I recently bought Dead Money expecting it to be pretty "meh" and insanely hard, but I was pleasantly surprised.

In Fallout 3 for example, I hated just about every one of the DLCs. I found them all "meh." The Pitt was too...boring and underdeveloped. They basically made this big deal about you mascarading as a slave, then after 5 minutes of very boring "slave work" the story progresses, and before you know it, it's over. Point Lookout, the story was lacking as well, imo. I guess Anchorage was ok and I had nothing against Zeta, but Dead Money? I love Dead Money. The story is simple, yet not simple enough that it makes you laugh at how stupid it is: it's a basic heist story with a few twists to make it unique. And the gameplay style? It's something different that requires the player to think and it's VERY demanding as far as the player's character goes; I would imagine a poorly built character would have quite a bit of trouble there. And yet, I'd been hearing people saying "omg you have to quicksave every minute because you'll die lyk literally every minute frum ur face exploding." Not true at all. Honestly, after playing the game for myself, I can't help but wonder if the people who said that tried destroying the radios and speakers but charging at them and headbutting them. All you have to do is look before you leap. Dead Money requires a level of thought, a level of cunning and a level of character stats that New Vegas just never really demanded from the player before.

It was amazingly executed.

Your list of "fixes" makes no sense whatsoever btw.

Seriously.
The collar will explode if you tamper with it, taking damage from a collar that's rigged purely to explode doesn't make sense, at the end of the game the signal on the collar is off so you can safely remove it, and wtf do you mean with the last one? There WERE other people there. They're all dead now.

I just put a fifth character through Dead Money. It keeps getting better for me. And a bit easier each time. A bit.

I went for the first time at level 12 with no sneak, no Light Step, and did fine. :shrug: I had to discard ammo at several points due to weight.
I did feel they overdid the speakers and didn't use the holograms to their full potential.

The gameplay purpose of the speakers can be broken down into some categories:
The good: adding time pressure to a section, particularly when combined with a gauntlet of floor traps for that one-two punch.
The bad: interrupting the flow of play to hunt a hidden speaker
The ugly: speakers as a gating mechanic to force areas to be visited in a prescribed order. Bad in practice, because there are no cues as to whether a particular red speaker is saying "GTFO" or "find the terminal".

I would have liked to see more use of non-security holograms as atmosphere and as puzzle components. For example, activating a doorman or repairman hologram, or gambling for access to a high-roller suite.

my first time through it i really didn't like it, thought i had wasted my money. i just wanted to sit down and beat it in one sitting, went in at level 15 and thought it was the most ridiculous crap I'd ever seen. i found no ammo, my melee skill was low and it took forever to kill any ghost person. AND i was playing on hardcoe. i thoroughly did NOT enjoy the experience.

then a week or two ago, i decided to try it again. this time i went in at level 25, with both of the expensive implants, and stretched the play-through over a few days. and i got to say, i really really enjoyed it. it's way bigger than I thought, there's WAY more stuff than i originally had found, and this time i REALLY took my time and explored and checked out every little area i could see, saved a lot. i ended up with like 40 stimpacks, barely had to use them, and LOTS of other loot. not to mention this time got all the mods and managed to escape with all the gold bars :hubbahubba: so i can say i definitely do like dead money although you have to approach it from the right perspective I'd imagine.

Not one of the best DLCs in the world. I did not like how you could not return and that when are in DM you can barely explore at all. Replayabilty for that DLC is not even possible because it is the same thing over and over and over. I tried for a second time and I quit after 2 minutes.

I just got all three people and I have about 90 or so ammo for the police pistol alone and I'm on Normal. I am not looking forward to exploring alone though.