I've been playing NV a fair bit lately, but every time I cannot help but feel "rushed" by the Main Plot-- now, I don't mean in the sense of felling like you HAVE to do it, but more in the sense of dialogue and interaction with NPCs. Obviously you can spend as much time as you like doing side-quests and whatnot, and the game world will never move forwards.

But from a plot perspective, I cannot help but feel more pressured, at least for the first half-- every major point in the storyline consists of "Have you seen the guy who shot me? / Oh yes, he went that-way".

In Oblivion, and FO3 (although I never played it as much) there seemed to me to be more natural breaks in the story-- places where it felt natural to have a delay between the Main Quests. So, using Oblivion-- you've got the point between delivering the Amulet, and heading to Kvatch; in FO3, you could reasonably argue the point between leaving the Vault and going to Megaton (i.e., RP that it's much further away). But in NV, to me at least, it feels like you (as the PC, not as the Player) are given pretty direct routes, and a more-or-less direct goal of revenge...

Obviously this might be me, but I was curious what other people thought?

Edit:
Just to elaborate a little...

In Fallout 3 i use the "Find Vault 92" as the wandering off point. Afterall (excluding the magical quest arrow) how is the Wanderer supposed to know here it is?

But on topic, yes it does feel a bit rushed. But Mr. House didn't seem to mind that i went on a vacation to a national park and got abducted to who-knows-where when i should've been going to the Fort, and he doesn't seem to mind that i'm exploring the underground section added by AWOP mod while i should be contacting teh Boomers :lmao:

Edit: "Find Vault 112", i mean. It's been a while.

In Fallout 1 Vault 13 is going to die out if The Vault Dweller don't get a new water chip.
The game has a time limit on how long you can take to get the chip.
After that you have a new time limit to destroy the Super Mutant threat.

In Fallout 2 Arroyo is dying out due to the crops failing, it needs a GECK, The Chosen One is sent out to quickly get this wondermachine to save her village.
After a while the village is taken by Enclave and you have to find a way to save your fellow tribesmates from this evil.

I'd say that "rushed" is a trademark of Fallout storylines.

Don't feel too rushed after I get to Vegas. The game gives you all these factions to work with and you know a big war is coming, but there's no rush about it.

I'm currently on my first play through. I feel rushed, in a sense, though it's pressure that I'm putting on myself. My mentality is that I want to rush to get my revenge and take out this checkered suit guy. This is going to be a transformative experience for my character, after which he'll go from being a simple courier to a wasteland vigilante (backtracking to take care of all the side quests I've been skipping). Killing Benny is going to be my jumping off point. Of course, I don't know if things will work out that way. I've only made it as far as Boulder City, so who knows what will happen when I finally find him (or how long it will take).

Honestly, Fallout 2 is just as guilty as Fallout 3 and New Vegas of drop off points. After I find the G.E.C.K. and get to Arroyo, I just drop the main quest and dike around the Wasteland.

The only time i felt rushed is in the beginning where your supposed to finding the guy who shot you in the head

After that, i was under the impression that house,the legion, and the NCR were in a stalemate and it was up to the courier to turn the tides- so i could take my sweet time because THEY needed ME B)

yeah, I do feel a little bit rushed. I'm not overly concerned, they can damn well wait if they want me to fight at the dam so much. But.. it still seems that there's a really tense and stressed atmosphere now, especially around NCR camps, because they're all waiting for you to wander in and be ready to fight. no pressure or anything, just these two big factions who've been at each others throats for a stupidly long amount of time are now waiting for YOU to show up so they can finally have a big battle and finish it all one way or another forever..

It does seem as though the game is pushing the player toward that big final endgame as quickly as..

I find it difficult to fit the DLC moments into the main quest. There never seems to be a good time.

Mr House: Have you destroyed the Brotherhood of Steel?

Me: Not yet, I'll get to that later. I know you're busy preparing for war and all that, but I'm thinking about escorting a Happy Trails caravan to Zion National Park just for the hell of it. I won't be gone long, a month at most. See you then!

That's basically what I mean To me, the first half of the Main Quest feels really rushed-- I think it might have been better, perhaps, to have characters in each town say something like "I'll ask around for you-- come back later", and then only tell you where to go the next time you spoke to them, so that you have a natural "well, I've time to kill" in the story.

I can see how the main plot would feel rushed to many. I never care about following the story tho so it doesn't bother me/I don't think about it.

My "drop off" point is Novac because it's where I get my (modded ) hotel room. After that sometimes I do most things before ever going to Vegas at all, other times I talk to House in Vegas for the 1st time but then ignore him/Benny nearly forever.

I also consider any point before going to Vegas/talking to House - a good place to detour to DLC, because my chr. could easily be distracted from vengeance for a little while, in pursuit of cash. I mean, she wakes up with memory loss and no gear. It's easy to be distracted sometimes. Perhaps she wants time to gather her wits, cash, and...uh...a really cool outfit from Joshua. Yeah, that's it.

I'm sort of this way, as soon as I deliver the Platinum Chip to House and get the Presidential Suite, I just start twiddling my fingers, half the time my focus on the main quest is about as expansive as a rodents focus span.

Agreed 100%

Yeah, my characters are procrastinators and hate taking orders. I'm never rushed.
By the time I've actually talked to House (just for snow globes and to loot the Lucky 38, really), I've usually already sorted out the casinos, the BoS, the Boomers, etc., all in my own sweet time.