Vocational college and game design school Full Sail Real World Education has been awarded University status by the state of Florida, the school announced today.

Founded in Winter Park, Florida in 1979, Full Sail offers degree programs in computer animation, game art, game development, digital arts and design, and several other programs. The private university currently serves over 5,800 students.

Alumni from the university have gone on to work at game development studios such as Infinity Ward, Insomniac Games, and EA Redwood Shores.

"We will continue to grow and carry on the tradition of empowering students with the knowledge necessary to pursue their educational and career goals, through our long-standing tradition of accelerated, real world education and immersive, project-based learning," said Full Sail University President Garry Jones.

We've seen the commercials for game schools and read about them on the Internet, but have you ever played a game designed and developed by the students of one of these places? Well, now's your chance, as a group of dedicated students from the Guildhall at SMU just released their total conversion mod of Half-Life 2 called Eclipse.

The game's story is thus: "You play as a young Sorceress named Violet whose father went missing five years back. After learning the secrets of Telekinesis, you are teleported into Auld-Haven, a lush and fertile land where Violet grew up. Your objective is to return to Violet's home where she last saw her father years ago and dig up any clues to his whereabouts."

The whole project was completed in five months with 20 people involved (3 faculty for guidance, 17 students). Download Eclipse from FileShack right here. If you're interested in what other schools are accomplishing, here's a demo reel from Full Sail and this page lets you download games by DigiPen students.

As you may of noticed, I changed up how I handle the Misc. Media/Previews section. Quite simply, the link to the media/preview is now placed on the bolded name of the game. That area has always been a beast of its own, so please let me know if this helps out the situation by sounding off in the comments section. In other news, the story about the gaming camp is a bit humorous. Not too long ago, I was looking at the possibility of attending Full Sail, so one of the things I did was e-mail a ton of game developers and asked what they thought of the school and the students that came from it. The general response was neutral; Full Sail neither hurt nor enhanced my chances at 'making it' and I was probably better off learning on my own. Now that 'gaming school' is the big fad now, I would definitely love to hear the opinions of developers on the value their studio places in these institutions.
Console Game of the Evening: Pushover for the Super Nintendo. "A very addictive puzzle game involving a floppy cartoon ant and "dominoes" with varying properties that when correctly arranged, trigger a door to the next level. Inventive locations and music, and comical sound effects. Maddeningly hard and clever." (submitted by dognose).

Right now, I'm getting my butt kicked by a high fever, but I persevere to bring you the latest round of late night consoling! Being sick, I stayed home today from my day job and played Super Mario 64 the entire time. I'm a bit surprised at how well I'm doing, having accrued over 30 stars already. I wonder if I'm progressing so fast because of the years of experience of playing 3D platformers or that the game is just simpler the older you are? In any case, it's good to see it stand the test of time. I hate it when I go back to play an old favorite and feel like, "I liked this again why?"
Console Game of the Evening: Duke Nukem Advance for the Game Boy Advance. "While not the first FPS for the GBA, this is a worthy sequel to Duke 3D, and is the first Duke FPS game since it." (submitted by archon).

There's a new feature article on BoltGames, taking a look at the Computer Animation and Game Design programs at Full Sail Real World Education. Both the authors of the article series are enlisted at this school.