Imagine my surprise, then, when New Vegas came out and I hadn't even leveled to the lame low level cap when suddenly, all the sudden, THE GAME ENDS!!!!!!
Are... you... kidding... me?
Absolutely, playing through the game, knowing you will get a definite cut-off ending with canned explanations of what happens is just lame. (and really surprising)
Bethesda made their game infinitely better when finally allowing you to simply exist in the world after the main quest (not to forget the Broken Steel awesomeness), and it makes playing through the content so much more satisfying.
Of course FO3's original ending was worse, but equally disappointing imo, and ruins re-play value in a big way.
I played through FO3 3 times, I've played FoNV once and although it was awesome, I'm not rushing to do it again, because the handling of the ending is depressing.
Also I cannot see myself playing the DLCs, I just don't care, the game ends, I have to re-wind to do them, that's not as fun as having my character in the present, existing world, and being able to do them.