No. 1 >>> Please bear in mind I don’t mean to be patronising… I didn’t get all of this right recently when i was trying to get into games…
No.2 >>> Never ever ever too old … as long as you are able, enthusiastic and have an eye for ‘it’ you can get into games industry.
Basically …y it doesn’t matter which 3d app you learn in - you will learn all the right principles and when you come to another app you will know to ask the right questions and be able to pick it up very quickly in comparsion to your first app.
However, to minimise time it is best to learn maya or 3ds max … simply as a matter of percentages - this is what people use - it also means people can relate more exactly to the way you talk about the process of working in an interview which can help too.
I learnt max first and then maya. I would not say that that max is the giant anymore. In fact its more or less 50/50 … despite discreet having bought maya I think you will see max adopting more maya-isms than maya adopting max-isms…
Lightwave is marginal in games simply because most people know and use max/maya, lightwave is used quite a bit in commercials and vfx though - theres nothing wrong with it as a package - its just that most people are max/maya literate… and majority rules for games where generally bigger teams are involved.
I would advise not to worry at all about actually setting up realtime tests. By all means look through stuff and watch videos from places like 3dbuzz.com to see the kind of setups and technics games use for operating and pulling data from 3d apps but don’t worry about technically getting it working yourself - your interviewers in games just want to see that you can create and animate well - back it up with a passion for games and you’ll be there!
To be honest making/loading/viewing/recording a test is often more hassle than its worth and you want to avoid hassle. It will suck up your time and will add v little value to your demoreel (most companies have their own conversion/input/management tools - some of which change on a game per game basis!).
Having a showreel in dvd format is what people want; its nice easy and a decent res - perhaps with an alternative quicktime movie (can be opened and viewed by pc/mac + downloaded or transfered across a network + no codec problems). By all means include some budget polygon work to show you can create character with limited resources - if you can show off understanding of normal/specularity/bump maps all the better.
Include the regular walk and run cycles - these maybe standard but every employer wants to see them. Include as well some lifting/weight transfer animations.
Also - if you want to broaden your appeal - don’t forget to include some scenic or envornmental modelling - these can be very simple models but with good textures and its v handy to show you can pick up this kind of work too for games.
Anyway I’ve kind of run away with this post.
NOW TO THE IMPORTANT POINT:
My only concern if I were you is the course you are on. Multimedia.
There is a saying about multimedia students in the games industry; ‘jack of all trades, master of none’.
It may seem a bit harsh but beware this: (especially if you want to get into games asap) do not let your own focus become too side tracked by your course. Some courses are very rigid and modular and basically spend only a small percentage of time in 3d programs and spend relatively a lot in print/web/video apps and deliveries… whilst very useful to have such skills do not lose sight of what you are ultimately trying to acheive.
You see to a multimedia can be comprised of so many areas - often 3d, 3d animation, 2d creation, vector work, 2d animation, photography and film … media delivery for such content then gets applied to; web, film and print … Now as you can see 3d creation and animation is only a small part of what the course is attempting to cover.
In addition the course will have an ‘academic’ side meaning spending time on dissertations and the histories of media. These can be useful and interesting (especially if you can center it around ‘play’, society etc.) , but it isn’t vital in getting you a showreel for games…
Far from fearing the time it will take to learn the ins and outs of how 3d packages work, you should be more wary of how much time you will actually get to apply and practice your own personal experiecnes in modelling and animation… No ones first walk cycle is as good as their 5th… or even 10th…
Now it may be that your course will enable you to say exclude a lot of modules in favour of more time in 3d but i know for a fact that some do not…
Then again if you think you would simply benefit from a rounded learning experience then by all means go for it!
Just don’t expect to necessarily have a games ready showreel by then end of the course… working in 3d takes up time 
… learning a 3d app actually is not that time consuming (as long as you are famailiar with the principles).
Anyway… wow… bit of an essay… but it comes from personal experience… I’ve know so many of my friends on multimedia or design courses and despite a decent skill set they lack a focus in their work - even if they posses it in their own heads … which is another matter entirely)
… learning a 3d app actually is not that time consuming (as long as you are famailiar with the principles).
