I've been reading through posts, looking at gameplay videos and asking a friend who has the game (360) to help me form an opinion now I'd like to ask the forum.
First, I should mention that I thought Fallout 3 rated as barely "OK." I'd give it a 5/6 out of 10.
I'll try to give a brief list of my gripes to find out if they were migrated to New Vegas.
Fallout 3's world wasn't immersive(for lack of a better word): The best example of this was the issue of finding GNR. The only NPC that could definitively give you the location of GNR was Moriarity. Even though there were big (bleep)ing signposts painted in the sewers NOONE knew where GNR was? Scavengers that you came across in the sewers didn't know? In however many years since the Brotherhood had an outpost there noone ever came across those signs and spread rumors? Raiders never noticed them?
This was extra annoying since soon after the start of the game Three Dog would mention that he talked to the Lone Wanderer's father and knew about Project Purity. You would know you needed to find GNR yet noone except Moriarity had it as a topic.
The girl in Moriarity's would tell you Three Dog's broadcast's out of the DC ruins but that was it. That would be fine because at least you'd get a clue (he mentions it too). Which is why I couldn't understand why no other NPC's had info on GNR. Since Three Dogs said he was in the ruins, people knew he was in the ruins and there were signs that would lead anyone who could read straight to it.
There weren't enough in-game clues to play the game in an immersive way. I hope that makes sense.
Fallout 3's world seemed...: I don't know what word to use. Stupid? Incomplete? Why did chem dealers hang out in the middle of the wastes nowhere near a settlement while people begging for water would do so in front of settlements? Wouldn't it make more sense to be the other way around? Even though you'd give water to them all you got was karma? What about a rumor of wealth or something tangible instead? At least in Oblivion giving to a beggar opened up a quest. Rivet City had a heavily armed garrison yet they never tried to clear out the Super Mutant outpost that was right next to them? Not even try to clear out Anacostia Crossing's atrium? Couldn't those have been mini-quests for the LW? Noone ever tried to establish safe travel routes between settlements? Scavengers that set up stalls in sewers don't have any information about the sewers? They've never heard of Riley's Ranger's? Don't know where GNR is? Can't tell you there's a Glowing One/Raider/Super Mutant/etc around the corner from their stall? Gob would beg you to deliver a message to Carol yet not have any dialogue topics afterwards?
There was just so little that made the world feel...connected. Even though you had traders that went to every settlement none of the NPC's acted like they knew about the world outside of their settlement. It seemed like each location was just plopped down to give the player a place to kill something. I understand it was post-Apocalyptic but...
Is New Vegas like that too?