The best part of speech now is that it isn't a chance. Instead, it is a check. In Fallout 3, I would simply save before speaking and reload if I failed the check. In New Vegas, I have to put points into speech to pass the check. I find that it makes the skill more useful. It's good that they have made the skill worth using now.

I started out with a low speech character and had a hard time with some of the quests. By the time I hit the New Vegas strip I explored a bit then wound up starting a new character, this time tagging speech instead of survival, since I found that I didn't need to spend a crapload of points on it.