It's nothing new, but it's cheap, pointless, and just stupid. Bad camera angles in 3d platform games are nothing new, that doesn't mean I like dealing with them.
Two games really brought this on: HL2, and FEAR. All it does in both games is just break up the gameplay with a few seconds of standing around. What you mention in Jericho might be alright, but it accomplishes absolutely nothing in most games. The flashlight goes out, I can't see anything at all. It's not like in real life where I might try to stumble around in the dark for a bit - this is a videogame, and when there's no light there's no way I can see anything. I also don't think I've ever had something happen where the flashlight went out and I got attacked by something. No, instead it's the same thing it has been the last 3,000 times: Flashlight goes out, I stand there for 20 seconds, and then I turn it back on for about 30 seconds and keep moving. If I don't hit some sort of light in that thirty seconds the whole thing is repeated. They might as well just make it so that my keyboard stops responding every 30 sec. or so. You'd achieve the same effect.
Doom 3's flashlight problem is something I haven't experienced for a long period of time: I didn't really like the game off the bat, and I didn't play it for long. I think it was a poor design choice, but it at least served a purpose and did what it did well. It's just that no one wanted that in the game (I agree. The leaked alpha level had the flashlight affixed to the gun and it was much more fun). The problem with the way Valve and Monolith handle this is it's not only pointless, but it just breaks up gameplay and completely fucks the pacing up. Seriously, if you want to somehow use a flashlight in order to amplify a spooky atmosphere, why not take a page from Silent Hill? Always on, but shadows and low coverage area always make you wonder what's just outside your view.
