QFT i thought the same thing.

@Staude

It is truly a difficult industry to get the handle of. As a current student studying within the gaming industry I strongly encourage all that are aspiring to do the same to.........PIRACY! PIRATE EVERY GOSH DARN THING YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON!!! THERE IS NO WAY YOU CAN LEARN ALL THIS CRAP IN A COUPLE OF HOURS FROM BEING AT SCHOOL!!! YOU EITHER STAY AT SCHOOL ALL DAY OR BITTORRENT THE HELL OUT OF THESE PROGRAMS!!!!....hmmm....but you didn't hear that from me though.

I don't know how they expect college students to be able to afford 5000 programs?! Through the giving hands of the internet I now own...
-3Ds Max 2009
-Photoshop CS2(Hate CS3's setup)
-Flash CS3
-Dreamweaver CS3
-Game Studio(very low level but good practice game engine)
-XSI
-Maya

Another thing. I find it down right ridiculous for schools such as ITT to be teaching students how to model in 3DS Max when MAJORITY of the gaming world uses Maya. Square Enix uses Maya, as do a lot more. The only game that I have ever heard of being produced in 3Ds Max is Assassin's Creed.

Next Program to Acquire: ZBrush, Unreal Engine(to get used to using engines), Phyre-Engine(Whenever Sony decides to release it). And Whatever godlike engine Killzone 2 is now using(I believe that is partially what took the game so long, they were constructing a viable engine for PS3 game designers).

I use 3ds max 8, 2009 and photoshop cs2. Never used maya. I'm also going to look into zbrush and maya in the near future. Zbrush can do some awesome things. I'm making this total conversion that i've been working on for a few years. It's helped me get a very good understanding of programs and being the leader has helped me with running a organization and in general manage everything related to the game.

@Staude

I am a fanatical Photoshop supporter. It has become the cornerstone of digital media. I actually have a Wacom Pen Tablet to go along side it. Working in Photoshop is sex worthy to me lol.

I'm slowly getting better at modeling. Ive been doing many things on my own besides the school assignments. I found that I am a whole lot better at modeling actual people then random objects, even though in school they say I should try learning objects first. There is simply something more natural with modeling people for me that it comes easy. Maybe it is because I am a natural "Figure" artist, poetry in still motion.

I have also been typing away at multiple game designs. I have developed a fake task list with each one. I do stuff like...
"If you had to create a game for the PSP to rival those of the DS, what would it be?" I then formulate what is in a good handheld game, what makes it tick? What are the most popular handheld games? What genre? How can I incorperate that?

I find these exercises to be really informative in the sense the prepare you for if a publisher ever demanded a certain game from you you would be able to create one with a formulaic approach. Almost like "Drama Improv" work.

lol cool. I'm actually the opposite. I'm good at 3d but i'm slowly getting better at photoshop.. Furthermore i have a hard time making humans but a easy time making objects :p

My mod is based on a engine from 2002 so i'm sort of limited in stuff such as polygons etc. But it's an engine that has been enchanced by a community, though without the release of the source code from developers.

Oh yeah, I also have a wacom tablet. Do you have like msn or something, maybe we could talk more.

@Staude

LOL who the hell uses MSN? hahaha jk but no, I hate that IM service, as I hate most Microsoft products.

I do use Yahoo Instant Messenger(YIM) though. I find YIM to be the best because it has things none of the others have, at least that I have seen.
-It has photo sharing so I can show people visual representations of what I am talking about.
-Vast array of emotes for really getting that point across :0 :) :( >:( etc
-It has a doodling plugin so two people can doodle on the same board over YIM. I use it with school and work buddies as a means of acting like a chalk board to flesh out ideas.
-Webcam support
-etc.

If you have YIM or if you just wanna email me its.....forevercloud3000@yahoo.com, or my gmail....forevercloud3000@gmail.com (lol bet you didn't see that coming did ya?)

@CGI

LOL its wierd how this whole conversation came to be haha. LONG LIVE CGI QUALITY Graphics!!!!!! Death to casual lo-res crap, lol.

@forevercloud3000
lol a lot of people uses msn :p otherwise i wouldn't All my contacts basically use it. My whole dev. team etc. It's a necessity to have a instant messenging application and most people can't be bothered to grab something other than what comes standard.

I don't have yahoos messenger client but it does sound interesting. So i might just try it out.

@CGI-quality
ya it's very exciting. Especially when you make the world, the rules etc.

Personally i still need to learn stuff, i need to become adapt at programming and better at photoshopping. My 3d abilities are pretty good, and they are my main focus :P

@Staude

You should really make a YIM. Its quick, easy, painless, and has WAY more apps then MSN. I might make an MSN, but I still really hate that thing lol XD

Send me your MSN in a message if you dont wanna post it. Or make a YIM if you have the chance.

Ugh, wait till you get to Resistance 2. The enemy AI will lock onto you and charge at you if you so much as breathe in their direction. Coupled with the fact that you can die really quickly on the normal difficulty, I was really hoping there would be something there to help you out. To it's credit though, the default button for crouch is L2, so crouching behind things isn't a big deal as it's easier to hit L2 than R3 or L3.

I'm hoping Killzone 2's cover system works.