Although it shares some of the same core gameplay with Fallout 3, the feel and experience of it are more in line with the original Fallout games. Being that Obsidian includes members of the original Fallout's development team, that doesn't really come as a surprise, but it's a welcome change of pace from Fallout 3. They've made several minor additions to Fallout 3's formula that altogether make it a better game; new weapons, upgraded crafting system, hardcore mode, some actual humor / pop culture references, the faction element that makes decisions far less about good/bad and much more about ambiguous choices, improvements to skills, additional perks/traits, excessive content, enemies returning from Fallout 2, etc.
My understanding with the bugs is that, while prevalent across all platforms, some of the stranger bugs are largely on the PC version; on 360, I've personally had 3 freezes in 30 hours of play time, about five or six situations where enemies clipped through the ground, and the occasional quest take a turn for the strange; if you can accept bugs once in a while and remember to save often, the game is an improvement on Fallout 3 in nearly every sense of the word otherwise. Having found Fallout 3 to be lacking compared to the rest of the franchise, the depth and style of New Vegas are a nice change of pace.