Consolation Prize

My time with Fallout 3 has come to an end - for the time being at least. And while I look forward to the first tranche of downloadable content; namely Operation Anchorage, which will no doubt drag me back to the desolate wasteland, I thought I’d take a moment to reminisce about my adventure.

It occurred to me that during the course of playing Fallout 3 I had become an obsessive hoarder. It started out innocently enough. I would scavenge whatever I could find in the wasteland to make an extra few caps in order to buy weapons, ammunition, healing meds, and to pay for repairs. It’s a harsh and dangerous environment in the D.C wasteland where the phrase “the survival of the fittest” reigns supreme and if you’re ill equipped then you’re as good as Mole Rat meat, and thus these early scavenging trips were at least justifiable.

** Spoilers Ahead **

But after a while scavenging became less about survival and more a compulsive necessity. Eventually I was earning more than enough caps from a variety of different incomes - be it from collecting bounties (fingers) by ridding the wasteland of evildoers, mapping locations for the mercenary outfit Reilly’s Rangers, or just plainly as a reward for services rendered, that I really didn’t need to carry on with my obsessive pastime. I had decked out my luxury Megaton apartment with all the latest mod-cons one could possibly want in a post apocalyptic shack; I had gathered enough weaponry to kit out a small army of freedom fighters, and I had more caps then I really knew what to do with, but still whenever I was out on a mission I just couldn’t resist strip-mining locations and enemies.

The worst case scenario was during the downfall of President Eden and the destruction of the Enclave at Raven Rock. The fortress was littered with heavily armoured enclave troopers all sporting Power Armour and Laser Rifles, or better still Tesla Armour and Plasma Rifles. Of course I couldn’t leave one iota behind, and thus I was compelled to make multiple relay runs to ensure that everything that was possibly salvageable was carried beyond the fortress limits before it was destroyed. I’ve not sold any of the armour or weapons that I took the time and effort to accumulate from Raven Rock. They’re just gathering dust in my TARDIS like desk draw next to the bed.

So do I really need one more Toy Car, Lunchbox or Nuka Cola for the collection? Is another Chinese Pistol really going to be of any more use than the hundreds I’ve already collected? The logical part of my brain tells me not to bother, just to concentrate on the rarer items and pick the others up if-and-when they’re needed. But the compulsive magpie wants just one more shiny bauble for the nest.