Nice work. I did a Mass Effect style camera once when I was dabbling. A lot of freedom comes when you use the player/client as a camera rather than a player, and use a basically "dumb" monster as the player character/avatar instead. Bind some impulse keys to make the avatar move, have the "camera" update its position based on the avatar's position and its angle based on mouse movement in pre-think, and bam, you have a Mass Effect view! You can even have the avatar's AI control it when the "cam" is not focused on it, like when switching among multiple characters, etc., but that's a whole different can of worms.
Sorry I don't have the code anymore nor did I notice this thread until now otherwise I would have tried to be of some help...
