Act impulsive, help one person, steal from another, the freedom the main quests lack the side quests and world allow. Go out into the wasteland proper without really following a compass marker and see what you can find. What I propose is that you ignore the story, or at least cast it into the backseat and focus on discovering the world. hit or miss when it comes to whether it engages a player or not. Solid voice acting, structured decently, just. terrible, it's nothing fantastic if you compare it to other games and even on its own it's just okay in my opinion. You quit during the main story, and while it's not. The music is metallic with a hint of eeriness and emptiness, even if it's repetitive.
F4 was remarkable in this regard too, but Fallout 3 excelled in it.