cw8: Did you just run through the landscape in NV without doing anything? One of the game's best sidequests in the NV was Beyond the Beef, and that was in Vegas.
Yay, Beyond the Beef.... buggiest quest ever in any game published by Bethesda - but then you see the same Obsidian fanboys being mad at Bethesda because of the Metacritic rating / no bonus thing.... blaming the shitty engine, the shitty QA of the publisher (not the dev - no, no), the casuals failing to understand the quest or whatever.
Let's face it once and for all: Obsidian did their share to botch NV Metacritic rating.
You talk about quests, not level or world design. Yes quests are in general better in NV. But Level design? I'd say about on par. World design? Hell no. A desert is inherently emptier and more difficult to fill meaningfully, then a ruined city. And DC alone was more interesting to explore than the complete Mojave.
NV improved at lot over F3. No doubt about it. Choices and consequences, companion questlines, factions, better writing...
Actually, I'd start disputing at the better writing part, at least partially. Yes, the writing for quests was better. But the overarching storyline? Baby-eating roman baddies? .... sry, you have me speechless.
Now play as a female and join Caesar's legion.... who see woman as slaves and fuckdolls. Gain an audience to Caesar, work as his second hand, become his champion in the field, even perform brain surgery on Caesar himself... after the game told you time after time, how woman get treated in Caesar's legion.... ... ... sry, what was that about story writing?
You remember how Skyrim got beaten down as a "dumbed-down casual game"? Of course you do, sry about asking....
Well, where's the criticism about Obsidian merging big guns and small guns together? Missile Launcher and Fat Man go in explosives, Flamer in... what? Energy Weapons?
.... I give you the answer: it's not there. Criticising Bethesda? "Hell yeah, I'm on board!!". Asking the same person doing so with Obsidian where it applies? "What? Shut up n00b, you know nuthin' about RPG".