I loved STALKER but Fallout: Ukraine does not appeal to me.

Finally got around to playing it last month. Not bad, but it felt like Borderlands without the "RPG elements" (character building & random loot).

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Also, alot of these games are just "published by Bethesda", not actually designed or made by. RAGE is iD, Dishonored is Arkane, etc. If they had the rights to/published Stalker, that doesn't mean that the Beth Game Studios / Fallout people would have anything to do with it. (And, honestly - between TES and Fallout, they have plenty to keep them busy.)

Like zombies and high fantasy, I think it's overdone. Bethesda has the talent to move on, try something new. Instead we'll get like 10 more fallout and TES games a piece.

Activision yes. I'd be more cautious with EA however. They've published a lot of titles that I've enjoyed a lot. It would depend on which developer it is given to with EA.

I do think Bethesda *could* make a good Stalker game. They would however need to forget about and not try to make it like TES and certainly not like Fallout 3. A new project lead perhaps and look to bring in former GSC onto the team? The biggest stumbling block would be the frame of reference they have as a US developer. It really needs an Eastern European developer or mindset to hit Stalker's essence.

Otherwise horrible visions of "Don't just stand there! I saw a snork the other day! Really! Get out of here Stalker!" abound.

I'd tend to go with what they have released recently to base an prediction on than the further past. Rage was a promising game, so was Brink, just because it has potential doesn't mean it will reach it.

It's not how EA makes games that is bad, it is their practices that people don't like. If a game doesn't make enough money they throw out the series, then they also have day one DLC, etc.

Too much focus testing makes Vault Boy a dullard. Major publicly traded publishers can not make art, only buy and replicate it. Which is why anything interesting produced by them gets cannibalized into utter trash with each sequel.

Exactly how I feel. Not a bad game, but it just wasn't...fun I guess. My 360 copy is sitting under a nice layer of dust in the back of my closet.

I really want someone else to tackle a Beth style game. With the gigantic mega success of Skyrim, and the inevitable gigantic mega success of Fallout 4 ( At least financially I mean ) I assume we'll get some copycats. Maybe one of them will be good?

There is that Nuclear Union game coming out.

Given that we haven't heard anything official about the STALKER series being purchased by Bethesda I'd assume the rumor is false. Generally speaking if an IP is purchased or licensed out this is done publicly, particularly if the IP holder is having financial problems. This occured with Fallout 3, although Interplay is a publicly traded which was no doubt a factor is the disclosure.

And while it's true that Bethesda Softworks has published several PA games recently (FO3, FONV, Brink, and RAGE) I think it has more to do with the popularity of the genre, rather than an intentional attempt to dominate the field.

(Disclaimer - mods are volunteers, not Bethesda employees. These are my own personal comments, and I'm not privy to anything that isn't available to the public.)

Not to mention that it has an interesting story and is very atmospheric, two other things Bethesda don't do well.

Atmosphere is great in Beth games, IMO. Story on the other hand almost always leaves something to be desired...

This, but i think that Bethesda would only publish it, who ever makes Metro games would make it.

The problem I find is that the atmosphere always feels generic to me in the Bethesda games I have played, I can always anticipate what the atmosphere is going to feel like. There have been times where I was impressed by it, but I have never been surprised by it.
4A Games spent four years on Metro 2033, I have no doubt that if Bethesda somehow buys the rights to the series they would severely limit their development time.