Sometimes the games were actually loaded by the time I was finished. I used to boot up games on my Commodore 64 as a kid and then go make breakfast. Edit: I do remember long load times in the distant past. They could have balanced this a bit better than they did, but overall I haven't had long load times and I don't have the game installed on the 360's hard drive. The weird thing about New Vegas is that some of the areas are very small with short loads going in and long loads coming out. Unlike Oblivion, neither Fallout game has had the occasional load symbol pop up just when navigating the open world. Generally my load times aren't more than thirty seconds or so, which isn't bad. I'll have to see what difference that makes. But since I rarely play for more than an hour at a time, it hasn't been a problem. I've only put in one or two marathon sessions on New Vegas, but had the same issue.
It is a bit strange that load times increase the longer you play.
