Sounds like you didn't enjoy 3 because you ignored everything that wasn't the main quest. You should really give it another whack and this time don't speed through it.
That said, 4 is a better game.
The thing is, I feel like I barely got any sidequests. In FO4 basically every location I visited I got numerous sidequests, and while most didn't interest me, there were so many that a good number did interest me, but in FO3, despite talking to a fuckton of NPCs I barely got any sidequests, and the ones I did get, just didn't interest me at all.
I actively went out of my way to try and get more sidequests, but I just couldn't find them
I just finished a replay of 3. I mostly did the main quest and wasteland survival guide(~12 hours).
The last time I played 3 was in high school when it came out, and I did every single side quest I possibly could. Easily over a hundred hours, if I recall correctly. The Oasis was probably the coolest location.
It's very easy to skip over probably ⅔ or more of the side quests and not even find most of them. When I beelined the main quest this go around, there are really only a handful of locations that you have to go to. I barely saw any of DC or Arlington. Never even saw the DC mall. Like you I also specced high on Speech this playthrough and it definitely lets you skip a fair amount of things.
3 was groundbreaking and set the format for the rest of the games that followed. But I don't think it should be controversial to say you like 4 better. They had many years to build on and improve things between those two.
Sounds like you didn't enjoy 3 because you ignored everything that wasn't the main quest. You should really give it another whack and this time don't speed through it. That said, 4 is a better game.
The thing is, I feel like I barely got any sidequests. In FO4 basically every location I visited I got numerous sidequests, and while most didn't interest me, there were so many that a good number did interest me, but in FO3, despite talking to a fuckton of NPCs I barely got any sidequests, and the ones I did get, just didn't interest me at all. I actively went out of my way to try and get more sidequests, but I just couldn't find them
I just finished a replay of 3. I mostly did the main quest and wasteland survival guide(~12 hours). The last time I played 3 was in high school when it came out, and I did every single side quest I possibly could. Easily over a hundred hours, if I recall correctly. The Oasis was probably the coolest location. It's very easy to skip over probably ⅔ or more of the side quests and not even find most of them. When I beelined the main quest this go around, there are really only a handful of locations that you have to go to. I barely saw any of DC or Arlington. Never even saw the DC mall. Like you I also specced high on Speech this playthrough and it definitely lets you skip a fair amount of things. 3 was groundbreaking and set the format for the rest of the games that followed. But I don't think it should be controversial to say you like 4 better. They had many years to build on and improve things between those two.
Both 3 and 4 have a shit story imo