Is Fallout 4 a game you can just pick up and play if you never tried one before? I'm home at my parents for the summer and noticed he has that here. I'm gonna ask him too but thought I would see what you guys think. Also, is it hard to learn?
I'm going to start my second play through of Fallout 4 tonight. It's a separate story from any other instance of Fallout, so you won't be missing any part of the story. You might miss some of the intricacies of the factions and groups that exist, but that's not a problem as you'll have ample opportunity to learn about them.
It's less of an RPG than Fallout 3 was and feels more like an open-world FPS with RPG elements. I think that's not so great for a long term play through, but that's just my opinion.
It's not hard to learn, mostly point and click with inventory management. You do need to talk to NPCs and get them on your side, sort of, but you always have extra chances to do that if needed. The hardest part is knowing what your character is capable of doing and avoiding what your character is not capable of doing.
If you want some suggestions for games with an easier learning curve and good story lines I would recommend LA Noire, The Walking Dead: Season One (Telltale), I was a fan of Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls but a lot of people aren't. If I only had a few months to play I might try a couple of these instead of Fallout 4. I feel like you'll either get bored of Fallout 4 quickly, or you'll want to keep playing for more than a few months.