Okay, first thing's first, really enjoying the game.

Now that that's out of the way, the issue:

When I tried to approach Novac for the first time from the south for the 'They went that-a-way' quest during the main storyline, the game would freeze and I needed to reboot the console. I'd normally chalk this up to standard freezes, but it occured three times in roughly the same spot. I should point out that I had the radio channel 'Radio New Vegas' enabled as well.

However, I did manage to progress using the same save file. I took the fast travel route to the Hidden Valley near Sloan, saved and turned the radio off. Then, I made my way from there to Novac, entering from the North.

Anyways, everything else has been fine so far. Just wanted to point this out in case it's affecting anyone else. Couldn't have just been a simple freeze because it happened minutes after rebooting (hooray for saving regulary and keeping tonnes of save files) and in the same spot. It was the set of crashes I've experienced as well.

Edit: Been looking into the issue a bit more. Seems someone on gamefaqs tried entering the area at a later time (i.e. day/night). Post included below as well as link (seems it's on the xbox as well):

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/959557-fallout-new-vegas/56817980

yeah, I installed it before I ever started playing.

I'm about to enter town from a different road during the day instead of 1 a.m., hopefully I get different results.

I guess fourth time is a charm.

Like I said, I just changed the environmental conditions as I was coming into town by waiting till daytime.