What games are you playing?

[Charlie778]

It seems like microsoft has been doing alot of work to make the xbox one seem more attractive lately. Personally I still prefer PS4 and I think It's important to remember sony and microsoft both want as much of my monies as they can get. Alot of people seem to be acting like sony is their mate

I am hoping to get an internship or do some summer work at a games studio to see what I think of it. Right now I'm thinking it would be a dream job although at the same time when I am older I might want more stable hours if i am lucky enough to have kids but I have no idea how easy it is to transfer from being a games developer to a more stable job.. I have to try to get some work experience because otherwise I'll always think I would have been happier doing games development so I need to go and experience all the bad bits

On an unrelated note, now completed nfs hot pursuit

[Christine]

Yeah, a lot of people have been quick to forget that Sony are behind some of the more Draconian DRM schemes that have appeared over the years, with things like DVD region coding still proving a headache, and the huge uproar caused by the rootkit-laden CDs a few years ago. Microsoft are certainly making it very easy for them to appear as the good guys, though!

Well youth is certainly something that stands in your favour if you want to go in that direction! I imagine having that sort of thing on your CV would likely make it quite easy to move to something more stable, though I wish "more stable" didn't quite so often mean working in finance-related companies. I think things are improving there, though. I'd still strongly recommend getting involved in the games modding side of things: a lot of games franchises have very active communities, Bethesda's being the ones I'm most familiar with but there are numerous examples. I've known various people who've made a name for themselves on the modding scene and ended up being offered jobs: obviously it's a small number, but it is another way into the industry for people who get noticed for being good at what they do.

And that's a genre that I haven't really looked at too much: I'm not great at driving games, or at least not great at controlling them with a mouse and keyboard, as my entirely lamentable performance at the driving sections of Saints Row proved! I didn't mean to run down hundreds of people! Only some of them.

[Charlie778]

People always forget after a few years, it's easy to just hop aboard the hype-train

I'm hoping so, I thought even if not there are loads of programming jobs, even if it's a language that I hadn't used alot before. There are some things that apply to any job - like working hard and turning up on time etc. Yeah I would like to ! It's just i'm not quite good enough yet I have started learning C++ and I have a little xbox game in C# but before that I had only done Java (as well as web languages). So the Java helps pick the C languages up quicker but there is still plently of new stuff to learn! (which is always a good thing)

I'm pretty average at most video games to be honest, my natural talent has always been for driving games but that tends to mean that I don't actually play them as much because i'd rather play a game that I find difficult so it's more satisfying when I do the level (which usually involves killing a little digital person ...). And I don't care about my "gamerscore" so I don't buy games i find easier just to get the achievements and a higher score

Running over a few little digital people just can't be helped at times! Nobody is to blame!

[Christine]

Oops, forgot I hadn't replied to this: how very unlike me!

From what I've heard, C++ is the way to go for serious games work. I've always looked at it with lots of suspicion as I'm an old dyed-in-the-wool C programmer and I won't be having any of this newfangled object-oriented malarky. You're right in that it'll stand you in good stead elsewhere, knowing either of those languages will be extremely useful both in terms of having a marketable CV and a head-start with loads of other languages that were influenced by them, as you say. The only real problem with C & C++ is the hours of fun you can have with "hunt the typo": the one where your program still compiles just fine but now with the addition of a subtle logic bug that can be irritatingly elusive...

I'm afraid I'm one of those people for whom a challenging game normally translates directly into immense frustration! I admit I do feel a sense of satisfaction once I've overcome some particular hurdle, but I'd rather not have it there to overcome in the first place. I prefer just wandering about aimlessly and exploring, which is why the likes of the Elder Scrolls tends to be my natural habitat. I did enjoy my rather uncharacteristic jaunt into the world of Saints Row though, and looking forward to whatever silliness is unleashed when SR4 lands in a fortnight's time. Oh, and conversely, I do like the "ooh shiny" of pointless achievements and get upset when they don't register!

[Charlie778]

My first language was Java so I find it stranger when I have to use a non object orientated language, I really need to practice stuff like LISP. I despise games of "hunt the typo". It's really good when you can just get someone to skim read it and they spot it straight away though. I find I will spend ages reading my own stuff and it takes much longer to find that if I get someone else to have a look!

Sometimes I do like to aimlessly adventure around - and I am one of I think 99.9% of people who have played GTA who sometimes drive around obeying the law . I'm holding off buying games for now, going to wait for the next gen I think. (I really need to save up) I do really want to play portal 2 though but I think its about £20.

I didn't used to know how much my gamerscore was until about a week ago. I'm on about 10,500 and I've had an xbox 360 pretty much since it came out. I don't ever bother spending hours getting all the collectables in games so I rarely get achievements beyond the basic "you completed the story welldone" type.

Alot of people were distraught when microsoft killed all those 360's with chips in so they could play copied games. People were more upset about loosing their achievements and gamerscore than anything else . I couldn't believe people were playing pirated games online! Of course microsoft knew what they were doing!