Oh boy. No, Bethesda ruined everything. Fallout 3 makes BoS look like the greatest game in the world.
I STRONGLY disagree with you, here. As far as best-to-worst rankings of every FO game in the series goes, FO3 is SOLIDLY above FOBOS. It's just better, because no matter bad how it is, it IS fun; mindless, immature, cathartic fun, but fun nonetheless. Not being thought provoking in the slightest or not being challenging in the least doesn't make it "un-fun". FOBOS, however, just isn't fun at all, on top of looking bad, on top of playing bad, on top many other "bad" things. That doesn't mean the next best game is ANYWHERE near as bad as FO3... just that it is NOT worse than FOBOS.
The greatest reason why FOBOS couldn't have POSSIBLY ruined
Fallout the way FO3 has, is because, back in 2004, "
Fallout" reminded people of FO1/2/T, NOT FOBOS. Even though it was the newest game in the series, it was so far removed from the series that people didn't even recognize it. But now? When your average gamer says "I love Fallout", what are they talking about? 9 times out of 10, they're talking about FO3. It would be fine if the game they were referring to REPRESENTED the core series, or its foundation... but it doesn't.
You can pick between having breast cancer or AIDS. Breast cancer still allows you to have unprotected sex with someone you care about, so breast cancer must be great.
That's OP's logic.
Are you trying to say it would be better for Fallout to be dead than have ot owned by Bethesda?
This is a very empty-headed question. You're assuming that the alternatives to Bethesda purchasing the rights would be the franchise dying. Again, STOP TRYING TO REWRITE HISTORY. The bidding wars for the FO license were INTENSE. MANY companies were lining up to grab the rights because the series was SO ALIVE. Again, Van Buren was almost complete around the time the license was swept up by Bethesda. Before that, FOBOS was released (shitty or not, it was a game RELEASE, indication of the franchise being ALIVE, not at all dead). The alternatives to Bethesda buying the licensing rights was Obsidian buying the rights, or many other alternatives. EVERY alternative to Bethesda's acquisition was better than Bethesda's acquisition, and NONE of them are comparable to "a slow and painful death"... or ANY death at all.