Personally, I think that if Fallout New Vegas had the classic turn-based combat instead of that elderscrollish mess with eneabled cheats (VATS), it could have probably been the best Fallout ever. Just dig a bit deeper in the game, and I'm sure you'll understand what I mean! The writing is exceptional (while in FO3 it was non-existent or outright stupid) and the game has some real "choice and consequence" situations. Anyway, I found it to be an *immense* improvement from that Fallout 3 abomination under every single aspect, though to enjoy it at its best, in my opinion you have to turn on the "hardcore" mode.

I'm definitely enjoying Fallout: New Vegas, Steam says I've played it for four hours today. It's a total improvement in every single way over Fallout 3 (in my opinion) but then again I found turning off my computer and staring at the wall to be an improvement over Fallout 3 too... The writing and atmosphere (and the scenery) are what I'm enjoying the most in New Vegas so far and the gameplay isn't bad either. The only issue(s) I've had so far have been sort of choppy/glitchy animations (though that was mostly just for Sunny) and a guy who stopped me in the middle of a hectic tense situation...to talk to me about bottlecaps. I'll give Hardcore Mode a shot, I'm playing the game on medium difficulty and it's a bit easy (even without Vats).

Unfortunately, you can enable the hardcore mode only when you start the game... personally, I played it on hard+hardcore mode, and still found it fairly easy. Probbaly it is because I avoided almost all the fights by using stealth and speechcraft, though. Anyway, the improved survival system coming from HM makes the game more "real" and forces you to manage your resources better: your character needs water and food, and stimpacks have a progressive effect instead of an immediate one.
You're right about glitches and choppyness: it's a problem of the awful Gamebryo Engine, so there's nothing to do about that. About interruptions... well, that is the programmers' fault! They really should have implemented a method to keep characters on hold until the battle is over.

Well I'm only four hours in so I'm willing to start a new game if it means getting more of a challenge (I'm assuming that turning up the difficulty just gives enemies more health and multiplies their damage output). I don't mind the occasional animation glitches (as long as they're just occasional) but the interruption thing happens way too often in Bethesda/Bethesda-ized games. It's happened well over a dozen times in Skyrim and a few times in the few short hours I spent in Fallout 3. To be fair, those interruptions can be fairly funny as long as they're not putting you into an unwinnable situation (you're in the middle of defending Whiterun? Here hold onto these boots for me!).

Any other suggestions to get the most out of New Vegas?

Just started on EarthBound on the Wii U.

Well, officially, as far as us Europeans are concerned, it's a Wii U exclusive, because it was never released on the SNES here in Europe (nor was Mother or Mother 3 for that matter).

I'm liking what I'm seeing so far. It's a decent little RPG, even if the visuals do look dreadful, even by SNES standards. It's quite unique, and has a quite appealing "Goonies" flair to it. Plenty of social commentary about modern family life, divorce, consumerism and poverty in there as well, well before social commentary became a standard and overused feature in games.

Also, the "auto battle" function is nothing short of awesome. For those that don't know what it is, it effectively allows you to skip low-level battles that you could win just by pressing Bash once, reducing a lot of the grind. You still get the experience, but it bypasses a lot of the unnecessary crap.

This is my personal opinion, but I think the best way to experience it would be with a sneaky-gunslinger-diplomat build (unless you are interested to join Caesar: I think that a warrior-outdoorsman character would be better from a role-playing perspective).
Most of the times the situations can be resolved peacefully (unlike in FO3, where charisma almost only served to choose which part to slay first), and dialogues with the Obsidian signature are already a good reward in their own! Besides, high intelligence, charisma, speechcraft and barter stats will open you a lot of possibilities you would inevitably miss otherwise. I feel that Chris Avellone had a big influence on this (and that is a big "pro" for me)! ;)
When everything else fails, sniping and backstabbing are imo more fun than direct confrontation due to the clunky combat system (except if you have a minigun. Everything is better with a minigun). For everything else, just play it how it comes! The best part is sinking in it whithout expecting anything - avoid any kind of metagaming, and you will have tons of fun!

Thank you! I will ask one last question, hopefully you don't mind. How much effect would choosing ten luck have on the overall game? I know it makes gambling easier but how about the rest of the game?

Imo, the only real advantage stays in critical hits: every point gives you +1%, but personally I don't think raising the stat to its maximum is worth the trouble. Besides, gambling is almost useless. There are very, very few luck checks, but if you consider that you would have to lower your other stats for this, the tradeoff is not convenient at all.
What you should really look after, though, is the "better critical" perk (6 luck needed). It increases the critical damage by 20 or 25%. Normally, it wouldn't be *that* useful, but if you consider that every sneak attack is a guaranteed critical hit... it basically means insta-death with a sniper rifle. I personally took down a Deathclaw pack leader with only one shot!

Great game! I played it with two friends, and it was total chaos! :)
Actually, I think we spent more time beating each others and building the premises for a few spectacular deaths than trying to reach the ending of the levels!

im playing final fantasy 9 at the moment.

Just started Patrician 3, time to test my trading & economic skills... and those cannons onboard! :-)

Gotten about halfway through Harukoi Otome over the last couple days. Wonderful VN from BaseSon, who went on to create Koihime Musou - one of my favorite VNs.

Half-Life is now completed and started Half-Life Opposing Force - great overview from soldier side. Others games, what I play in moment is Red Faction -decent FPS, GTA Vice City- one of my most favorite series of GTA and GUN - gta clone in western style, not bad.