C++

If I aspire in making games, is C++ the way to go?  It just confuses me to see how much it supposedly sucks, and then gets used left and right in the gaming industry.

Also, since /prog/ apparently hates IDE's, and I somewhat agree since the last time I tried using one I got some bloated, shiny, gradient filled abomination, what DO I use?  I tried CodeBlocks after my last encounter, and it looked good in comparison.  What says anon? Acceptable, or kick CodeBlocks to the curb, and start anew?  Note that a code filled notepad the size of godzilla does not look too good.  But hey, what do I know.

C++ isn't that necessary for PC games anymore.  There are some Java 3d libs like jMonkeyEngine that I've used that are plenty fast and I'm sure similar stuff exists in other languages.

The only reason C++ is traditionally used for games is because it translates directly to machine code and thus can be made very fast (and also makes it very fiddly, brittle, and horribly manual to work with).  However, the majority of processing time is probably going to be spent in the video card, not in your game code, so it doesn't matter if your game language has inherent overhead that makes your life simpler in exchange.

BTW, tons of these "C++" games actually implement scripting engines that most of the game content is actually written in.  This trend is over a decade old.  So just use an existing language with easy-to-use features instead of C++ and save yourself all that effort.