That's because Obsidian Entertainment made FNV - so it's an actual Fallout game, not Oblivion with guns. FNV would be more correctly called Fallout 3, but meh. In regards to Project Nevada: it's made by the same fine folks that make Fallout Wanderers Edition for Fallout 3, so you know it's good. It's not really very mature, though... it's missing a lot of content and stuff compared to FWE, and since Skyrim has been out a while, I don't think FNV modding is going to get any better - they all went to Skyrim.
In regards to playing FNV:
As others mentioned, factions are extremely important, a central theme to the game. Some factions hate each other. If you wear faction armor (the game will tell you if you're wearing some!), your status with the associated faction will be set to "neutral," which can allow you to infiltrate a basecamp for a faction you've pissed off. Be aware that almost all named NPCs of the associated faction will see through the disguise, though. The factions you're gonna wanna know about are:
- NCR. Basically present-day America in Fallout. They'll attack Caesar's Legion, the Brotherhood of Steel, and Great Khans on sight, so make sure you aren't wearing their armor. They're pretty much everywhere.
- Caesar's Legion. Basically a supertribe based around Caesar and the cult of personality he's created; I'd say it's kinda similar to Stalinist Russia. They hate the NCR and will attack them on sight. They're all over the place, but their heaviest concentrations are in the southeast.
- Powder Gangers. These guys are small fries but are only important because they're probably the first faction in the game you'll encounter. They'll attack NCR on sight. They're pretty much concentrated around the NCR Correctional Facility, which is between Goodsprings and Primm.
- The Brotherhood of Steel. They don't like anyone, really, and will attack Caesar's Legion or NCR on sight. You might come across them on your own but it's more likely you'll find them via a breadcrumb quest. I believe they're the only way of learning how to use power armor in the vanilla game so even if you decide to kill them all, you should probably have them teach you to use that power armor first.
Eventually as you work your way through the game's main plot, you'll be given a choice of who to side with: the enigmatic Mr. House, the current owner of New Vegas; the NCR, who want to take over the Mojave and add it to their territory; Caesar's Legion, who want to pretty much raze the Mojave and enslave its inhabitants on their way towards the NCR's home; and you're also given the option to tell everyone else to go fuck themselves and do everything your own way (incidentally, this is also the ONLY way of finishing the game if you manage to piss off everyone.) About halfway through the main quest, your reputation with the NCR and Caesar's Legion will be reset to neutral if they were angry at you - this only happens once, and mainly happens so you can still help who you want in case you ended up pissing off one or the other on your way to New Vegas. If you piss them off again, there's no taking it back, so be careful.
If you picked up the ultimate edition, you can do DLC in any order. It's best if you do Dead Money, then Honest Hearts, followed by Old World Blues, and finally Lonesome Road. The DLC are all linked via a common plot, and the story starts in Dead Money. You can do them in any order, but you'll get more out of it if you follow the story in order as each DLC fills in missing information about various characters you meet and also explains the player character's backstory.
Also, keep in mind you can have one non-human companion and one human(oid) companion at any time, but some companions won't help you if you're nice to certain factions. If you're buddies with Caesar's Legion or attack NCR people, you'll have trouble hanging onto Cass, Arcade, or Boone. If you're aggressive around the Brotherhood of Steel, Veronica'll ditch you. Near as I can tell, Raul and Lily don't much care who you're working for. The non-human companions are ED-E, a robot, and Rex, a cyberdog. ED-E is probably the better choice since he receives some impressive buffs once you finish Lonesome Road (dependent on choices you make inside the DLC), but Rex is pretty good, too.
As far as what skills to use? They're all viable. If you're using guns, make sure you keep some armor piercing (AP) ammo on hand for enemies with high DT - that'll be very strong monsters like Deathclaws, and people wearing stuff like power armor. If you're using energy weapons, you'll want to bump up your Science skill - this will let you make Overcharge and Max Charge energy weapon ammo, which will give you better DT penetration for dealing with enemies with high armor.
---------- Post added 2012-04-20 at 11:16 PM ----------
Yeah, turn-based games aren't for everyone... it's why you don't really see them anymore. I love turn-based games because they allow you to really go nuts with tactical, deep gameplay, but not everyone's looking for that kind of action