Why's it totally useless, it's because the view in 3rd person is not from behind the character so it's not even easy to see where you're running to.
Not found away to adjust the angle of view.
So if you're like me and prefer to play games in 3rd person view, then you're better off sticking with a keyboard and mouse.
Note: The 360 is fine for 1st person, but alas totally useless to me.