When is this assignment due?

A. a first person perspective
B. Platforming. In third person it's terrible because you can't see where you are jumping in some cases.
C. a third person perspective
D. games where you need to see what's around you. Compare RE and it's light gun series. Hard to see objects, can't look up and down really. I guess it's actually harder to shoot things in third person games without lock on. Just as how in TP games its difficult to see where to jump, it's also difficult to see where to shoot. The depth isn't easy to get a hold of. MGS is notable for this. Try to shoot anything in TP mode and you generally just randomly shoot everywhere.
E. Also i feel TP games are better played with controllers/analogue sticks because movement is more free. On a keyboard, wasd is annoying. However FP games are better on PC because you don't have that free movement. It's more controlled, if that makes sense.

I'll post some observations of my own later. As for now:

Alowishus wrote:

B. Platforming. In third person it's terrible because you can't see where you are jumping in some cases.

I am not understanding how you came to this conclusion. I thought platforming in first person games were mostly regarded as awful until Metroid Prime came out. (Now I am thinking back to the frustrating jumping in the N64 Turok games.) When you jump in third person you can gauge exactly where your feet will land since you can see them.

Some people have shit depth perception in third person platformers. Describing Super Mario Galaxy:

stake n sheak wrote:

On top of which jumping on goombas is hard in 3D. I don't know why, I have no problem controlling or navigating in other 3D games.

What first person games are you thinking of?

Alowishus wrote:

D. games where you need to see what's around you.

Well in a game like Diablo you can see everything around you.

Compare RE and it's light gun series. Hard to see objects, can't look up and down really.

I would change 'hard' to 'harder'. I agree that first person does make objects more visible to the eye due to the closer camera. However, I don't exactly have a problem seeing an object in Resident Evil 4. Nor with Resident Evil 1 predrawn backgrounds and static camera angles. I do think it is interesting if the developers contrast items differently for them to standout to the player in third person game compared to a first person one.

I guess it's actually harder to shoot things in third person games without lock on. Just as how in TP games its difficult to see where to jump, it's also difficult to see where to shoot. The depth isn't easy to get a hold of.

Lock-on does make certain things easier, however, shoulder-cam games like RE4 are way more accurate than GTA3. These newer 3rd person games don't function properly with lock-on due to the new multiple hitpoints system. (It could be done using a Wii controller, but not with any real benefit.) Lock-on has been much improved from early wrongfull targeting enemies in third person games from the latest games I've played.

Again with the depth stuff. Indeed the laser pointer in RE4 was added to weapons to make it easy to shoot enemies. But I can throw grenades in RE4 targeting enemies a good distance away (like 8 cow length distance in the game). That's just judging the distance of the enemy and the angle of Leon's bent body. Now you have games like Gears of War where grenade throwing looks like you're playing a golf videogame with display lines showing the arch of your grenade toss and all the parameter shit.

B. I'd say good weapons in first person games tend to be more satisfying than good third person weapons. I'm not talking about fun or creative weapons, but satisfying ones, like the double-barelled shotgun from Doom 2, the gravity gun from HL2, the crossbow from Metro 2033, or the Painkiller from Painkiller. It's important to see the weapon, see it recoil from blasting, the projectile going down-range, and focusing on it impacting the enemy. It's hard to get an appreciation of blasting an enemy away when it's tucked away from the camera behind the player character. Granted, there are outliers like RE4, whose bolt-action rifle and Broken Butterfly are fun to look at and use, but in that case you can see the weapon, and each has a cool, unique animation to go along with it, so I'm saying it's not a law, but it's certainly been the standard.

D. Stealth. With the exception of a few games like Deus Ex and Thief where they understood limitations of first-person cameras, stealth in FP games has mostly sucked. This is why Splinter Cell, Metal Gear, Hitman, and other third-person games lead the stealth game genre. In Splinter Cell, you use the light, environment, and acrobatics to your advantage. In Metal Gear, you use camouflage and neat little inventory items/map to plan traps and ambushes. In Hitman, you need full situational awareness, the ability to analyze the environment, and see how you are responding with/to the world. All of these things would be very difficult in first-person.

Enemies begin using tactics which affect the player instead of the characters. At some point, enemies seem to become aware that the player characters are being controlled by an "outside" intelligence, and adjust their strategies accordingly. Rather than attacking the player characters, enemies may instead position themselves to block the player's view.

Of further interest:
Games that let you slide in and out of first person view
Geist - possess multiple fp views by switching out of bodies
Killer 7 - 3rd person on-rails to first person combat w/ third person counter attacks
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes - third person primarily to first person combat (?)
Deus Ex: Human Revolutions - first person primarily to third person on stealth (?)