» Thu Jul 26, 2012 11:35 pm
They were probably exaggerated for aesthetics purposes. I have modeled hands for first person games, and what I can tell you from experience is, if you model them with realistic, 1:1 real-life proportions, they tend to look weak, thin and unattractive. I found that either distorting the proportions a little, exaggerating them, and playing around with the distance how far the hand mesh is placed in relation to the camera, makes them look more appealing. It's an art decision really. This art practice goes way back to the 90's with games like Doom. Have a look at the first person hand sprites in Doom; there's no way it would look like that realistically.
(Doom goes a step further and distorts the perspective of the guns as well)