Oh man, I was just reminded of the truly awful
New Vegas review from Rock Paper ShotgunThere’s a distant sound that can be heard throughout your time with New Vegas. Quieter than the cheery 1930s pop hits that warble from your radio, quieter even than the chirps of night-time insects, or the long gasps of wind blowing across the wasteland. It is the sound of Obsidian phoning this game in. I’m talking long distance, reversed charges, not-giving-a-fuck.
Never has an opening paragraph for a review got things so spectacularly wrong in such a short space of time. New Vegas is the complete antithesis of "phoning it in" - it's the product of a team taking the structure and mechanics put in place by the predecessor and absolutely stretching the hell out of what that could achieve in terms of content and reactivity.