Do you:

Play through the main story only

Play the main story completing side quests that are near

Play the main story until the point of no return and then go wandering

Not do the main story until you've explored everywhere possible, outside of the main story.


Me, personally, I haven't even been to Primm yet. But I have been tons of different places. Figure I'll go to Primm after a few more sidequests.

First time I played until I got to the strip, then re-started....

This time, I have taken wildwest, and im exploring doing side quests, and not overly bothering about the main quest line, I want to experience the world, see the references to Fallout 1/2 and Fallout 3 (The real version! - some will understand what I mean by that! - some won't! ).

Once the side quests have been done, and im maxed out, (and I have made the landscape safe by killing as much as possible) then I think ill start the main quest line

Right now I'm just exploring the wasteland and primarily looking for side quests and funny things to do. At this point in time I don't care about the main quest.

I complete all the side quest i can find and explore the surrounding area before moving on to the next main story quest.

As for gameplay, i'm the sneaky sniper, shotgun if they get to close kinda guy (actually gal for my first playthrough). I am a bit worried about the damage threshold though, I'm afraid my sniper gun won't do much damage on the heavy armor dudes later on and i'll have zero skills with the heavy weapons, gotta stock up on that AP ammo I guess

I like to do a little bit of everything. Main storyline, sidequests, looting random areas.

I do a main quest then I do all the possible side quests nearby until the only other mission I can play is this next main quest mission.

In FO3 I abandoned the main story pretty damn fast and covered most of the map, then went back and did the story. In NV I've been doing most every side quest I can in each town or whatever then following the main story to the next town. I've also been wandering pretty far off the road whenever I see something that might be of interest.

This is exactly what I do.

I'd be a lot more inclined to work on the main quest earlier if they didn't, once again, make the game end upon completion. It baffles me that after all the complaints from FO3 they still implemented this, my thought is they did it on purpose to sell more DLC... anyway, conspiracy theories aside, I avoid the main storyline for a while and explore, trying to take on one side-quest at a time, but always seem to get sidtracked and before I know it I have 10 unfinished side-quests in my Pipboy.. :facepalm:

I like to do a little of this, a little of that, and bumble around randomly most of the time.

Me also. I explore, do a mission, explore some more and so on a so fourth.

First thing I did was run around killing everyone I seen.

Just like in FO3, i start by exploring and acquiring good weapons. Sidequesting is great for that.
Then when i have a good arsenal i move on the main questline.