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.

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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.