With the release of the new trailer, we can see multiple scenes of third-person mode in-game, every scene appears to be an over-the-shoulder view.

http://i54.tinypic.com/v6p837.png
http://i53.tinypic.com/2csci0h.png
http://i53.tinypic.com/25s37o9.png
http://i55.tinypic.com/5pjzva.png

How do you guys feel about this? Do you think it will be the only third-person perspective, or will there be an option to have your character in the center like in Morrowind and Oblivion?

Personally, as someone who dominately uses third-person mode, I'm not a fan of it. I didn't like it in the Fallouts either, but it made sense to be able to line-up crosshairs correctly. But I felt like, instead of third-person mode enhancing my field of vision, it limited it. Sure, I can see more to the right now, but I can't see anything to my left. I'm hoping the option to keep my character in the center while in third-person is present. If not, guess I'll have to wait for a mod that does it.

My thoughts exactly. I understand they went in and improved 3rd person, to whatever degree, and probably want to show that off but I'm really, really hoping theres a centered view option. Couldn't stand the 3rd person camera in Fallout to the point where I hardly ever used it - which is a first for a game that lets me choose which view to use.

Love it! Just hope we get a cross hair when shooting arrows, and most importantly no more floating when walking at angles. Loved the trailer!

I hate how 3rd person games have suddenly become off center.

thanks a lot gears of war.

its just awkward imo..

best 3rd person view is splinter cell... but even the latest SC game is off center.

why are the most mindless, unintelligent games leading the pack?

I'm hoping they didn't just use Fallout 3's. That 3rd person mode was so awkward.

Well I like it but usually games have multiple third person options. If they don't, you can go to the ini file and change it manually back to centered.

I like it, in fact if this is really the third person view that we will have in the game i'd be pretty happy

Not for console players, such as myself.

If playing an archer, first person for better accuracy. When in melee combat, I'd prefer 3rd person for gauging my proximity to my target. Goes with a little bit of platforming too.

i can't play bethesda games in 3rd person, i really can't. I don't think they are made for it. I think for skyrim they want to make 3rd person viable, so if they can improve it maybe it will make playing a warrior cooler and more cinematic.

It's highly successful because it allows you to better see at what you're aiming at compared to center-cams.

I welcome it.

It looks far too much like a 3rd person game anyway.

No doubt it's better for things like marksman, but I'd prefer to have it switch to over-the-shoulder when pulling back on a bow, or when a bow is equipped and held in-hand. I find it more difficult to use melee weapons in OTS third-person, and it's just as easy to use ranged magic spells in centered third-person as it is for OTS.

Actually Resident Evil 4 (from last generation) is the first game I recall that brought about the off center camera in 3rd person games. It depends on genre for me. Action games I prefer centered, shooters I prefer off-center. For Skyrim I think we should have both. Because trying to fire a bow with a centered camera doesn't work so well.

I'm not 100% sure about that.

If you're fickle about accuracy like me, it's like aiming with a crooked sight. With the bow coming from the left, trajectory of arrow will be diagonal in relation to straight cross hair. This becomes a nuisance when you're taking cover from a wall against another archer. You take a shot in third person and the arrow hit the corner of the wall while your cross hair is pointing directly at the guy.

It's not sudden, pretty much all third person games have been doing it since Resident Evil 4 back in 2005 - it's done because if it's central the PC usually ends up covering the target with their head.
It's just more logical, maybe you should do your research first - it's been around for a while.

I play in third person quite a bit. I don't mind the over the shoulder views. What I'm hoping for is a cross hair that's much more visable than the ones in Fallout. No matter what color ui I used I couldn't see the cross hair very well and had to use vats way too much to finish the game. Leave the opaque semi-visable cross hairs in for those who want it out of their way, but I'd like more options in this department. I'd like to see a bright white/red/orange color that's clearly visable on the screen no matter what I point it at.

I still wish you could just zoom in/out and revolve the camera around your character, like in Guild Wars. I don't know why the developers would be content on settling for fixed perspective. :shrug:

I prefer over the shoulder view, mainly because when your character is in the middle of the screen, you can't make out the most crucial details. I'd define someone swinging an axe at your face as one of those crucial details. Now granted, you can say the same for over the shoulder views, but you have a clear view of the center of the screen, which is normally where your enemy will be, especially if fighting one on one. It also makes life easier for ranged characters.

In fact, the 3rd person view in Oblivion I found terrible, in narrow corridors or caves i couldn't see [censored], forcing me to use the 1st person perspective instead. I prefer 3rd person, I like seeing the character I've spent time on designing, that doesn't mean I don't want to see what's going on as well though.

Yeah if we don't get a crosshair it means archer and mages will have a hard time using 3rd person

I think this would be a good idea.

I always play in 3rd person. I played a few minutes of Fallout3 and found the off-center camera to be extremely awkward in melee, as you said. I could imagine that it was great for marksman, though, so if they switched to off-center when equipping a bow I think that would probably be the best of both worlds.

Love it. Any change is good change, as long as they fix the strafe run.

Sales figures.

I'm gonna echo what a lot of people are saying here....I'm a HUGE 3rd person fan (except for archery which is the only time I go into 1st person mode). I know it's just a personal taste thing but it's a big deal for me. OTS without the centered option can be clunky and awkward. PLEASE provide a center option Bethesda!

Centered camera, uncentered camera, both sides win and it takes about 5 seconds to do. Personally i really dislike (even hate) uncentered over the shoulder camera in any any, FPS, melee, 3rd person only games- anything. Heck i didn't even play more than 20 minutes of dead space because the camera irritated me so badly. It's just so damned awkward to run- and whats the point in a 3rd person perspective, if you're not even looking at your character? You completely lose the line of sight in one direction, so you constantly have to look to the left just to see what you would have seen in first person mode, or traditional 3rd person view to begin with!