This forum is pretty much for us to sit around and talk about how awesome Fallout: New Vegas is going to be and how much we can't wait to play it. That kind of stuff.
Personally, I cannot wait for the Hardcore mode. I think that I'll play every play-through on Hardcore. It would really add another dimension to wandering the wasteland and fighting Raiders and whatnot. Thoughts?
I think it's gonna be a great improvement from Fallout 3 and it's expansions, more entwined with Fallout's older, more unique feel and atmosphere. I also think the story will be far more complex and less typical than Fallout 3's, although I do still think Fallout 3 had a great story, they just didn't fluff it up enough. I also just love the desert setting more than the northern-wasteland feel.
As for gameplay, my first run-through will be on Hardcore. It just seems more realistic and immersing, rather than being some unstoppable killing machine you actually have to work to survive, such as drinking water and such. It gives the player other objectives rather than just mindlessly exploring and killing. I'll still try it out eventually on regular, but I'm fairly sure that I'll do my majority of playing on Hardcore.
I can get my hopes up (since NV is developed by Obsidian), but I will most likely get disappointed again, because like Fallout 3, a 1st/3rd person, non-RPG, action game named New Vegas will not be like Fallout to me. So, I'll just maintain the mental image of the Fallout series that I have in my head; two great, immersive post-apocalyptic role-playing games (Fallout 1 & 2), a mediocre Fallout-themed Jagged Alliance (Tactics) and a promising third part that sadly never made it (Van Buren project). Fallout: BoS is not even worth mentioning.
Obsidian has great writers and talented people, yet they manage to fuck everything up. All their games are full of promise and then end up being incomplete or buggy. I hope they break the habit and create an awesome game.