I'm a fairly long-time player of the Fallout series, having started with Fallout 3. Even after Skyrim was released, the Fallout series has always been better in my opinion. In F3 and FNV, I've always been an energy weapon user, and was always going for the complete nerd build with high Intelligence and whatnot. I play Fallout 4 a lot, but I still enjoy Fallout 3 a tiny bit better. The DLC's were so quirky. Wiki-wise, I enjoy the little things while editing.
As for subtle kinds of gameplay...things are so much prettier when they burn. :)