In Oblivion, there was only one real choice when it came to the ingame view mode, and that was first person. However, since the release of Fallout 3 and New Vegas, I have developed a taste for third person game play. Oblivion's the third person was horrible. It was nothing more than a vanity mode so you could see what your character looked like. Operating in it was nearly impossible. All that really worked was melee combat, but even that had its problems with the camera "sliding" and not offering a viable view for combat. However, in fallout 3 and new vegas, game play was fully functional in both view modes. I found this to be highly enjoyable as it allowed me to play in both view modes to full effect.

This causes me to ask, will TES5 have a third person similar to Fallout or Oblivion?

Personally, I would like to see it more like Fallout's and allow players to be able to play effectively in both first and third person view modes, depending on the players individual playstyle. Hopefully, the developers of Skyrim learned something from Fallout 3 and New Vegas and have decided to make the third person view just as playable as the first person.

from some screenshots i've seen, the forest one, hunting a deer, and walking in the village, and the cave one, it seems to be mostly like fallout 3, with an offset third person.

unconfirmed, but the screenshots do make it seem that way.

If it is offset, I hope the character is centered on when in that "free look" mode... if you know what I mean. Trying to see my characters face in FO was a nightmare, I could only look over my shoulder.

FO3's third person was offset because it was a shooter and it would be damn near impossible to play a shooter in third person with the camera right behind you. So just because FO3 was offset, does not mean Skyrim will be.

With that said, the screenshots do seem to point to there being an offset on the third person view.

Gods, I hope its nothing like the Fallout camera. I hated that thing. If it switches to that whenever equipped (and readied) with a bow, awesome. Outside of that I hope the 3rd person camera stays right behind my character.

Already confirmed that significant amount of work has gone into making 3rd person more fluid, viable, and all around awesome.

I always use first person view, unless I am looking at my character new armor etc.

it worked far better than Oblivion and Morrowind who was totally hopeless in third person view, it worked decent in melee but good luck trying to pick up something or cast a ranged spell. Pretty stupid to have your head in the middle of the crosshair

I did not use it much in Fallout 3 as it was a shooter, but it would be far more useful in Skyrim I guess.

It's been confirmed that they have implemented an improved (from Fallout 3) Third Person mode. I will be using this.

Hopefully Oblivion, what will probably happen is Fallout which was way harder to funvtion in my opinion

Ability in options to define offsets in all three directions, pluss your preferred FOV (also for 1st person). With a few predefined ones as well as a few custom ones that you just activate. I'm not a 3rd person player, but I always hate how restrictive it is when you're trying to compose *the* screenshot, or as already mentioned, trying to get a good closeup of your face (in FONV, btw using setscale is useful for this).

Most games put the crosshair around a foot over your head, it works very well also for ranged attack. Yes it will put your point of view a litle higher but not much more than the bosmer to altmer difference.

They're both horrendously rigid and clunky by modern standards.

I'd like a nice, seamless camera like in Guild Wars that was centered on your character but you could zoom in/out and revolve it around them - and it'd stay in place like that until you adjusted it again. No need to strain yourself holding down a keyboard key whilst trying to nail that perfect screenshot pose.

Based on the new trailer, and screen shots, it seems that the third person view will be offset. I prefer the character-centered 3rd person view much rather than Fallout's offset camera. To me it was just irritating and a mess to deal with the so-called "improved third person" - I'm pretty disappointed by this, but I suppose I will get used to it... It IS Elder Scrolls 5 after all. :unsure:

Oblivion's default 3rd person was horrible. When using a mod like Chase camera it became usable but I much prefer the mod Ultimate 3rd person camera which Oblivion seems to be offering an improved version of. I do admit that I'd prefer if it's adjustable as I like the left view more then right view but I'm sure I will mostly be playing this game in first person anyways if the first person is good.

The one thing I thought Fable ever did better than Elder Scrolls would be the third person. If the camera behaved like that, I'd be happy. It handles ranged attacks by looking over your shoulder as you aim, which worked pretty well for me. Fortunately enough the third person in this game at least seems viable. I'd love to try it out, though I think I still prefer first person.

hope its not offset. damn near impossible to get a good *close* look at my char in FO3 (worse in NV for some reason) OB thrid person would have been better with a redicule.

Oblivioncam for me please. The off-centre, above shoulder view is horribly disorienting. Sure it may be appropriate for a game which uses long-range firearms, but for a game which principally uses melee I think the 3rd person cam should be centred, with perhaps a slight over-the-shoulder zoom for when you aim with a bow.

It will be modded back to the classic 3rd person camera the same day the game comes out, i wouldn't worry about it too much. Personally i HATE the over the shoulder camera, i can NEVER walk strait, and it plays havoc with my mind and sense of direction. In FO3 it was the first mod i looked for.

I think it's going to be Skyrim's view mode seeing as how they overhauled them completely so it's definitely not Oblivion's but it isn't going to be Fallout's either.

BOWS. AND MAGIC.