ive played nv for 50+ hours and have yet to see these interesting characters or good dialogue
i liked 3 because i like exploring giant worlds. i enjoyed the gameplay because i played on very hard and it took a lot of effort to chip away at enemies health, which made survival pretty tough and forced you to constantly balance risk/reward in yr head. the characters were boring there were real differences in how you could handle quests and yes, they did have real effects in the rest of the gameworld. also, while too many of the indoor levels were repetitive, the outside areas were PHENOMINAL. they looked awesome and there were lots of great enemies set up around the map. some of my favorite parts of the game were huge battles that had nothing to do with quests. i'm thinking of stuff like a super mutant ambush that occurs near a huge crater downtown, or a battle between a giant super mutant & his backup vs a group of militiamen. SO EPIC
nv on the other hand feels so much more scaled back. the combat feels largely the same, but you dont run in to awesome battles anywhere near as much. the world map is linear, and while you can find unique out-of-the-way areas, there isnt shit to do at them. the quests are usually simpler and require WAY too much backtracking and not enough shooty time. the dialog is just as stiff and tedious.
both games are very flawed, but ill take fo3's desolate, hopeless wasteland over nv's shallow world & quests any day of the week