I've played the game for a good 18 hours now. I walked south, and then looped up north and entered Vegas, doing most quests along the way with a healthy dose of exploration.
But so far I've found the game to be "empty." It feels like there is very little hand placed loot, and it's lacking in Fallout 3's finer details. Quests are empty, rewards are bland, NPC's have plenty of dialogue but most of it leads to nothing, making it feel like the developers cut out quests.

Don't get me wrong, I love this game. I've been obsessed with it since release, and I can't see myself stopping anytime soon. But it seems to be really lacking and "empty." Almost bland. I love what they did with the Follower/Faction systems, and quests seem to have more options. These things are good. But ultimately they're marred by the lack of details put into the game.

Maybe I've just missed things, but I don't feel like I've rushed. In fact, I made a point not to. Does anyone else feels this way?

I apologize if there's a thread on this. I haven't been active since release, naturally.

I hope what you feel isn't true.

I've only put in about 12hrs or so and I too have taken my time intensionally. At this point I've just barely made it to Novac and so far I'd have to agree with you.

Bethesda is just better at building gameworlds/allowing exploration, in my opinion, and I agree with you. :shrug:

Why not start crap with every faction so you get more assassins after you? Emptiness is now Whole!

Uh Fallout 3 was more empty. Half the game world was metro tunnels and there's only two or three real towns.

I have found New Vegas to be way more plentiful in every aspect. More towns, more people, more lootz, more enemies... I guess all I can say is keep exploring? Go off the beaten path as often as possible.

In one interviewer the guy said he was camping out in a factions camp when assassins(both NCR and CL) came outta nowhere and started attacking and killing everyone, leaving only one trader and brahmin alive

Do assassins attack you if youre in settlements? Ive yet to be atttacked but it'd be cool if they rly do go through all that trouble just to kill you.

also would like to know if minor factions such as: kings/khans/PG/BOS can send out hitsquads like CL and NCR

it'd be nice but i only see CL and NCR sending assassins after your character.

New Vegas is great, but you can't say it's less empty than Fallout 3 was.

There's HUGE stretches of land on the easternmost and westernmost parts of the map that are just totally empty, no fast travel points whatsoever. FO3 always had something nearby, even if it wasn't super exciting.

I also dislike how Random Encounters seem to be nearly nonexistent, most of the enemies seem to be placed in advance. And the invisible walls are awful. Places that would be easy to cross in FO3 are now completely impossible to get through or climb over.

I love this game, but FO3 definitely did a better job of filling the whole map with content.

I also dislike how Random Encounters seem to be nearly nonexistent, most of the enemies seem to be placed in advance. And the invisible walls are awful. Places that would be easy to cross in FO3 are now completely impossible to get through or climb over.

The random encounter thing pisses me off the worst even more so then the glitches/bugs and freezes this game frequently endures.

but from what ive seen

The Random Encounters are already setup as scripted events instead of at random like FO3

but the usual caravans traders and patrol parties still spawn to keep things interesting. Not to mention if you piss of the wrong group youll get assassins sent after you to spice things up.

ive been playing for 16 hours and yeah i have to say i favor fallout3 better, as far as random places to go and explore. that aspect feels empty. I do enjoy the hardcoe mode and customizations though (wish there was more) and the different bullets was is awesome.. but as for random conversation leading nowhere yeah thats true, also seems to be a lack of quests then fallout 3 i keep finding myself left with the main quest in NV, F3 seemed never ending and that i really enjoyed.. *crosses fingers* hope some of the dlc will add-on the the main game it's self and not just side material!!

Funny; I find New Vegas to be a lot more filling than FO3's empty world with only aesthetic rewards for exploring in most places.

Fallout 3 was way emptier then New Vegas, besides there is a reason its called a Wasteland.

FO3 had 50 or so sidemissions and 20(or so) story and unmarked quests

NV has 70 sidemissions and thats without including the story and unmarked quests

most NV sidemissions are more unique then the FO3 story missions

I agree totally. I didn't rush it either - in fact after 18 hours I went back to scratch and started again just to be sure I hadn't "missed something".
I am a bit more "into it" this time through but it's still an effort and that, surely, isn't what a game should require of you...effort to engage?
Your comment on the Follower/Faction thing is also spot on. They did a good job there, but the overall "feel" of the game is empty. It lacks empathy or something. I just don't "care" as much as I did with FO3 and the Lone Wanderer.... God I miss him/her!!!
I'd love to have seen the FO3 world with the improvements we mentioned. I think Obsidian missed the boat with "the lore". They don't have the FO3 "feel" at all. I guess it's just a business to them.
They seem to have just co-opted a lot of "background" from FO3 and tried to force a fit..... and it didn't work. There's no relevance, say, in Pre-War Books without the Library/Scribes of FO3. Teddy Bears??? Toy Cars? Nuka-Cola? Just stuck in there for no purpose at all except to make it "look" like FO3
AND....what is with that ridiculously overbloated PipBoy menu, full of so much useless ammo info???? Just give me a shottie and a sniper rifle with
308's and let it rip! I don't have a head full of ammo info to fall back on and there's damn little in the way of explanation. I am so over that bloody menu!!!
Some-one...somewhere....please make Fallout 4!

I'm trudging along at a snail's pace, almost 20 hours and I am ready to go to Helios One. I have been staying kind of near the road, but not on it and doing lots of investigation. There are (I think) less fast travel places in NV, but there is a lot more (IMO) things strewn about. I've found numerous bodies of what could have been loan travelers, critter dens, little bits that remind me someone has been here before and many more. For me, I get pretty frequent proof that it's a harsh environment and straying off the path is both extremely lucrative and deadly.

Here's the thing. Comparing it to Fallout 3 in terms of worldbuilding is a huge mistake.

Fallout 3 was made by Bethesda, who are gods of open-world design.
New Vegas was made by Obsidian, who are gods of writing.

Apples and oranges, ya dig?

F:NV has 400 towns/cities. F3 had only 200.

This, a thousand times, this! Obsidian built a beautiful world but gave me no reason to explore it. I spent an hour battling tough creatures trying to get to my destination today only to have to turn around because of that [self-censored] invisible barrier. Did I find anything interesting along my way? No. No containers to loot, no hand-placed skeleton with a note, no random encounter that changes every playthrough, no cool view. There wasn't even a plant to pick or a campfire to cook up some grub at. There was nothing. Everywhere I go, I find people to talk to who have tons of dialogue but they give me no reason to do their quest. I haven't found a single soul in the game I feel any connection with whatsoever. After over 22 hours, I should care about the story, I should care about some of the people, I should be interested in the factions, I should have found people who make me laugh, people I hate and people I love to hate. I just don't care about anyone and that's tragic.

lol...wow really? teddy bears? what their only local to DC? toy cars? only kids in dc had em? really??? seems like something that maybe the whole country would have you know.. are you just trying to find something bad?

People love to toss that fact around, but it's undeniable that FONV has much more "dead space" with no locations around than FO3 does. Just take a look at the respective maps, NV has massive amounts of dead space on the east and west edges.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this game, but FO3 is superior in terms of always providing you with something to check out nearby, I think.

Not really. Most of FNVs map markers are condensed in one main area and even then some of those are "xyz East Entrance", "xyz North Entrance", etc. Quite a large chunk of the map is unused in FNV and there are invisible walls around to prevent you going into these areas. A fair few of FNVs map markers just arnt worthy of being a map marker in addition to this.

uh...DLC's?

Its pretty sad how DLCs are being handled now. Used to be that DLC was made after a game if it was popular and there was a demand for it. Now they are pre-planned to milk more money after a games been sold. Its pathetic if they left these massive voids for the sake of DLC.

"LETS PUT THIS HUGE EMPTY SPACE HERE AND CHARGE MORE TO PUT SOMETHING THERE LAWL"

This is bad? This is the series as it always was (and should be). There is nothing out there... Its a wasteland.

I agree that it was (and is)... except that all of those encounters should be days or weeks apart, but in FO3 its all just over the next hill.