It says on the back that I need a steam account to activate the game. Okay, I've installed software that I don't want on my computer, have created a steam account and activated the game.
Now how do I play it outside of steam? There is no Fallout New Vegas exe on my computer, only steam, and if I disconect from the internet, then that doesn't work!

Please, is there any way to play this game without starting steam and being connected to the internet or is the requirement on the back about only needing an internet account for activation a lie?

Open steam, select steam in the menu bar, the pop-up opens and you can select go off-line. It will stay off-line until you say nit can go online again. Steam will be running in order to run New vegas, however no connection is required.

You can't play the game without starting Steam, but once you have the game installed and activated you can launch Steam in https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3160-agcb-2555.

Thankyou both very much! You've helped lessen my outrage at having to install steam to play a single player game.