Fallout 3: Gathering Good Karma

[GameBanshee News]

The Fallout 3 week on IGN continues with Day 3: Gathering Good Karma, which features a preview that goes over the Megaton location again and provides us with a video interview.

I chose a style that likened me to a deranged Ronald McDonald. It went nicely with my safety goggles and army helmet I had picked up while roaming the wastelands. The house also contains a Bobblehead Collection Stand where you can store the hidden collectibles of Fallout 3. Players can also play house with their drab surroundings by purchasing a collection of themes for sale at the local store. These include Raider, Wasteland Explorer, Science, Pre-War, and Love Machine. The change of scenery is nice but the real advantage to this property is the ability to outfit a house with an infirmary, jukebox, laboratory, cola machine, and workbench.

My good deeds transformed Megaton from a backwater dump to a strategically placed home where I could build weapons, fully recover my wounds, stock up on goods, and cook up some performance enhancing drugs. That's not to say that evil characters won't get their own residence at some other location, but not as quickly and not in this town.
After outfitting my new crib I decided to make friendly with my new neighbors. Some characters won't even recognize your existence without the right Karma. I learned this when a reformed raider wouldn't give me the time of day because he just wouldn't speak to a goody-two-shoes. His loss. Other characters who are attracted to decency will open up quests and dialogue options for people who've accumulated enough good karma.

There are other, less distinct choices as well. The shop owner in Megaton has a side project compiling a field guide to the wasteland and she asks players to contribute by exploring the world. I took her task seriously and sought out the information she requested by investigating a local supermarket. Upon return I shared my findings and offered her some of the grub I picked up. She let me keep the loot and also rewarded me with a food sanitizer as a reward – a helpful item for removing the radiation from ruined edible items scattered throughout the world. At any point I could've lied to the woman about my quest and asked for a reward without putting in the work, but I know for a fact that this nefarious behavior would not have gotten me the useful food sanitizer.