@nerthos 3's characterization outside of "Dad" was pretty bad, but the DLCs were better.  I don't know.  I liked New Vegas' story better if I consider it in a bubble, but it doesn't feel like a "Fallout" story to me.  The formula punishing a player for exploration I felt basically broke the basic premise of a modern Fallout game too.  The whole idea is to explore freely and find interesting locations with neat backstories.  In New Vegas if you go five minutes in the wrong direction you'll get a free ticket into orbit from the walls of death that are the overlevelled asshats.