Its a far better Fallout 3. Its what Fallout 3 could have been if Bethesda could be arsed to do a proper job. But its not a better Fallout or Fallout2. Storywise its ok, and most characters are well-written too. Factions range from great to somewhat stupid (Legion). I could actually play it without asking myself every 5 minutes why the fuck I was doing it. In fact its everything I thought it would be: FO3 done properly, but still FO3.
Its simply the wrong perspective/engine for this kind of game. Wide open spaces, miles of miles of Mojave desert, harsh environment, desolate places… sounds good. But during my 5 minutes real time stroll from Boulder to New Vegas (30 km?) I stumble upon abandoned shacks, monsters, raiders, mad robots, ncr-troops, highway-markets and other stuff. If they really, really want to keep on using 1st person real time engines, why not let the story play out in a city-scape? That way it could work without ruining immersion by having a look around you. Use the proper tools to tell a story not the other way round!
So, for me it was entertaining, sometimes funny and at no point tedious (unlike FO3) to play FONV. But it felt "wrong" in a way, I was never as immersed into the world as I was with the older titles.