Whenever a review appears on the net or elsewhere, I'll pop a link up here so that those of you still undecided whether to get one or not, can be persuaded. Of course, that's if you can still find them in stock somewhere! ;) Anyway, the most recent articles are first. Those that are not in your native language can be translated at altavista.com. And why not see what other users are saying about the Cougar here.

Mirv gives an end user point of view and reviews his newly aquired FCC. Thanks for taking the time to write it Mirv!

James reviews the FSS from the Spanish company who manufactures the ICP and MFDs for Falcon4 : Realsimulator. The review is on our forum in this thread
Thanks James, very nice writing as usual :)

After having tested the FCC alpha prototype for some weeks, I put online my impression about the mod. Go to this page for the full review and don't hesitate to comment it on the Hardware forum.

Hornet from the F4community staff wrote a review of the Ultimate 2 Cougar mod and take the opportunity to explain the differences between all the hardware mods available. Go to F4community for the full review. Thanks Hornet, well done.

COMBAT FLIGHT SIM FANS can be divided into two camps: the clinically insane and the well-equipped clinically insane. Ever since I got my hands on one of Thrustmaster’s new HOTAS Cougar flightstick-throttle units, I’ve definitely moved over to Camp B. For those of you who haven’t heard about this remarkable new peripheral - or who didn’t catch the praise-filled review in October 2002’s Hard Stuff section - the HOTAS Cougar is the most robust, most technologically advanced, and priciest ($299) joystick-and-throttle combo that you will ever plug into your machine’s USB port. It’s also the last joystick that you’ll ever need to buy - and that’s not an exaggeration.Priced at a cool three bills, the Cougar is the closest thing to an objet d’art that your gaming desktop will ever host. The heavy black die-cast metal construction accounts for most of its tactile beauty, but the real art comes from its 28 programmable buttons, five hat-switches, and ultra-smooth, multi-axis digital response. How smooth? Well, when I loaded up Falcon 4.0 and floated the sims diabolically touchy F-16 down to a perfect hands-free two-point landing on my very first attempt, I knew I had found the flight-stick of my dreams.

I’ve had mine plugged in for almost six months now, logging extensive flight hours with titles like Falcon 4.0, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002, Strike Fighters, Combat Flight Simulator 3, IL-2 Sturmovik, and Flanker 2.5 along the way, and the Cougar has handled almost everything I’ve thrown at it without a hiccup.
In fact, apart from some minor conflict issues with a cordless optical mouse, the only problem that the HOTAS Cougar has ever really given me is a pair of overly stiff Speedbrake and Dogfight switches on the throttle unit when I first pulled it out of the box. A month of hard use was about all it took to smooth out both of these, however, and the action has been slicker than Shinola ever since. A gaming peripheral that actually improves with age? Not surprising, really - the all-metal stick and throttle units weigh in at close to 20 pounds, and in a pinch, these puppies could probably be used to jack up your damned car.

The Cougar isn’t cheap, but if you’re a serious simmer who’s finally ready to trade that little girly-man plastic stick of yours in for an honest-to-god heavyweight military contender, then Thrustmaster’s stick will do you proud.

• January 3rd, 2002: Cougar programming - Foxy Composer - the third in the "Getting you ready" series of articles.
• December 13th, 2001: The pots issue - explained and finalised by Mark.
• December 11th, 2001: Getting you ready: Using the HOTAS Cougar – Pt. 2 - The series continues.
• December 5th, 2001: Getting you Ready: Using the HOTAS Cougar - Len "Viking 1" Hjalmarson takes a look at programming the Cougar.
• November 23rd, 2001: HOTAS Cougar Preview at Check-Six. The article is in French, so if you need to translate it, use http://babelfish.altavista.com/.
• November 12th, 2001: Cougar Programming for the Novice – Pt. 2 - Continuing the interview between Len "Viking 1" Hjalmarson and James "Nutty" Hallows.
• November 9th, 2001: Cougar Programming for the Novice – Pt. 1 - Interview between Len "Viking 1" Hjalmarson and James "Nutty" Hallows.
• November 7th, 2001: Sim Technique shows off the pre-production models - Olivier Beaumont is one of the beta testers on the Cougar project, and he showed off the pre-production models at a show in Brussels. Take a look at these great pictures, and ... oh ... the lettering !!
• October 17th, 2001: Project Cougar – the latest on the upcoming HOTAS - an interview with the project manager.
• October 12th, 2001: A History of Thrustmaster HOTAS – Pt. 2 - some more information and clarification of Cougar features.
• October 11th, 2001: Thrustmaster Cougar release pushed back again! - a post on the F4 Community forum, and here's another in a thread on Frugal's Falcon 4 forum. And this thread (Cougar/Rudders) discusses rudder compatibility and connectivity.
• September 19th, 2001: USAF Selects HOTAS Cougar for pilot training - a news item at CombatSim.
• August 21st, 2001: Thrustmaster Cougar Interview, Part 2 - The Capabilities - an interview with James Hallows and Mark "Frugal" Bush from Frugal's World.
• August 16th, 2001: Justifying the $300 price tag. This is a post I made on the Falcon 4 forum you may enjoy reading.
• June 15th, 2001: Best of E3 2001 Hardware Award - SimHQ is in no doubt about the new Cougar. (Which is probably why they came round every day to fly with it! *grin*)
• June 12th, 2001: The Hits Just Keep on Coming: A Second Visit to Guillemot - Kurt "Froglips" Giesselman's excellent article for Dogfighter.
• June 2nd, 2001: E3 2001 report - Jan's E3 report and comments on the Cougar. This was fantastic - to get Bob, Jan and myself all in the same place at the same time - a great memory for us TM junkies :)
• May 29th, 2001: Thrustmaster's HOTAS Cougar at E3 - 2001 - Thrustmaster article summarising what various people thought about the Cougar.
• May 28th, 2001: Best of Show with distinction - The HOTAS Cougar is awarded the highest award from CombatSim beating all its rivals.
• May 24th, 2001: E3 2001 Hardware Report - SimHQ
• May 18th, 2001: ThrustMaster Cougar HOTAS, E3 2001 - an excellent article by Douglas Helmer at CombatSim.
• May 18th, 2001: ThrustMaster COUGAR! - a small article with screenshots from E3 2001, by Sim Arena.
• May 17th, 2001: Thrustmaster Cougar Interview, Part 1 - The Hardware - an interview with James Hallows and Mark "Frugal" Bush from Frugal's World.
• May 17th, 2001: E3 2001, Day 1: ThrustMaster HOTAS Cougar - Bryan "Biff" Burchfield plays with the real deal and writes up his experiences for Dogfighter.
• May 17th, 2001: TM HOTAS Cougar - A small article at Dogfighter with screenshots from E3 2001.
• May 3rd, 2001: HOTAS: Far Beyond Reality - Thrustmaster article
• May 2nd, 2001: Cougar Calibration: HOTAS style - Thrustmaster interview with Guillaume Leleve, the Project Manager.
• March 29th, 2001: ThrustMaster HOTAS 2000 - Len "Viking1" Hjalmarson writes for CombatSim.
• February 27th, 2001: Thrustmaster HOTAS - an article by Jukka O. Kauppinen for eDome in Finnish.
• February 14th, 2001: Pictures of the prototype - SimHQ photos.
• February 12th, 2001: The Shape of Things To Come: A Visit to Guillemot - Dogfighter article.
• February 12th, 2001: HOTAS News - Thrustmaster article.
• December 28th, 2000: HOTAS update: The news on Thrustmaster’s up-and-coming Hands On Throttle And Stick products - interview with James Hallows and TM.
• September 7th, 2000: New HOTAS 2000 Images - Renderings of the Cougar.
• August 1st, 2000: HOTAS 2000 News - The F22 2000 and the TQS 2000 Part 2 - Thrustmaster article
• July 26th, 2000: Interview - between Dan "Crash" Crenshaw (SimHQ) and Guillaume Leleve, the Project manager.
• July 19th, 2000: HOTAS 2000 News: The F22 2000 and the TQS 2000 (Throttle Quadrant System) - Thrustmaster article
• June 7th, 2000: ThrustMaster HOTAS 2000 Project - a small article at Dogfighter.