I have both games. New Vegas was a good game-I didn't find it to be buggy at all, and if you're familiar with Fallout 3, then you'll likely appreciate most of the gameplay refinements. Something about the setting and story didn't resonate as much with me, but it was pretty good nonetheless.

I found Mafia 2 to be pretty disappointing after really liking the demo for it-it's not a bad game, but its flaws prevent me from endorsing it. I'm pretty sure my criticisms aren't unique but here's what I disliked:

-The ending. More than anything else, it really bugged me-it left the story hanging and was very inconsistent with everything that we'd learned about the protagonist. The story was pretty good otherwise-the plot meanders a bit until the end, but the voice acting and scenes are good enough to hold your interest.

-The tedium. There is way, way too much time spent driving all the way across the map for a mission, then driving all the way back just to go to sleep. Lots of missions have pointless little detours before the mission properly begins. Only rarely do these moments meaningfully contribute.

-Lack of variety in the gameplay. There is a huge open world, but it's lifeless and there's basically nothing to do, which makes driving from A to B more dreary. I think the game could have been streamlined if they'd just had a linear series of levels, and packed each one with content. This may or may not bother you, but it really wore me down after awhile. The game is 15 hours long, but it feels like I spent at least half of that just driving to missions.

There was a potential for an interesting stealth mechanic, but that seems to be abandoned after one mission. The gunplay is actually pretty good-the cover works well and the guns feel solid, but that's basically all you do, and it doesn't mix things up. Still, it holds up well enough.

To me, it felt like Mafia 2 didn't know what it wanted to be. It's serious, linear series of missions felt out of place in an open world with no diversions and little character-don't expect this to be a mafia version of GTA. It's a shame, because I think think the world they have has tons of potential for a GTA style game, but what we've actually got is a game that fits more conventionally into linear level progression (not that there's anything wrong with that).

One of my favorite moments in the game came at one of those many side trips you take between major missions. I'd been taking real good care of this sweet black car I'd gotten, making sure to drive slowly so as not to scratch it. I park on the curb and go inside-but when I come back, the car has vanished. I run around in panic for 10 seconds until I see my exact car drive around the corner with two greasers driving it. Naturally, I try to shoot them, but miss wide. This sends them into panic mode, and I chased them halfway across the city until I catch up with them and turn the better part of their innards into a Jackson Pollock painting. Fun times, but not enough of them.