At the moment I'm receiving offers from universities giving me the choice of either a computer games design degree or a computer science one. I'd like to make it into the games industry, (programming) but I'm not sure which course to pick. I've been told that Computer Science is a broader subject and I can specialize afterwards. The uni offering me computer games design says it can offer me work experience. Unfortunately, I’ve since read that not all of the computer games degrees in the UK hold much merit in the industry.

Any advice?

Has anyone heard of this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTihsJQHt48

I heard that basically Christian Bale yelled at a guy on set of the Terminator film and someone called RevoLucian turned it into a techno remix. It's strangely catching. And yes, he swears a lot.

This is an actual real post on some blog I came across while browsing on the Internet. I actually had to check to make sure I wasn't reading a part of Jim Sterling's Ban this Filth article.

http://99lives.org/2007/10/08/misogyny-has-a-new-game-bioshock/

Misogyny Has a New Game: Bioshock

That’s right. Hiding underneath all the accolades and slick marketing lies something much more sinister within — misogyny. Unlike most nefarious games, Bioshock starts off relatively benign. Only when your character acquires new weapons; called “plasmids”, does the misogynistic world of Rapture become embarrassingly obvious. You see, every plasmid comes with a tutorial demonstrating its abilities. In each video, players are treated to watching a poor innocent woman being eviscerated by a patriarchal, plasmid-wielding woman-hater.

Not even one paragraph in and you're writing utter bullocks already.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtkvmaQquB0&feature=related

References alluding to male privilege are laced throughout; the victim is always dressed as a housewife (misogynists love their women subservient) and overtly feminine, the male assailant is always seen with a smug grin of satisfaction as he overpowers the “uppity” woman. Even the presentation is done in a stylized 1940’s manner, referring to an era in which women were seen as property.

Well, that's because Rapture was opened in 1942. So what the hell were you expecting? You're even saying that it's typical of the era!

Later on in the game, you’ll cross paths with Bridgette Tenenbaum, the only female character in the game.

Well done on completing the first 15 mintues. Now go off, finish the whole game and then then tell me how me how many female characters there are. 'Cause if you're including the Audio Diaries and the splicers then it's a hell of a lot.

She’s given very little screen time and is quickly relinquished as a babysitter for the children of Rapture, dubbed as “Little Sisters”. It’s disappointing to see a strong woman reduced to servitude but not surprisingly unexpected.

You know, as shocking as this may sound, there ARE women out there who enjoy looking after kids and are happy being a housewife. Tenenbaum chose to do it, she wasn't forced to. And why do you make the idea of looking after kids sound demeaning, anyway?

After playing Bioshock, I can only ask what kind of depraved individual could come up with such trash in today’s modern, gender-blind society? Kev Levine, Bioshock’s designer has often cited the philosophy of Objectivism as a major influence in his life and from this confession, I’ve been given the explanation for Bioshock’s sexism.

Except it's not sexist - most of the male characters are portrayed in a negative light.
You're just bashing a game so you can promote your little feminist agenda. The ability of people to act like total morons on the net never fails to astound me.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1039738/New-cinema-style-warnings-disturbing-video-games.html

According to the ever reliable Daily Mail, the video game classification system used in the UK is getting a complete overhaul. The current European one, PEGI (Pan European Game Information) is apparently, too confusing.



Yes, it really is.

Instead, they're going to use cinema style warnings instead. Hang on...



Now, seeing as I own a Wii and XBox 360, it seems as though the Wii uses the European system, while Xbox uses the cinema/DVD style ones. I don't know what the PS3 uses, so can anyone tell me?

Now this is because, and I quote : "Youngsters are using online auction sites such as eBay to buy games intended for adults, including Manhunt, Grand Theft Auto, Godfather and Hitman, which are all rated 18. Dr Byron found that many children outwit their parents about confusing and badly-signalled information on games packaging. She warned the Government that allowing children to play on computers unsupervised is as dangerous as letting them play outside on their own."

I'm sorry, did you find both packaging confusing and badly signalled? Is playing Halo 3 unsupervised really as dangerous as crossing the busy main road and swinging on a tyre swing in my park?

But the real reason that this annoys me is because of this : "The world's largest games developer, Electronic Arts, said the new scheme would be confusing for parents and would lead to games being released later in Britain than in the rest of the world."

Argh! Not only is it annoying for gamers in the UK, but surely this is saying that parents are as blind as bats or numerically illiterate or something that is unable to decipher age ratings on a box!

Actually, I should have done this a lot earlier. Oh well.

I'm Infinitestrike and I'm from the UK. My gaming history basically started with a Sega Mega Drive, followed by the PS1, PS2, Gamecube, GBA SP, DS, Wii and now 2 months ago, I got an XBox 360. I guess my favourite games are the Metal Gear series, Devil May Cry series, Bioshock, Crash Bandicoot series (PS1), Animal Crossing, Pokemon, Gears of War and Halo.

Uh, What else?

My favourite boss fights are The End, Psycho Mantis and General RAM. My favourite levels to explore would probably be any of the planets in Mario Galaxy.

I'm currently playing Call of Duty 4 and Orange Box.

I guess that's about it really. I'm not very good at these intro posts. I'm never really sure what to write about myself. I suppose this will do for now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUf436NS65I

Well, not really. It's for some movie called City of Ember. But the style they've chosen to create the city looks a bit like Bioshock, doesn't it?

Speaking of Bioshock, I was playing it on Easy mode today (it really is disgustingly easy compared to hard mode) while my cousin watched. As she is about the same age as Little Sister, her reaction to harvesting or rescuing was quite interesting. She told me to harvest them because they were "creepy." I would have thought that little kids would chosen the "rescue" option, but apparently that isn't the case. When I looked up other articles on Bioshock, I was quite surprised to see reviewers say "oh my 8 year old son/daughter came across me playing Bioshock and told me to harvest them." I don't know if this is is a universal thing, and I wouldn't advise anyone to park their little siblings/cousins/neighbours in front of Bioshock just to see their response to this, but it's just a random thought of the day.

Also, if you are interested in plastic surgery, you probably wouldn't want to go to this guy:

http://www.mdskinesthetics.com/