See, I come to the same conclusion as you when I think about New Vegas - but when I go try to play it, I just wind up wondering what else I could be doing. New Vegas's open world feels more barren than 3's. While playing Fallout 3, I'll look in a direction and think "Huh, what's on top of or under that bridge?" In New Vegas, there are interesting locations, but they're more sparse.

Also? You spend a lot of time talking to people in New Vegas and that always eventually gets to me. I don't hate it, but I get bored of RPG's where I spend hours talking to the townsfolk. Give me something to go do. That might just be me remembering things incorrectly, but I wound up having the same problem with The Witcher 3. I want to play a game, not run through overwritten dialog options.

I've been playing Fallout 3 and it's been long enough since playing New Vegas that I want to give it another try. And I will, because I want to like the game, and when I play it, I tend to enjoy it for at least a little while. But I'll probably walk away with the same conclusion.

Worth noting that, for as long as I've owned both games, I have not done an exhaustive playthrough of any of them.

I'm with you on this. Fallout 3 was amazing and I loved every second of it while New Vegas was a game I wanted to like so much more than I actually did. New Vegas has a fantastic premise and location but it just fell completely flat for me. I hated what they did to the karma system and I hated the faction system. The game really seems to force you into working with the NCR otherwise you aren't going to have a lot of stuff to do, especially early on. At the start of the game if you decide to side with the Powder Gangers you get to do a few missions in the prison but that eventually ends with a showdown with the NCR where you either betray the prisoners or you attack the NCR fucking your reputation with them in the future. Whats more, the Powder Gangers are largely irrelevant to the overall game so it is pointless to help them. The game gives you absolutely zero reason to work for Caesar at the start of the game so your only choice for quests is to work for the NCR. If for whatever reason you decide to attack Killborn in the name of Caesar after seeing what happens in Nipton where everyone is crucified, all you get is a tiny amount of XP and you fucked yourself in terms of XP you would have gained from working with the NCR at the Mojave Outpost and you get no additional quests from the Legion. Same with Camp Forlorn Hope; you can either do a ton of quests for the NCR here or you can do a single quest for the Legion where you kill everyone at the camp. Again, at this point you don't really know shit about the Legion so why the hell would anyone work for them? By the time you finally reach New Vegas and get the opportunity to meet Caesar you have likely already invested a ton of time working with the NCR and pissing the Legion off.

At the start of the game you are also forced to move East which pissed me off to no end. In Fallout 3 you actually were free to go in any number of directions once you exited the vault and said hello in Megaton while New Vegas was completely linear with you being forced down the path they wanted you to go on with stupid powerful enemies to stop you from wandering too far. You try going West? Deathclaws. You try moving North? Giant Radscorpions. You have to go East, then North, then West.

I would be able to let some of that slide if Vegas itself wasn't the monumental disappointment that it ended up being. Only four casinos and even the fucking strip was divided with loading screens. And if you gamble too much you aren't allowed to gamble anymore. The whole main storyline with Benny also ends up fizzling into a wet fart once you actually reach Vegas. What a disappointment.

And then there was the music selection which was a huge step down from Fallout 3. There was less song variety and the quality of the songs was weaker in my opinion. Mr. New Vegas was also a significantly less interesting host than even the Enclave Radio, let alone Three Dog. The Black Mountain Radio host was great but it goes away once you complete the quest associated with it.

I loved Fallout 3 because I actually felt like I was free to do whatever I wanted. I played the bad guy and I had a ton of fun doing it because there was actually a lot of gameplay to keep me satisfied on that path and it truly felt like I could do whatever I wanted to do. I wasn't planning on being a bad guy when I started playing first but when I was presented with the option to fuck over Megaton at the start of the game in exchange for a suite and some cash I decided what the hell? I then stealthily killed everyone in Megaton one by one and took their stuff to one of the nearby abandoned houses and put it in a closet. Once I had everything, I blew up the empty town and took my loot to my suite where I would sell it in exchange for .44 rounds conveniently sold within Tenpenny Tower before venturing into the wild that day. After taking care of the disgusting ghouls I took care of Tenpenny and his lackey and got their snazzy looking outfits. Once all this was done, I just wandered around and did whatever quests I stumbled upon in whatever direction I decided to head in that day. I was able to travel in any direction I wanted and do whatever the hell I wanted. It is a feeling that no other game I have played has replicated for me. New Vegas by comparison felt like I had very little choice and I was punished for going off the beaten path.

Currently playing through New Vegas for the first time myself, and I see what you're getting at. There's definitely a funnel to New Vegas. It's the chief difference between the two games, and that difference makes itself evident right away. New Vegas trades in emergent storytelling for a more handcrafted approach.

I wish I had a stronger opinion about it, but I'm not far enough in to really have a grounded say just yet.