Before Point Lookout there was no reason to go there except for a Bobblehead. For all intents and purposes it was an unmarked quest.

I'm still working my way through the game, but so far I kind of agree with the OP, and I'm definitely not seeing this "OMG SO MUCH BETTER THAN FO3" thing that some reviewers are gushing about. First, they say it's funnier, but so far the only funny thing I've ran into was the crazy guy in Novac. Most of the rest of the game has been ultraviolent massacres by Caesar's Legion, doom and gloom, and people complaining incessantly about how they hate the gub'mint. It seems way darker than FO3. FO3's opening was funnier to me at least; I thought the GOAT was really clever, and the whole birthday party and tunnel rats thing was light hearted; and the first town, Megaton, had Moira who was funny. I've been so far to Goodsprings, Primm, Nipton, Novac, Mojave Outpost, Ranger Outpost Charlie, that mining town up north, and a few other places, and I haven't seen any of the humor.

Then the quests... I don't have many quests, and the ones I've done have often been really short. As for more locations, in FO3 I always felt like there was something to explore... there were "dungeons" all over with the sewer system and subway tunnels, but most of the places I've randomly went to in NV have been empty with nothing to do. I guess the big cross monument, the racetrack, and a few random shacks are interesting to look at, but they're empty with nothing to go into, nothing to fight, no items, no NPC's, nothing. I think that's one thing I really miss from FO3, is that they designed a lot of the places as "dungeons", with monsters to fight and treasures to find, and big winding corridors to explore. Most of the places in NV are just tiny empty shacks with nothing in them, or landmarks that you can look at but serve no gameplay purpose. I guess that's more realistic, but I'm not really playing for realism, I'm playing for fun.

Yeah I noticed that too. I've still been getting a fair bit of combat in this one but there's no doubt about it, the majority of my time playing this game has been spent talking to people and exploring. That's not a bad thing in my opinion, I love it. If it wasn't for the bugs this would probably be the best game I've ever played.

But yeah, as for my total playtime.. By the time I even thought about going anywhere near New Vegas I had already been playing the game for 40 hours, and it's not even like I had to go there at that point. I still had tons of unfinished quests to do out in the desert areas. I just felt like checking it out.

I still haven't completed the game yet, and I'm at just over 64 hours now. I still have TONS of quests to do.

I didn't notice much humor either, even subtle humor. The only time I chuckled even a little bit was when I had to train the Misfits to improve their skills at a shooting range when I only had like 16 in Guns. The dialogue options I was given were pretty funny. But I haven't seen anything else anywhere near as funny as some of the things in Fallout 3. People say New Vegas has the humor of the originals but I see very little evidence of that.

Can i tell you guys how cool how Ruined Shack is? It's a pile of metal with, get this, a BUCKET next to it!

I blew through Reilley's Rangers in under 30 mins. There wasn't a single FO3 quest that took over an hour, not even a main quest. On the next playthrough, most quests didn't even last more than 10 minutes. As others have said, you rush played FO:NV. If you rush a game, don't complain that its short.

You mean to tell me you explored and did everything in the Our Lady of Hope Hospital and the Statesman Hotel in less than 30 minutes? If so, then you definitely rushed through it. Both of those buldings, especially the Statesman Hotel, are HUGE dungeons, and there's tons to explore in both of them. In fact, I don't recall a single dungeon in New Vegas as big as either of those, if you don't count Vaults. You're complaining the OP rushed through it but you also clearly rushed through Fallout 3 if you think there weren't any quests that lasted more than an hour.

I'm on about 40hours with having started a second character [at about the 28ish hour mark] before finishing the game and I think the main reason NV feels worse than FO3 to me is the almost linear nature of the first chunk of game-play, in fallout 3 if you wanted to you could go in any direction you wanted after leaving the vault [you could even skip a large chunk of the main quest just by exploring early] where as in New Vegas you really only have about 4 choices, 1 of which is filled with high level insects, another is "blockaded" by deathclaws the third is a barren track that lets you skip past one/two main towns and the final route is just the main quest route, with any player made route blockaded by a simply amazing amount of invisible walls! there everywhere. can I climb over this ridge....nope invisible wall, can I jump over this wall...invisible wall, can I fall of this not very high balcony to save my self 20's of stairs...INVISIBLE WALL!!!!!

Helpfully my first point will be remedied by DLC [maybe something like a trip out of Vegas via Mojave outpost with the DLC's quest collimating in a back flight into central New Vegas]
and because I'm on PC the invisible walls by modders

I rushed on the main quest on my first playthrough, I beat it in 28-30 hrs. Second Playthrough, I'm gonna explore and do side quests and level up to 30 and focus on acheivements.

did you really explore or you just ran through the main story?.....
I don't know I love the fallout series and for me its always been the experience of just exploring and taking a chance in the wasteland.
I enjoy just following the compass empty arrow and find out whats out there who's out there...
Who am I going to encounter. Am I going to see mad max, the T-1000. like in the original game.

Exactly, this is what they've done with fallout new vegas they've made it more like an rpg. Even though I loved rpg's when I went out to buy this game, I was buying it for the exploration mainly. It was what I was expecting + a great rpg aspect. Fans of the original fallout will like what obsidian has done, which is taking the game (closer) to its roots. Fans of fallout 3 (like me) would be rather dissapointed. Now fallout new vegas on its own is to me a great game, I really like it. I'm just dissapointed that in comparison to fallout 3 the exploration is zero. While that is what I was expecting. We could go on and on about which game is better but that is not what I was talking about. Again my apologies for the misleading thread title, my main point was and is: There's alot less exploration in comparison to fallout 3. And please people don't go around haters be hating and that kinda stuff. I was opting for a constructive argument here and it's what I got right up until page 4/5 until some of the trolls started pouring in. And don't think I don't like rpg's, I've played a good amount and loved most of them.

That's weird. I've yet to encounter an "invisible wall".

their on like mountains and rock outcroppings and stuff... pretty irritating

I am 37 hours in and I still haven't exited the Doc's house

Roleplaying ? What level?

You can climb onto a hill or big rock in FNV, and see over half the map. You go for a short jog, avoiding the insane number of grazing deathclaws, and you've gone from one end of the world to the other.

Both sides have a case here, but there's no real gritty sense of desolation. No wandering off to explore areas for days at a time. You know if you are going to certain places, you are going to be having a fight to the death with a seemingly endless supply of hard armoured beasties...tougher enemies does not necessarily equal a better game.

lol maybe from lef to right the jog would be 20 to 30 minutes.. if you consider that short from top to bottom.. no id say more of a marathon

I doubt it would even take you 30 minutes to walk from the bottom to the top, in fallout 3 you could walk from one corner to the opposing corner in about 30 minutes. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be about the same in new vegas.

...go do it than.