A Simple Cure for the Open Tray Glitch on the XBOX 360

SO you have an XBOX 360 and it has the dreaded little brother or the red ring of the death, the open tray glitch. The open tray glitch prevents you from playing games on discs because it cannot read the disc because the laser is at the end of the disc drive and wont go back to the front. THe solution however is simple and there is two ways you can do it.

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.

Do you like Metal? How about Metal about Video Games?

Well do you? in case you do, which you should, then listen to a little band from Sweden called Machinae Supremacy. They are SID Metal, a sub genre that uses an SIDstation synthesizer that just happens to utilize the SID chip from the old Commodore 64. Their newest album, A View From the End of the World was released on November 3rd this year and to put it simply, is fucking awesome. So go to Youtube, listen to their songs and buy their albums you wont be let down, because any band who has song names like Rocket Dragon, Crouching Camper Hidden Sniper, and Indiscriminate Murder is Counterproductive has to be awesome.

An End to the Dark Ages, A Renaissance Begins

An important note before I write this article. I am a hypocrite who does not keep his word and actively supports Blizz-Activision despite feeling very horrified by doing so.

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.

Coming soon Black Ops review

The classic Tyaust haterade will be soon coming the new CoD game. In other news new videos should be developed next year and may feature some hosts we've plugged here before. Stay tuned people.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

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?

Flying Cougar PSP Backgrounds

If there is one thing I hate, other then MW2 fanboys, that is shitty wallpapers for the PSP. Well being slightly artistic I have decided to cure said problem please enjoy share edit and do whatever you want with. All the bands I am doing are metal so if you want a specific band post in the comments. (Seriously post there it's kinda lonely over here)

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

PS3 Hacked WIth an Official Controller

Sony hates people who hack into their consoles and change the official firmware. They have recently been engaged in a long battle against people who wish to liberate their PS3s from Sony's obtrussive firmware so they can use emulators, run homebrew applications and so "other" things you can do with custom firmware. (Flying Cougar Productions does not condone video game piracy in any way.)

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.

A Simple Guide to Being the Biggest Dick in World at War

Call of Duty: World at War, perhaps the greatest game in the Call of Duty franchise, with only a single flaw preventing pure perfection, the god damn MP40. Everyone uses the MP40 due to the simple fact it is fully automatic and kills everyone not using juggernaut in three shots. If you want to be competitive in CoD:WaW you will eventually need to pick up the MP40.

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.

YouTube Channels to Visit

Hey, whats up everyone! Udunnojack here, I just want to give a shoutout to some of our friends... Climax Studios 515. They have a great channel full of Hi Def Modern Warefare 2 (MW2 if you will) videos (Amazing commentary!) Do us and them a favor by checking them out and subscribing!

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.

Thanks to everyone who has been following the blog also!
Until next time... Have a nice day.

Hail to the King, Baby!

Duke Nukem Forever, Gear Box Software has announced that they are releasing Duke Nukem Forever. It has only been 13 years since 3D Realms announced Duke Nukem Forever. Duke Nukem Forever is planned to be released sometime in 2011. To get you in the spirit please enjoy this Facebook conversation of me and two of my friends after I broke this news to them.

The Summer is Over!

Well, let us mourn... The summer is now over and we are back to school. Anyway, there has been a lot of talk about Call of Duty: Black Ops. New trailers and such have been released showing different game types, this all seems nice so far. Im sure that Black Ops will be better than MW2 (well, I guess any game could be considered better) but you know... I just wanted to post really quick so Tyaust stops hassling me. Until next time... Keep on gaming!

Sacre Bleu! A Video, It is Back!

After searching for ages I found one backup of our first lost video. I promise that we will start making more videos soon. Enjoy!

XBOX Live Price Increase

Microsoft has decided to increase the price of XBOX Live gold memberships by $10. So let's see how much consumer backlash Microsoft will get for this. As you probably already know the Playstation Network is free and is always used as a comparison. The thing people continuously forget is that Sony is still in the red after releasing the PS3. Microsoft has profited from the 360 and charging for online has helped them be profitable.

My biggest problem with the price increase is that despite all the ads that Microsoft is putting on the dashboard the prices our not dropping. The nice thing with Microsoft's price is that it is a fairly reasonable price for what we get. At $5 per month that is one third the price of a World of Warcraft subscription. Hopefully with the added revenue from this price increase Microsoft can provide us with some more moderation, because I'm pretty sure that everyone is tired of all the 10th prestige lobby spam from just playing one game of MW2.

Music Week: Day 7

This was a triumph. I'm making a note here: huge success. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction. Music week was a success and now to top it all off please enjoy Still Alive from Portal's ending credits.

Music Week: Day 6

The week is almost over but the music never stops. We have one more day left but it only gets more epic. Today's song comes from Platinum Game's 2010 (2009 for Japan) spectacle fighter for the XBOX 360 and PS3, Bayonetta. The Greatest Jubilee is from the final boss fight in this game and is one of the best boss fight songs I have heard in a long time.

Music Week: Day 5

Today's song is an orchestral remix of the Golden Axe main theme. Golden Axe is a sidescrolling hack and slash made for the arcades came out in 1989. The original music was done by David Whittaker while this orchestral remix is done by daXX. Enjoy!

Music Week: Day 4

Today's music comes from Gearbox's FPSARPG Borderlands. Now if you have even put in half the time I have into this game then you should know this song by heart due to how often they play it in the background. To the people who have yet to try out Borderlands listen to this song before you play the game, that way you don't get sick of it by the time you read this post.

Music Week: Day 3

Today's song is from Blizzard's sequel to arguably one of the greatest RTS games of all time, Starcraft 2. Please enjoy Heaven's Devils by Blizzard Entertainment.

Music Week: Day 2

To continue with this week's theme of video game music enjoy some classic, mid nineties, video game music from Command and Conquer Red Alert. Hell March by Frank Klepacki.

Music: The Most Underrated Aspect of Gaming

Video game music is considered by many to be nothing more then annoying background noise that they can't get rid of when playing games. At other times video game music is so subtle the players hardly notice it. Unfortunately, there are also times when video game music can make a game unplayable to a gamer due to the music appearing to be loud, obnoxious and a feature of the game that degrades its overall quality.

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.

To download this song as an mp3 click here.

Are Video Games Actually Art?

As you have probably already heard, film critic Robert Ebert recently took back his axiom that video games are not art. Because of this we are back at step one, are video games art. The only way we can classify something as art or not is if we have a universal definition of what art is, unfortunately this is easier said then done. Wikipedia defines art as "Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way to affect the senses or emotions."

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.

Greetings to the Internets!

Hey guys, Udunnojack here. I just wanted to say that I have an account on the blog now, after putting it off forever Tyaust and I decided to get my account setup. Since this is just an introduction post from me I will not be saying too much, except that llCLiiPSll (I believe that is how it is spelled) is on a camping trip at the moment and will not be making videos for the "media" section of the Flying Cougars until he gets back. He should be back fairly soon... then Tyaust and myself will be doing a dual commentary over the game play he recorded. This should be a lot of fun! Stay with us and enjoy the adventure!

Udunnojack signing off, see you all soon.

Cataclysm Averted: Blizzard Backs Off

Blizzard has decided that forcing people who want to post in their fora to post under their real name is bad. In a letter released this morning Blizzard CEO, Mike Morhaime says that they still remain committed to improving their forums. One of the new features they plan to add is a Slashdot like feature where you can mod up or down forum posts.

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.

Blizzard's Privacy Cataclysm

If you are like me then sometime in your life you have played, or are still playing, a game made by Blizzard, and when you aren't playing this game you're posting on the fora under your character's name or a handle. If you have enjoyed this nice semi-anonymity well it sucks to be you. Blizzard has announced that you must now use your real name to post on the forums, though you have the option to post with a character's name alongside your real name. This will go into effect for theStarcraft 2 fora in mid July and later for the WoW fora shortly before Cataclysm is released.

"Beginning in mid-July, players who post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, the real-life first and last name associated with their Battle.net account. In addition, players also will have the option to display the name of their primary in-game character (plus related in-game information such as guild and realm) alongside their real name. You’ll also begin seeing blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well.

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.

Flying Cougar Forum Signatures

The custom Flying Cougar Forum signatures are here. Just email me at tyaust666@gmail.com and tell me your name and rank you want on it.


Also available in black or with a background of your choice.

New Design New Stuff

You may have noticed the new design. Deep in our fortress of nerdiness we decided to give the blog a new colour scheme and to make Tyaust do it. Well, after a few hours of playing with the template editor the new design is finally done.

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.

Free Fun: A Review of jvgs

A few days ago on the xkcd fora I discovered a free game with a similar minimalistic artistic style to the xkcd comics. This game is called 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

It's been a busy month here at Flying Cougar Productions with finals and all that fun "important" real life stuff. But we haven't been sitting around on our collective asses twiddling our thumbs and watching paint dry. ICLiiPSI has been working on more videos (which still must be sent to me so I can record commentary...). I've playing games to come up with some reviews, as well as avoiding raging about gimmicks in games (read: Kinect and Playstation Move). Udunnojack, well we think he may have been eaten by a rabid gopher but he should poke his head around here soon enough. But do not fear we are still alive (I think) and will be providing you with a summer full of gaming and nerdy goodness.

No Updates This Week

Due to the laziness of the employees at Telus there will be no updates this week. I am without an internet connection due to my modem crapping out and having only Telus supplying them in my area. So once again our dual commentary, full length game video will be postponed.

Coming Soon

This month will be a busy month for us here at Flying Cougar Productions but we have big plans. Firstly my computer is finally fixed and that means a graphics update will be coming soon to the Youtube channel and the blog. Secondly our director of videos, ICLiiPSI finally got unbanned from XBOX Live, again, which means our first complete gameplay video will be coming out, featuring dual commentary by Udunnojack and your's truly. Finally we will be starting a new program where we showcase independant musicians in our videos. If you know of an independant artist which would like some free advertising then contact me at tyaust666@gmail.com

The Rise of Microtransactions

Ah microtransactions, the dreaded word of many MMO players in the west. Nowadays a growing number of high quality MMO's are going free to play and will be paid for by microtransactions. The latest game which is adopting this growing trend is Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online which will be going free to play this fall. This is not a surprising move for Turbine as they already have another free to play MMO in the market as well, Dungeons and Dragons Online.

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.

This Week's Releases

Note: All releases came out on June 1st unless otherwise noted.

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

No New Video

We were planning on bringing you a video this week but due to an issue on XBL (read: ICLiiPSI getting banned again) we will have to wait till next weekend to shoot it.

Sorry for the inconvenience.Feel free to bitch at him all you want at shy_guy_hi@hotmail.com

This Week's Releases

Note: All releases came out on May 25 unless otherwise marked.

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

The Pandora, to the many who have not heard of this handheld, is an open source handheld console that can run emulators. For years now this project has been worked on and now the first mass produced Pandora has been released.

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

This Week's Releases

Note: Unless marked otherwise all releases came out on May 18, 2010.

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

Though we may be a video game blog we are still heavy metal fans and we would like to take a moment to remember the greatest metal vocalist of all times, Ronnie James 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.

MW2 Quick Scope, No Scope and Throwing Knife Montage

Youtube Videos on Temporary Channel

Youtube videos are temporarily offline.

Halo 2 XBOX Live Server Finally Shut Down

On April 15th Microsoft decided that it was time to shut down the servers for original XBOX titles, including Halo 2. However after they shut down the servers a few players remained and had their machines run non stop keeping them logged into the servers.

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

This Week's Releases

After taking a week off of posting to work with some internal issues I have came up with a new idea for a new weekly segment, 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

Starcraft II: WIngs of Liberty Release Date

Well, the first sign of the apocalypse has come, we have finally a 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

Dear Readers,

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

Bungie Signs With Activision

Bungie, the studio that made Halo, have signed a ten year publishing deal with Activision. For the next decade all Bungie games will be published by Activision. However, Bungie still retains all their intellectual property and will continue to be an independent company.

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

The Beginning

Greetings dear readers,

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!