That’s what really grabbed me about 4: wandering around, wondering what I’ll encounter around the next corner. Steam tells me I have just under 2600 hours in the game.
New Vegas and it’s not even close. It’s the only one of the three that I’ve completed almost 100% (still need to do a Legion playthrough). It’s a big upgrade over 3 in almost every way though that doesn’t mean 3 is bad. It’s made by a different team so the vibe is different, in fact many of the people who made the original games.
4 is mostly a big upgrade over 3, but the problem is NV came out in between and 4 seems to go to lengths to not acknowledge it and not build upon the new features in NV. 4 also has some poor plotting and frustrations.
For the OG games, 2 is the best in gameplay and arguably plot. I played them out of order and 1 was sometimes frustratingly clunky. Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel has decent gameplay but almost zero plot. The confusingly named Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel is usually considered the worst.
There are several “upgrades” in New Vegas which I found annoying, though. For example, I don’t need 57 different types of ammo (not to mention ammo crafting components) cluttering up my inventory when I’m only going to use 3 of them. I also didn’t much care for the new armor system that turned some enemies into bullet sponges.
I think you’ll be happy. You should post a “thoughts while I play” type thread or use this one. I’d love to hear your thoughts. It’s actually got a great sense of humor and is really well written throughout.
I liked that part but YMMV. I think I did use a mod to lower component weights.
I don’t remember how the armor system worked but 3 had some of those problems I think the albino Radscorpions were pretty immune to small arms.
Honestly, I’m going to put FO4 up with NV for this alone. New Vegas is the better story/Roleplaying dialogue game but the environments were pretty dull. Fallout 4 actually has some color and was a lot more fun to aimlessly explore and poke around in. Plus New Vegas had all those stupid invisible walls blocking you off and herding you through the environment on its own terms where FO4 pretty much let you just roam free.
Pretty sure the first NV mod I installed was one to remove those walls.
ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY.
That was my one major gripe with that game. Any “open world” game should not have INVISIBLE FUCKING WALLS.
Still a great game, better with that easy-to-install mod 
Not nearly enough. Why in the hell would humans just decide in the future “I like rusty metal as a decorating scheme, and painting is too much work!” no matter how many decades/centuries pass?
Okay, I’m here with my first and possibly final report on my Fallout New Vegas experience!
I downloaded the game, fired it up. Hit Options to set things over to my 2nd monitor, the 32-incher so I don’t have to try and squint at my 15" laptop screen.
Oh, there’s no option for that.
Oh, I can’t get out of this menu, only navigate within it.
REFUND!
I really do appreciate everyone’s posts here to educate me about this game but, sadly, it is not IMO playable for me right now.
Again, it’s an older game (just a few days past 11 years now!). If (and this sort of issue can be a huge turn off, agreed) you ever come back to it, or if you decide to play non-remastered versions of other, older games, the steam forums are your friend. For example a short search shows -
just go into your FalloutPrefs.ini and change iAdapter = 1
0 is first monitor, 1 is second monitor, 2 is third monitor.If you dont know where the .ini is located its usually C:\Users[your username]\Documents\My Games\FalloutNV
From Set Specifc monitor :: Fallout: New Vegas General Discussions
I have often had to spend time in similar forums to get games tweaked to run in modern resolutions or versions of windows. Mass Effect prior to the Legendary iterations was particularly bad.
Fallout 4 should be your best choice by default then, but perhaps after your first play through you may want to hit up the Nexus for endless tweaks - but the modding scene will often require far more micro-modifications in order to prevent conflicts with other mods or the base game.