I use 3rd person to scan the wastes better as I travel. I can see MUCH more than when I use 1rst person, and makes up for having no peripheral vision in 1rst person....or at least it did in FO3. I love the changes in NV but this is not one of them. I now have the habit of holding the trigger button as I run now, and this gives me a slightly better view. Why was this changed, do you think? Do you like it? Hate it?

I remeber the E3 video i think where one of the people said it was changed to make fighting in third person view easier.

It was promoted as 'a new and improved third person view'.

Obviously intended for those who are into FPS, which means more sales, which means more money, which means they must release on time, which means a few more glitches than we would have hoped for.

But, yeah, they gimped it for the FPS mob, so I expect that they think that the RPG enthusiasts live in a make believe world anyway and we will 'make believe' that it's not gimped....

As a FPS gamer I liked having the ability to really pull back from my character and get a "bird's eye" view of the area occasionally

for the PC users a couple of mods that may help

Third Person Camera Fix -> http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35016
OR
Further 3rd Person Camera -> http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34775