December 21, 2010
A Simple Cure for the Open Tray Glitch on the XBOX 360
Option 1
If you don't have a warranty or have modded your 360 then open it up and manually push your laser to the front of the disc drive. Nothing fancy just move it up with your fingers.
Option 2
For those of us who are either lazy or don't want to invalidate our warrantyt then do this technique.
1) Pick up the XBOX 360 that is lying in the horizontal position.
2) Tilt it 45 to 90 degrees.
3) Place the XBOX 360 on your lap and smack it against your lap like you are putting the head of an axe back on the handle.
4) Plug it back in and play your game.
Remember to make sure there is no disc inside your XBOX before doing either of these techniques. I also am not responsible if you manage to screw up your XBOX doign either of these techniques. The second option worked for me twice and i highly reccomend it to anyone who still has a warranty but deoesn't want to send their XBOX to Microsoft.
December 19, 2010
Do you like Metal? How about Metal about Video Games?
December 7, 2010
An End to the Dark Ages, A Renaissance Begins
So about a month ago I came back to WoW after my 15 month hiatus. I levelled my rogue to 80 (my 3rd 80) and started to level up a shaman. WoW has been in a dark age for the past 2 years, Blizzard has made some bad decisions that has hurt the growth of the playerbase. In fact the amount of subscribers only increased by 500 000 during Wrath of the Lich King, compared to the millions of new players that joined during the Burning Crusade, WoW's first expansion that's nothing. Mnay people unsubscribed their accounts during this time in fact I know many people in real life who quit because of WotLK. Today howerver the renaissance can begin. Cataclysm has came out and if it stays liek the beta then we shouldn't have to worry about the appeasment of the vocal minority.
During WotLK Blizzard made some poor decisions, Naxxramas 2.0 for example, the only raid dungeon for over 6 months with trivial content and was cleared immediately. The badge system because nothing says that you earned your shiny epics better then doing the short, easy, boring heroic dungeons. Let us also forget Blizz's lovely policy of bring the player, not the class. THanks to this adage Blizz was able top design encounters by only focusing on ranged DPS, mellee DPS, tanking and healing, instead of the 30 individual specializations of players.
But let us not forget the good things, yes there were good things that came to WoW from WotLK. The quests were phenominal, I had never quite enjoyed leveling until I played WotLK. Phasing is a brilliant new idea that came into WoW and has caused the world to feel a bit more dynamic due to player interaction via quests. FInally there was Ulduar. Considered to be the best raid of all time Ulduar managed to create a challenging but doable raid for the general public along with non-binary hardmodes that challenged the most elite players.
WotLK was a mixed bag, full of win and fail but Blizzard has admitted to the mistakes they made in Wrath and have been willing to change the game for the better. Now Blizzard has one final challenge with Cataclysm, whether or not they will bow down to the cries of the vocal entitled casual minority or stand true to their word.
November 19, 2010
Coming soon Black Ops review
October 20, 2010
A Wonderful Day for Consumers
What a glorious fall day it is for consumers, especially if you enjoy being sued or not allowed to play your game in sngle player. Today I found two interesting and controversial stories about game companies taking your rights away to do what you please with your games and consoles.
The first story comes to us from the lovely folks at Sony, you know the guys who also tried to put a rootkit on your computer back in '05, yea those guys. Well lately they have been very pissed off at the people who are trying to hack the PS3. Well recently a hack for the PS3 has been discovered and devices have been sold that allow the PS3 to be hacked.
Sony has recently threatened that it will send cease and desist orders to anyone who buys the PS3 hacking USB sticks and force them to pay fines of at least 5100 Euros. But what if I don't sign the papers and ignore Sony? you may say. Well enjoy getting sued for 50 000 Euros, yes you read that right a 50 000 euro lawsuit in litigations just because you wanted to put your own custom firmware on your PS3 so you could play some homebrew games. The good news for those of you not living in Germany is that Sony won't be threatening you, for now at least. The joys of companies thinking they control what you can do with your console, that you bought and own, not lease as many companies probably wish happens instead.
Now that I have scared you with legal threats let’s talk about the fine folks over at Blizzard. Blizzard is one of those companies with a relatively good track record. They have made such wonderful games like Diablo 2, Starcraft, Warcraft III and of course the most successful MMORPG of all time, World of Warcraft (if you ignore WotLK). Unfortunately Blizzard, despite all your great accomplishments in the past you still can act like a total dick (read: no LAN support in SC2 and requiring a constant internet connection to play).
So what did Blizzard, a company which is normally seen as one of the greatest developers of all time due now. Well first they decided to sue the people who made some cheats for Starcraft 2. Now I understand that this is somewhat reasonable, though I disagree but what they did next was absolutely asinine. They are now banning people from playing all of SC2, even singleplayer because they used cheats, not in multiplayer where that actually has an affect on other players, but singleplayer. You read that right banned from singleplayer, of legally purchased games due to using cheats in singleplayer.
Want to hear Bliz's reasoning for this? 'When users of the Hacks download, install, and use the Hacks, they copy StarCraft II copyrighted content into their computer's RAM in excess of the scope of their limited license, as set forth in the EULA and ToU, and create derivative works of StarCraft II.' So Blizz is claiming that hacks cause people to commit copyright infringement now.
Congratulations Blizz but you just lost one customer for good, let's see how bad you can screw up on Diablo 3 ok?
October 13, 2010
Flying Cougar PSP Backgrounds
All backgrounds are not currently customized for unique GUIs of various custom firmware and some will not work well if your text is black. Their dimension are 600x340.
In Flames PSP Background
Cradle of Filth PSP Background
September 25, 2010
PS3 Hacked WIth an Official Controller
After updating the firmware to prevent USB devices from being used hackers have figured out a way to jailbreak their PS3s using Sony's official Dualshock 3 controllers. Now I am not a PS3 user myself so I cannot explain how this works for you but if you wish to learn more about hacking into Sony's consoles I highly suggest you email our resident jailbreaker Udunnojack at gt.udunnojack@gmail.com.
UPDATE:
The english guide on how to hack your PS3 has been released. For those of you who don't like to solder you can also use your iPod.
September 12, 2010
A Simple Guide to Being the Biggest Dick in World at War
Now you may be saying but Tyaust I have morals and using the MP40 is a sin, etc. etc. Well here's what I have to say shut the hell up and use that bloody gun because your game will improve a lot, trust me because I'm a random guy on the internet who blogs about video games.
So now that I've convinced you to throw a large chunk of your morals in the trash can I will get rid of the rest once I teach you young padawans how you can raise your K/D ratio with a few simple perks and attachments.
Your primary weapon is the reason why we cannot have nice things, the MP 40 with dual magazines. For your secondary weapon It doesn't matter at all, just pick up another gun like a Type 100 or PPSH from your victims. Your first tier perk can be anything you want really other then bandolier due to the fact that everyone uses an MP 40 so ammo is not a problem. I personally recommend using bomb squad so you don't die from a random bouncing betty.
Remember how I said you had to get rid of all your morals, well I wasn't joking so stop your whining and use juggernaut like the good little asshole you are about to become. Udunnojack uses double tap on his MP 40 class, which does work well, but I prefer juggernaut due to the fact that you will be getting shot at 24/7 for being public enemy number 1.
For your third tier perk use steady aim. Now this is how you will become the biggest asshole in the game and cause people to rage quit while getting a very nice K/D ratio. Because we have steady aim on and dual magazines your iron sights will become fairly useless so just point the cross hairs in the general vicinity of your enemy and spray. Repeat as necessary until everything, everywhere, has become a corpse.
Congratulations, you have became the reason why we cannot have nice things. With this class you will be receiving threats of physical violence against you, your family and your pets. But hey, you just went 41 and 6 on Makin Day and made half the enemy team quit so who cares.
September 5, 2010
YouTube Channels to Visit
After you watch Dan and Alex's awesome videos check out our friend Dion's YouTube channel, XBL: AnorexicGlint for many great videos of video game commentary.
Until next time... Have a nice day.
September 4, 2010
Hail to the King, Baby!
September 3, 2010
The Summer is Over!
September 2, 2010
Sacre Bleu! A Video, It is Back!
August 30, 2010
XBOX Live Price Increase
August 14, 2010
Music Week: Day 7
August 13, 2010
Music Week: Day 6
August 12, 2010
Music Week: Day 5
August 11, 2010
Music Week: Day 4
Music Week: Day 3
August 9, 2010
Music Week: Day 2
August 8, 2010
Music: The Most Underrated Aspect of Gaming
Due to these reasons video game music tends to be one of the most overlooked aspects of a game. This is a tragedy when you consider that many games have absolutely wonderful soundtracks that if given the chance will improve the game's overall experience that your own music which you're playing through nearby speakers cannot. When people who play there own music from speakers it takes away from the game as you are removing one of the mood setting aspects. Next time you are playing one of your 40 hour RPGs, turn off your music sit back and enjoy the wonderful mood setting music that already comes with your game.
Enjoy this 8 minute, epic, guitar melody tribute to the Streets of Rage music by Andy Gillion.
July 20, 2010
Are Video Games Actually Art?
If we take the Wikipedia definition of art we could apply this to video games. My first example is Bioware's sci-fi RPG Mass Effect 2. Mass Effect 2 fulfills this definition because it does affect the player's senses and emotions. An example of this *spoilers ahead* is when your crew was abducted. Even if you hated your crew you still felt a sense of emptiness when you returned to your ship to find your entire crew gone.
I have a slightly different definition of what art is "Art is an experience created by an artist that expresses an idea or feeling.", Udunnojack has a very broad definition of what art is "Art is anything that required creativity to create.". Now we both consider that video games are art but for different reasons. Udunnojack says that all video games are art because the developers used creativity while making the game. I question that claim due to all the sports games that are exactly the same as the previous year's version with nothing new but a small new gimmick that changes nothing and new team rosters.
Due to my definition of what art is I believe that not all, but most video games are art. Most videos games express an idea or feeling. For example, in Call of Duty World at War it expresses the feelings of the losses suffered in war and shows the idea that millions of men and women died to protect something they loved. To me this is art. Is the multiplayer aspect of CoD: WaW still art? It does still express these ideas but to a lesser extent then the single player.
By my definition not all video games are art, yet to others all video games are art or no video games are art. This is the inherent problem with trying to classify video games as art. Until we get a universal definition of what art is then we will never be able to definitively say whether or not something is art.
July 13, 2010
Greetings to the Internets!
Udunnojack signing off, see you all soon.
July 9, 2010
Cataclysm Averted: Blizzard Backs Off
Blizzard most likely got scared of the backlash from the forum community in the RealID announcement thread which reached 2495 pages in three days. I briefly read a few pages from the thread and it appears it consists mainly of hate towards the new system with very few supporters in the crowd.
It appears that in the end Blizzard acted like a good company and listened to their customers. Should it have taken 49 896 posts to get this point across, I think not. However in the end Blizzard will let you keep your semi-anonymous privacy, however I would still be weary of future Blizzard decisions, seeing that they are obviously willing to violate your privacy.
July 6, 2010
Blizzard's Privacy Cataclysm
These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. Certain classic forums, including the classic Battle.net forums, will remain unchanged."
Battle.net link
So what does having your real name be used for all your forum posts means. Imagine you are sitting down for an interview for a good paying position at an excellent company. As you are being interviewed you think everything is going fine then suddenly you are asked the question "So why were you trolling the paladin forum?" or "Why do you play that stupid kids game?". Because your real name is released to the public on the internet a quick google of your name will be able to find all your forum posts, even the ones where you were acting like an asshat or voicing a controversial opinion. This is just like posting pictures of yourself acting like a drunk idiot at a party on Facebook and having your future employer finding out about it.
Blizzard's new system can lead to real life attacks on character for things said online, cost future employment and relationships all with a simple little googling of your name. From a young age children are taught not to share their real name with strange people on the internet (read: 4chan). Because of this many parents will just turn a blind eye, because they already taught him not to say his real name, as little Johnny goes onto the WoW fora, make an ass of himself and ruins his potential future chances of employment.
The only plus side I can see of this change is that some people will be less inclined to post on the fora and the sheer amount of idiocy and trolls will decrease, a man can dream can he not? I can foresee a possible large scale exodus from Blizzard's fora to the fora of many other community sites where you will not have to use your real name to post. Hopefully these fora aren't ruined forever by a large scale immigration of posters.
In the end the only way I can see Blizzard changing their decision is if their fora becomes a desolate wasteland, void of posters, and even then I highly doubt they would change this system. I have already lost a lot of faith in Blizzard and this is just driving me to the point of considering canceling my Starcraft 2 pre-order. In the end the only way to show a company that you want change is to vote with your wallet and not buy their products.
June 28, 2010
Flying Cougar Forum Signatures
Also available in black or with a background of your choice.
June 27, 2010
New Design New Stuff
In other news, we have a new segment on the blog. Free Fun is a game review of any free game we stumble upon and want to share with the world. Our first review is on the minimalistic, xkcdesque platformer, jvgs. Check it out and hopefully you'll like it as much as I did.
June 25, 2010
Free Fun: A Review of jvgs
JVGS is a free, open source platformer for the PC, Mac and Various Linux distributions. In jvgs you play as a poet trapped in a dangerous world that is fading away. All that is left are broken streams of thoughts that tell the story. The story that is told by these streams of thoughts are the poet's memories of the past and also tell of his sadness as the world that he once knew begins to fade away into nothingness.
The game has a simple system for controls. The left and right keys move you left and right respectively, while space bar allows you to jump and the left Ctrl button allows you to use weapons and abilities. The controls are fairly responsive however they can easily get you killed if you miss your jump by just a wee bit. If you die in this game you are sent back to the title screen where you can choose to quit the game, when you come back after closing the game out what level you are on is saved, or you can try that level again.
The levels are all fairly short and range in difficulty from "so easy i could do this in my sleep" to "facesmashing into the keyboard hardness". All the levels contain platforms which are formed by the poetry, and yes you can fall between words to your death. I have only became stuck in between letters once in the multiple times I have beat this game. In each of the levels you have to reach the end which is a shape that will lift you up to the next level. The level objectives vary from killing your way across the level, to collecting objects to a boss fight against a giant fanged pacmanesque monster.
To kill an enemy you must jump on it, like in Super Mario, or use a weapon on it such as the grenade or throwing knife. The main enemies in the game are these rodent like creatures, which can be quite lethal if you miss your jump, crabs that move around in no particular pattern at high speeds, porcupines that if you jump on them you will be impaled to your death, velociraptors, strange flying creatures and venus fly trap monsters that you must jump over top of.
JVGS's soundtrack consists of tracks from Nine Inch Nail's Ghost I-IV album which consists solely of instrumental music. The music greatly adds to the melancholic atmosphere throughout the game. The game has not much for sound effects other then when you crush your enemies, when you use equipment and when you die.
I would recommend jvgs to anyone who enjoys the xkcd webcomic and platformers. It is a fun, simple and quick game that takes about a half hour to beat on your first playthrough if you are not a god at platformers. This is a beautiful game with a unique minimalistic art style and excellent poetry.
We're Still Breathing
June 10, 2010
No Updates This Week
June 7, 2010
Coming Soon
The Rise of Microtransactions
Other MMO's such as Aika online are already a free to play game with a microtransaction system which will be opened soon. This is a growing trend which will most likely change the western MMO markets into one that is similar to Asia's.
However many gamers would rather pay a subscription then use microtransactions. These gamers have a personal philosophy of believing that all features of a game should come with with the subscription and players should not be given advantages due to being able to spend real money to buy ingame bonuses.
However many of these microtransactions are purely cosmetic or give extremely small advantages. Let's take World of Warcraft, the largest MMO in the world currently, for an example. In WoW there are microtransactions for small cosmetic changes, such as race, name, gender, and faction changes, ingame non combat pets, and mounts.
The largest barrier that is slowing the process of changing the payment systems to that of microtransactions is the prevailing fear among gamers that people with money will be able to simply buy their way to getting the best gear. However the direction of current microtransaction based games is going is that they will primarily be used for cosmetic changes. The only way someone can buy their way to the top is by buying gold or other people's characters, which is often against the rules of many MMOs.
In the end only time can tell if whether the the microtransaction payment method will become big outside of Asia. However, judging by the increase of microtransaction MMOs entering the western markets it appears that this growing trend may become the next main method.
June 1, 2010
This Week's Releases
XBOX 360
Bass Pro Shops: The Hunt
Backbreaker
Alpha Protocol
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Resurgence Pack (June 3rd)
PS3
Backbreaker
Alpha Protocol
Planet Minigolf
PS2
syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow
PC
The Sims 3: Ambitions
Alpha Protocol
Wii
Bass Pro Shops: The Hunt
PSP
Nothing
DS
Diamond Trust of London
Wizardology
May 30, 2010
No New Video
Sorry for the inconvenience.Feel free to bitch at him all you want at shy_guy_hi@hotmail.com
May 24, 2010
This Week's Releases
XBOX 360
UFC Undisputed 2010
Blur
PS3
UFC Undisputed 2010
Blur
ModNation Racers
Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype
PC
Blur
EVE OnLine: Tyrannis (May 26)
Wii
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (May 23)
Let's Play Ballerina
Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype
PSP
Hexyz Force
ModNation Racers
DS
Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force: Herbert's Revenge
Dawn of Heroes
First Mass Produced Pandora Released to the Public
This Pandora was given to one of the Pandora forum mods for volunteering at the assembling site.
We hear at Flying Cougar Productions say good luck to the folks creating the Pandora, hopefully you will be successful from this innovative new product.
Article at pandorapress.net
May 17, 2010
This Week's Releases
XBOX 360
Attack of the Movies 3D
Split Second
Shrek Forever After
Alan Wake
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Red Dead Redemption
PS3
Split Second
Shrek Forever After
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Red Dead Redemption
PC
Runaway: A Twist of Fate
Split Second
Lost Planet 2
Legio (May 21)
Wii
Bit.Trip Runner (May 17)
Trackamnia (May 17)
Shrek Forever After
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Attack of the Movies 3D
Trauma Team
PSP
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
DS
Trackmania DS 2 (May 17)
Shrek Forever After
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow
RIP Dio
Dio past away on Sunday, May 16th after a long battle with stomach cancer.
This is a sad day for all metal fans to see one of the greatest vocalists go away. May he sing forever in the proverbial "Great Gig in the Sky".
RIP Dio, we will forever miss you.
May 15, 2010
May 12, 2010
Halo 2 XBOX Live Server Finally Shut Down
The final person on the Halo 2 server, Apache N4SIR, was booted off of the server on May 11th. With his removal Halo 2 servers for the XBOX has officially died.
Today we would like to commemorate this tragic end of all multiplayer, original XBOX game's lives by shoving multiple plasma grenades into Udunnojack's face.
Story at MTV Multiplayer
May 11, 2010
This Week's Releases
All of this week's releases were released on May 11, 2010.
XBOX 360
-Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition
-Lost Planet 2
-Skate 3
PS3
-Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition
-Lost Planet 2
-Skate 3
-3D Dot Game Heroes
Absolutely nothing for the Wii
PC
-Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer
PSP
-Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3
DS
-Puzzle Quest 2
May 4, 2010
Starcraft II: WIngs of Liberty Release Date
Yes folks, the fine men and women at Blizzard entertainment have finally released the date that Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty will be for sale.
It will be on sale in the United States, Canada, Europe, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Mexico, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau starting on July 27, 2010 with a digital release a few days later.
The current price for the game will be $59.99 for the standard edition or $99.99 for the collectors edition.
Hopefully in a few months time we will have some Starcraft II videos for you seeing that I am the only Flying Cougar in the Beta currently and want to play with the clan.
Link to blizzard.com press release
Video Delays
We here at Flying Cougar Productions apologize for the delay of our videos. ICLiiPSI, our main video director has had some technical problems that have caused delays in getting the videos to me.
We are extremely sorry for this incident and plan on bringing you, within the coming days, two new MW2 montages.
-Flying Cougar Productions Staff
April 30, 2010
Bungie Signs With Activision
The real question now is will Bungie end up like Infinity Ward?
Infinity Ward was owned by Activision and Bungie still will be an idependant company but they will still dealing with the company whose CEO has been quoted saying "We have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games."
Due to Activision's history of making yearly sequels we may end up seeing Bungie being "encouraged" to continue making Halo games. Because we all know that Bobby likes his money and Halo is a hot selling IP.
Full Story at www.develop-online.net
April 28, 2010
The Beginning
I am Tyaust, a guy who now has a blog, (which he promises he won't use as a medium to rant with) to share video game news review and videos on. The Flying Cougar Report is the official blog of Flying Cougar Productions while Flying Cougar Media is our video and music division.
The Flying Cougars originally started out as a small clan for various video games but an idea of doing more than just game came to me, my co-producer Udunnojack, and our friend ICLiiPSI. Thus Flying Cougar Productions was born. It all started with a CoD: MW2 video they had made and I suggested to create a media network to host it all.
From these humble origins we present you with Flying Cougar Productions. Enjoy!