Speaking of character design, I ran across this Gamasutra article last month. It's about the Natural Selection 2 female marine, and the controversy it stirred in the fanbase. It's an interesting read, even if the guy is a snobbish prig with a broomstick up his a-.

It stuck in my memory because of a comment further down in the article, where someone pointed out that Bungie beat Natural Selection to the punch by a full decade. Furthermore, Halo was cited as an example of using both 'realistic' designs and 'sexy' designs well.