertaining to the main antagonist. I played a bit of Spider-Man 2 and it feels mostly like retreading old ground haven't gone back to it yet

Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart is certainly an improvement from Ratchet and Clank 2016. But the writing still feels watered down and the great humor that was such a staple of the old games is pretty much non-existent. The story feels completely pointless and does little to advance the main plotline. Ratchet and clanks personalities feel nerfed and the dialogue is cringe worthy at times "if you're broken then so am I". It feels like a modern Disney movie at times. The gameplay might seem fine at first but then you realize it's hardly different to the last 12 or so games in the series you've played. The only real addition to this game is a dodge function which honestly does little to shake up the tired formula.

So yeah I don't see Insomniac in the same light you do. They are good but no way are they the best developer Sony has.

As for Aloy I personally don't really care about how her face looks. This has never been a issue for me. Her design fits the setting and her role in the game. The comparison seems silly anyways as her actress is wearing makeup and lives a different kind of lifestyle to this character.

I liked her in the trailer. when she shaved her head and was happy with how she looks and the smile she gave, was nice. This is probably neil druckman saying fu to the haters lol. I have a feeling i;m going to like her alot in game. The music is awesome. I'd preorder just on the music alone.

This is exactly what I’ve been trying to say, but you've articulate it masterfully. If the goal is to show more "average" or "realistic" women, then why not hire models who naturally fit that vision? Paying a beautiful model for her likeness only to change her face so much feels wasteful.

The original model already had so many qualities that worked for Aloy. Strong, grounded, and real. Why spend all that time and money just to alter it? If the industry wants to break beauty standards, then fully commit to it and hire people who reflect that vision naturally. You nailed it perfectly.

I feel like we're really starting to overstate the differences between the model and the eventual character. It's pretty obvious that the model was used to make Aloy. I would imagine it's pretty standard practice from an artistic standpoint to have some kind of reference that you start from and to adjust from there depending on your vision of the character. Are we really saying that the only legitimate use of a model is if you change nothing about their appearance and port them into the game, one to one? Seems like a huge waste of time to spend that long in casting looking for the absolute perfect person that you have no need to change anything about. 

If this didn't have the naughty dog name on it, it would be instantly forgotten.

I think the picture you were sharing is a bad comparison.

I don't think it's particularly easy to make a good comparison in the first place. Aloy is a bit stylized, she's a video game character, in a fairly colorful world that's mostly realistic, but it's not photorealistic. Making adjustments to the character so she fits in better can also make comparisons harder. They might tan someone's skin just a little bit to show they're outside a lot. Or if they're adding cuts and scrapes to a character.

And it's hard to make good comparisons with real life when the actress might be wearing makeup. Or the lighting might be very different.

How the hair frames the face, I would argue affect how someone looks. 

Facial expressions can also affect how someone's face looks at any given time. As well as the orientation of the person vs the character in the picture.

The animation engine of a game could even affect how a character looks, how it stretches the model's features. 

I found a few different photos of the face model, and I think they're much closer matches to what Aloy actually looks like. To the point, that I think you're vastly overstating how much work was put into changing the face model. 

The reveal trailer didn't show much gameplay, so I need to see some more before making my mind up on it.