In my experience, Fallout: New Vegas is a bit of a buggy mess. Corrupted save files, consistent soft locks, crashes, stuttering, and so many more things will go wrong. I have even managed to clip through a hill, after not saving for a good 45 minutes, and be forced to restart from that previous save. Despite that, this game is very much worth both time and money. Its gameplay is enjoyable and competently put together and its character and environment design, while now aged, do not draw from its overall quality. It really shines however in regards to three things.

First, its music and sound design are stellar. Voice acting is generally fairly well acted, the radio mix is fantastic (and iconic), enemy and weapon sounds are reliable and easy to discern, and the ambient music soundtrack is very enjoyable and helps build its atmosphere.

Second, its story elements are probably the whole reason to play vanilla FNV and its DLC. Presenting complicated and interesting characters, wrapping them in compelling political and social environments, then allowing the player to make important and far reaching choices that effect these characters and their world. FNV, most interestingly, will also very rarely present too many choices as the correct one but will have incorrect ones.

Its last, and most important element, is actually its community. FNV is one of, if not the most, moddable games on the market. Even now, almost 9 years after its release, it has an active and thriving community of modders constantly improving and adding to the game in ways that are mind boggling. I have probably spent twice as much time modding this game as I have playing it. The ideal way of playing this game is after spending a few hours modding it to suit what you want out of it. This game will give you as much as you put into it and then some.