Yes they are.  There's no such thing as a "second person view" when talking about cameras.  You can call it a "third person limited" view if you must, but if you can see your character, it's third person...there can be camera limitations but it's 100% third person, no arguments.

And "third person" definitely does NOT mean you can look over anyone and everyone at any given time.  That could be possible in a game, but that's not what it has to mean.

Thats the thing.  There is none.  Full stop.

Socom is 3rd person view gears of war is over the shoulder view. They are very close to each other but not quite the same.

No, you don't seem to understand.

They're BOTH 3rd person view.  GeoW just has a different camera angle than some other games, an over-the-shoulder camera angle.  It doesn't cease to be 3rd person when you shift the camera slightly behind a guy...

If you can see your guy, it's 3rd person.  That's it.  Within third person, there are various camera angles games use, such as over-the-shoulder like GeoW or RE4, or a rotatable camera like many action adventure games use, or even a static camera like the old RE games.  They're all 3rd person views.  1st person is obviously where you see what your character sees, and there is no 2nd person. 

2nd person is for narratives only, where instead of saying "I went to store today(1st person)," they say, "You went to the store today."  And 3rd person is "Jimmy went to the store today."

Halo and Gears of war arent both particuly orginal anyway, so who really cares?

erm as a 360 owner i believe this is what i been longing for i mean gears of war and halo combine this is like superman and batman combine is fuckin awesome

Wait so Halo 3 has sold 8 million while Gears of War sold 5 million. I guess it's a smart decision to copy a game that sold less copies than your own...

So whats your source again?

I don't know what the source is but someone mentioned it on this forum.

And no not every 3rd person game is a copy off of Gears of War, I never said that, wtf is wrong with you people I say one thing and you all start jumping to conclusions about me like I now think that every game that is darker and grittier is a copy off of Gears or that every 3rd person game is a copy off of gears. It's just when you combine them together and the way that they put it that it makes it sound similar.

And I guess it's just a rumor but I didn't know that at the time of posting but here are some sources for you:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/13/rumor-next-halo-is-darker-grittier-tactical-and-without-mas/

http://stevebirk.blogspot.com/2008/07/darker-grittier-halo.html

http://www.totalvideogames.com/news/Bungie_To_Reveal_Grittier_Halo_At_E3__13475_7105_0.htm

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=26483669&sid=6193720&action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0

Why would they copy a less successful game? Generally when you copy something, you copy something more popular not less.

I hope the next Metroid follows suit. I wanna see some 3rd person Samus, dammit!