I figured I'd throw my five caps in about the game as well. Basically, it's a fair bit better than FO3. A few things are worse, but it's better as a whole.

The first thing that struck me about the game was quite a negative: the voice acting. With a few exceptions here and there, most of the voice acting just feels dull. Or out of place. Or both. I recall this guy coming up to me, and saying in this calm, bored voice, "Please, my wife is trapped. Can you help her?" To which I responded "sure" and walked off. If he won't muster any enthusiasm, I sure as hell won't help her. Attitude is everything, dammit. But I digress. Many of the game's voices suffer from this. Beats overacting though I guess.

The second negative that immediately struck me was the weak beginning. Getting shot in the head but surviving thanks to some doctor performing brain surgery in his living room? I don't buy it. Although it could help to explain why these damn raiders can survive two shots to the head from a .44 Magnum… Naw, fuck that. Then on your way out the doctor is like "Here, have oodles of good stuff." "Why?" "Just because." Then he proceeds to disappear from the rest of the game. Lame.

However, the game more than makes up for these flaws. I think the biggest thing that New Vegas has over FO3 is just the number of things to do. Every decent-sized settlement has at least 5 side-quests. The Strip has oodles more. Compare this to FO3, where side-quests are few and far between. Not to mention the involved and nonlinear (and often confusing) main quest.

Companions are another nice addition. And before you start going "Ohhh, but Travis, Fallout 3 had companions! Nyeeeeeeeh" Shh no it didn't. Companions in FO3 were pretty much worthless. They'd run in shooting and get their asses handed to them. And when they weren't running in dying, they were making you wish they were dead. (See: Dogmeat's breathing.) Companions in New Vegas, on the other hand, actually function. They don't die, they rarely annoy, and they are often quite competent in combat. Oh, and they actually have personalities. They'll comment on situations, and they have a back story. And some are just hilarious, like Lily. No spoilers.

Gambling was boring and I'm bad at it. Next topic.

The weapons were great. So much variety compared to FO3. Many even looked cool and fairly realistic. Such as the 9mm pistol. What the hell is up with the FO3 10mm pistol? It doesn't even look like a pistol. More like a brick with a handle. Hate that thing. It appears in New Vegas as well, but it's fairly uncommon. Revolvers in the game were a little disappointing. After I saw how the 357 Magnum looked like a puny .22, I was hoping the .44 Magnum would be better. It wasn't, it looked about as big as a .32. I was hoping for some badass large-frame revolver like the Raging Bull, but nope. No 500 revolvers either, from what I've found thus far. =[

To sum it up, did a few things wrongly or badly, but overall a better game than FO3. This game actually holds up without mods, which is more than I can say about Bethesda-developed games. I can't wait to play it with mods.