No seriously, Iam sooo new to the fallout series, and I have preorderded New Vegas because it looked fancy.. however, what am in for guys? I know its a western style RPG but it is easy to learn? is it linear in any way?
If you aren't familiar with Fallout 3 or The Elder Scrolls, then you're in for a unique game. This game's environment is far from linear. There's a huge game world to explore. There are no invisible walls preventing you from going anywhere. You have miles upon miles of terrain to explore, filled with hundreds of locations to go to and dozens of quests to complete. With Fallout 3, for example, the biggest fans can play for hundreds of hours without getting bored, there's that much to do. I myself played it for more than 300 hundreds hours, or 8 months straight, before getting bored, and I expect New Vegas will provide the same amount of entertainment, if not more. If you really like this game, you'll be amazed how you could have possibly spent $60 on other games out there that only last 10-20 hours.
The actual main quest in Fallout 3 was very linear, but in New Vegas you'll have plenty of choices to make and factions to side with. It wont be linear at all.