The so called "game crippling" glitches are, in my playthrough, far less frequent and severe then Fallout 3.
Crashes-FNV-2 times FO3-10/12
Save Corruption- FNV-2 times FO3-5/6
Partner AI glitches- FNV-2 FO3-1
Texture Glitches- FNV-1/2 FO3-5/6
I think you get the point, the glitches are way less frequent than Fallout 3 in most cases. While there are glitches, there are always in games on a massive scale such as this.
Anyways, New Vegas isn't much of a departure from the Fallout 3 formula, minus a few tweaks, but that's a good thing. FNV uses the same engine as FO3, while the engine works great it is starting to feel a bit dated. All in all, on the technical level at least, New Vegas doesn't differ much from Fallout 3, but there are many gameplay tweaks that help make it a much different experience. The first thing you'll notice right when you pick up a weapon is the ironsights. Obsidian took the aiming from F3(zooming in slightly) and changed it to a much more realistic and rewarding sight system, similar to that of Call of Duty and other FPS. With the new sights you can actually be precise with weapons OTHER than the Sniper and Gauss rifles. You can take a 9mm pistol and hit a sneak attack critical or fire on a fiend encampment with a hunting rifle from a respectable distance instead of the more spray and pray aiming of the first.
Another thing you realize early on is the reputation system, similar to that of older iterations in the series. It is pretty basic, do things for a faction and get reputation, but it overshadows the karma of F3. While karma is still present, it doesn't effect what people think of you like in F3, they judge you by reputation. Such as, say, you have good reputation with Ceasar's Legion and you go into an NCR camp. You are more likely to have negative reputation with NCR, considering they are an opposite faction, so they will likely be hostile. While in F3, if you had bad or good karma you would have a hit called on you by the regulators or talon company(respectively).
The golden sun and shimmering desert of the Mojave is a fresh change from the bleak and desolate expanse of the Capitol Wasteland. There are more settlements and more people in New Vegas than in F3, where it was Megaton, Tenpenny, Rivet City, and a few scattered towns of 5-10 people. There are dozens of densely populated settlements (for a post apocalyptic hell hole) scattered across the Mojave, with seperate faction reputation for most and a colorful cast of citizens in all of them. There are a good 6 or 7 major towns, not counting military instillations small settlements, compared to 3 large and a half a dozen small in F3.
With that many people and factions there are also multitude of quests. Unlike Fallout 3, where there where 12 or so missions in the main storyline and 30 or so marked side quests, there are about 5 quests you have to do until the story branches out to about 5-6 specific quests for the 3 main factions and the independent tract and I believe about 80-100 marked side quests that are either independent, minor faction quests, or minor quests for a major faction. This leads to alot more questing and alot less downtime. On my 60 hour playthrough, I have done 2 major faction(loaded save and did independent after NCR) tracts and maybe half of the side quests so there is alot more content(at least questwise) compared to Fallout 3. While there is more content, there are way less memorable "Oh ****" moments.
The thing that keeps FNV from being perfect is that it is too much of the same. Same enemies, same engine, game weapons, same graphics, and pretty much same everything. While it is good to keep the great things from Bethesda's first dip into the FO universe, Obsidian didn't change enough and (as usual) came a little short of the mark. It is still a superb game worth the time and money that everyone should pick up.
Sound-8(soundtrack not as memorable as F3)
Graphics-8(FO3/ESIV engine is starting to show it's age)
Gameplay-9(New tweaks keep the gameplay fresh)
Story-8(Less memorable moments
Content-10(Enough to last you a good 3-4 months)
Value-9
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Overall-9-Must Play