I'm gonna go ahead and say I liked Skyrims 3rd person option. It was a huge improvement over Oblivion/FO3. FO4 looks to be even better, might even play the whole game 3rd person this time round

Well, they DO keep improving the gameplay in 3rd person with each game they release. The games are all primarily meant to be 1st person though, ever since Arena, so I think that's where they will always shine the best. Maybe the mechanics in 3rd person will feel smooth and natural at last, but I mainly use 3rd person as a vanity mode for screenshots and videos.

I like the fact the game gives you the option to play in both. More games should do this.

Agreed on how good it looks, still gonna stick to primarily 1st person with the occasional shift to 3rd, still find that 1st person gives that touch more immersion.

3rd person combat feels janky in these games, but whenever I'm going to be casually exploring or conversing I do prefer 3rd person.

I would have liked to have seen more of it in the gameplay trailer. It controlled ok in New Vegas and if they smoothed it out in Fallout 4, then yeah I'll play using 3rd person.

I use 3rd person for looking at my character or walking through the wastes or a settlement with no hostiles around.

I think Fallout, more so than Elder Scrolls, is a game that warrants a first/third person perspective swapping ability. With the gunplay, I remain mostly in first person, but swap out to third person to explore and poke around the world. In Skyrim I was third person 80% of the time, switching only when I got into a cave or some enclosed space or when I need to grab something specifically and not get beaten to death for "stealing".

I would like to stay in third person, but I find myself swapping to first person whenever I go to shoot or if I want to click on something (hack/lockpick/loot/grab)... I've recently been trying to practice melee combat, just to see what it's like (in Fallout 3) and I find myself using third person just because a foe will run past me and I'm, like, spinning around wondering where'd he go!? Of course, the third person view also makes it look like I'm looking DOWN at the ground and swinging my sword / bat toward the ground while hunched over....

Putting Nora in raider armor, and watching her sway her backside in 3rd person is the way to go, gentlemen.

I have to say that I am a constant perspective changer in games that allow it. I love both views. I usually meander about in third person and fight in first person.. but sometimes, fighting in third person when fighting large creatures or if you are surrounded by enemies is extremely helpful.. It's also nice to meander about in first person if your really searching an area for loot. Multiple perspectives are good.

In every Bethesda game I play I used third person until I enter combat situations. Then I move into first person.

I think third person is for melee, and first person is for ranged.

Melee animations ought to be made for 3rd person and ranged weapon animations for first person.

I've never felt comfortable doing melee combat with a FoV of 60-90. It's nauseating.

In "Kingdoms of Amalur", Assasins Creed, Mad Max, Batman, melee combat was absolutely beautiful to behold, and very well animated all in third person. Considering melee attacks in Fallout consist of mashing the left mouse button, I could see a combat system like in Amalur be done.

Now, clearly Fallout games aren't compatible with melee combat like assasins creed where you tackle poeple, cuz every character is wearing different armor and have different heights and dimensions and you godda consider the first person view, but a Fable III and and Amalur style third person combat system woulda been possible, even with a first person view?

When I'm out in the open I prefer to play in 3rd person perspective, when in confined areas I prefer 1st PP. So it's good you can choose.

Lets be honest, most of us only use third person to see how [censored] cool we look and for when you are just exploring

Skyrim you can play almost entierly in 3rd person. Except for using ranged weapons such as bows and crossbows since aiming becomes easier that way.

Fallout NV was terrible in 3rd person, but traditional as I am I would like to play in 3rd person view with a view from above just like in Fallout 1 and 2.

Yeah, my playing the game at all depends on the quality of third-person gameplay. I am a Fallout 1 and 2 fan, before they caved and completely altered the entire game to please the FPS crowd. I will need to watch videos when the game comes out to see if they've put any care and development into the style. In panels and stuff they repeatedly say things like "we're a first-person game." So, that's not a great thing to hear when they also say you can play in both styles. Their touted "shooting improvements" and such are only for FP I think, as they said they brought in help from various shooters. I don't know, but it doesn't look to me like they focused too much on the style, only mention that the option is there to ship a handful more units maybe.

Indeed, good.

I don't mind them putting effort into improving 3rd person. But as a 1st person only user (except for checking out outfit and looks), I hate it when 3rd person features surpass 1st person, which has been the case lately by forcing players from 1st to 3rd for some brief animation sequences.

There are moments in the footage where they go into third-person, and it looks comparable to Mass Effect's third-person shooting, https://youtu.be/FNfqQ7iJDg0?t=57s and https://youtu.be/GrX-QT19Ro0?t=3m52s. I think that's all we've seen of third-person combat.

I like what I see, though. I may go third-person primarily for this game, although first-person is still the best for perusing a Bethesda-style shelf full of clutter items.

I am exactly the opposite of you. I play only in 3rd-person and I hate it when I am forced into 1st-person.

Oblivion was the worst offender about this. Every conversation with an NPC forced me out of 3rd-person. Worse, during force-greets (Hirtel, Glarthir, ect) the game would suddenly yank me out of my POV without the slightest warning, disorienting me almost to the point of physical nausea.

I don't think a Bethesda game should force either 1st or 3rd person players out of their preferred POV for any reason. Doing so is bad game design, in my opinion.

I generally used 3rd person when I was out in the exterior world and then switched to first person anytime I had to enter a structure. Just seemed to make it easier to keep an eye on my surroundings for searching and spotting shinies.

Well other than to take screenshots I imagine I'll stay in 1st person myself.

Ah yeah, I like the comparison. If fighting is like that, I could definitely play the game fully in third. Thanks for the response

bethesda games are definately not 3rd person games, they are designed for 1st person and everything works far better in 1st person, 3rd person view is good for looking around corners or your player character and thats what 3rd person view is mainly for, i play bethesda games in first person, true 3rd person games have superior 3rd person game mechanics and i think people who play the game in 3rd person are really just trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole.