OT: Um, no. I in no way expect Bethesda to respect any of the gameplay or narrative advances of New Vegas over Fallout 3 aside from the crafting system.
I also expect the side-quests to make even less of an impact on the overall story arc though there will be a mind-boggling amount of them, and I expect that they simply will not have the talent or interest to make a companion a tenth as compelling as even Boone, let alone ED-E.
In short: I expect that it will be Skyrim with guns, set in a slightly more temperate climate.