I shouldn't hold it against Fallout 3 for my weird experience when I played it a bunch of years ago but it has been my only time through the game so it does make a difference in how I feel about it. Basically, I left the vault and started wandering around the world getting up to hijinks and doing some side quests. Then I thought maybe I ought to pay attention to the story for a bit and, after a handful of main missions, found myself at the end of the game not even having put 20 hours into it. Felt weird, especially since Fallout 3 came out at a time when few games like this allow you to go back into the game afterwards to do clean up. I could go back to my last save but it just felt off putting. It's still a really good game but I'd rather play Fallout 4.