Howdy, so let me begin... I have yet to beat Fallout New Vegas even with having 3 different characters. My problem is as soon as I get relatively far into the game i have the urge to delete my character and restart, mainly because i dislike the current build i have. I was thinking about a melee build or a build that relys on critical hits. Would anyone mind throwing a few suggestions my way? As in what my S.P.E.C.I.A.L should be.

Also is intelligence as useful as it was in fallout 3, does it effect how many points you get to spend by alot?

Refer to this. It's a post about my build which I believe may help you.
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1135136-my-build-best-imo/page__gopid__16610582&#entry16610582