I'll always hold out hope that F3 will be a good game, while at the same time preparing myself for the worst. I'm not going to say Bethesda will or won't ruin the game, i'll wait until it's actually realeased to make the jundement. Or at least wait until they release some details on how exactly they are going to design the game.
If it's true that Bethesda has been in contact with previous Fallout developers, then i'm even more hopeful that it'll turn out to be a decent game. It's hard to imagine that it'll be exactly what we're all looking for, seeing as how it's in the hands of a completely different developer, but we can all hope that they'll listen to the fans and what it is we want.
Troika definitely had the potential to make F3 what it should have been. I loved Arcanum (except for the combat system). I believe it showed that they are definately capable of producing a good RPG. That game would have been fantastic with a good turn based combat system. Speaking of which, i hope Beth listens, and makes a decent combat system for F3, because the combat system in Morrowind was so incredibly dull. Of course lets all pray that they go turn based.
Anyway, it's still sad to hear about Troika closing down. I hope the guys get to work on some more RPGs in the future, and maybe they can breathe some life into the genre.
At least if it had their names next to FO3 it would sound a lot nicer 