I don't think a lot of people appreciate how smart a lot of parts of F:NV are, or care about the philosophy behind the game design. I feel a bit bad airing some of Obsidian's dirty laundry with these notes especially as people kneejerk with the whole 'LOL OBSIDIAN = BUGZ AND BAD AND THEIR GAMES ARE UNFINSIHED' when they're one of THE most daring RPG developers out there.
Making the minimum requirements for the game some quad core SLI SSD beast would not have changed the fact the game engine is just unsuited to portraying realistic modern cities. I've also had problems with stability working on Freeside Open as there's just too much stuff in one area. None of the tricks you can use to improve performance really work as there's nothing to hide NPCs or draw distances behind.
Consoles definitely exacerbate the problems (I reckon the Strip could have been kept as it was if the game was PC only) but long, busy straight roads as found in modern cities really don't work in Gamebryo.
Well, in this case it's not just consoles that are to blame - the game engine just can't handle these kinds of areas.
