What happens in New Vegas stays in 2006

After years of hearing my friends share tales of their adventures in the Fallout universe I became increasingly jealous of their ability to immerse themselves in the game. I put a few hours into Fallout 3 but something never clicked for me. The main issue I had is, like Oblivion before it, I never felt that my character was connected to the world. I felt more like I was floating around rather than walking on the ground. And I absolutely hate the gunplay. I'm sure it's because I've been trained on shooters but the V.A.T.S. system infuriates me. I don't want to have my bullets land based on an algorithm of my stats, if I line up a shot it should connect. I had the same problem with Mass Effect 1, but then BioWare tweaked the combat for ME2 and made it a joy to play. Sure you upgraded your weapons and made them more powerful but even from the beginning of the game they were very satisfying to shoot and made the firefights a blast. So when I heard that New Vegas was coming out I waited with baited breath that similar tweaks would allow me to lose myself in the massive world and have fun doing it. Instead, I found