[Thor Laserpunch]

@DarkToyLord I agree wholeheartedly with EnSabahNerd. FNV is just a superior game. It's an RPG in a very true sense, though your actions in game may not lead you exactly where you want.

FO3 & 4 are awesome games, but they're miles wide and inches deep. FINV has real branching storylines and you start as a blank slate instead of some phony plugged in story, which gives you a lot more freedom. In the Bethesda games, if you play as a misanthropic dickhat, it's because you probably are one in real life. In FNV, you can choose to play that way, but you at the very least have principled role-playing options to fall back on. In FO3 and 4, you can be as OP as you wanna be, but in FNV you can really specialize but still have weaknesses, which means there's always some challenge. The DLC also tie into major story arcs rather brilliantly.

In FO4, Bethesda attempted to pick up on some of the threads that Obsidian created in FNV, but didn't quite take those improvements all the way. The result is a really good 3D shooter/actioner with sandbox elements. FNV can be thought of as more of an RPG with action elements. The one thing New Vegas should have had is more random encounters and less scripted encounters... you always get a feeling of repetition in respect to just traveling places and encountering the same enemies in the same places.

Also, hardcore mode in FNV makes sense; "survival" mode in FO4 is pretty crap.