Nah, Bethesda doesn't do a very good job of storytelling either. I found the main character and story in Fallout 3 marginally better, but I didn't feel particularly interested or motivated in either of them.
To me, they need to skip the main quest altogether and tell the story through companions. Something along the lines of Cass' quest in FNV. Make traveling to various destinations just part of helping your friends. FNV does a better job than F3 in this regard, but I really enjoyed F3's exploration above FNV's.