[quote=TAWM]
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I like your thinking and agree with your points.
I will only add that F3 feels more lived than NV. To me even the vanilla cities in F3 feel more realistic and believable than NV ones, which feel more game-y, more metaphorical rather than literal.
When me and my friends play F3, the common like of thought is "Wow, this a post-apoc settlement, it feels like a post-apoc settlement. I can see people hunters walking the wasteland, I can see caravans connecting towns, I can hear people chatting, I can see how this world lives". And in NV you look at the towns, at New Vegas itself, and think "Oh, this is meant to represent what this world is. There are Bighorners in the pen, but no one around them ever, there are talks of logistics and caravans, but we never see that, there are no travelers on the roads, there are people in the Trading Post, but they don't interact, there are talks of large faction bases, camps, but they are not that large".
Somehow, to me, Evergreen Mills feels more intimidating, lived-in and dangerous than the Fortification Hill. Nothing I can do about it.
When you walk into DC Wasteland, you feel like people live there, and you are becoming a part of their stories. Probably that's why I wish all of the vault 101 segments were more developed and expanded, to better appreciate the wasteland.
When you start your trip through Mojave, you feel like the world is waiting for you, and you are the single sole active character in the whole of Nevada. Well, you and maybe Ulysses, but even his story is PC-centered to the bone.
When you leave DC at almost any point before the Broken Steel ending, you feel that you leave things hanging, that you need to come back at some point. When you leave Nevada for DC, you know nothing will change while you are gone, and that the existing stalemate will continue.