The first public appearance of The Witness, a new game from Braid designer Jonathan Blow (and a small team of independent designers), almost went unnoticed. Its presence at last weekend's Penny Arcade Expo wasn't announced by an enthusiastic press release or trumpeted by a flashy trailer. It didn't even have a sign.

"PAX is a huge show, with tons of stuff to see everywhere; if the game could hold peoples' attention under those conditions, purely on its own merits rather than by hype or pedigree, then I would know that it was really working," Jonathan Blow wrote on The Witness blog. "Happily, the game worked very well - despite the fact that the visuals are still in an early prototype stage. People tended to play for a long time, and they liked what they played."

Kotaku's Stephen Totilo compared the first-person exploration and puzzle-solving to Myst. The game's beautifully lit and serene world hides abstract enigmas, such as boards that require you to trace the correct route. What's most interesting, however, is that there don't seem to be any prompts or instructions for the player -- making this understated PAX reveal seem very appropriate indeed.

The Witness makes low-key debut at PAX originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We've got bad news and good news. First, the bad news: The new Borderlands DLC pack - that's Claptrap's New Robot Revolution - won't include the two most requested features. Those would be a new level cap and a rebalancing of the main game to accomodate the new level cap. And neither of those will be included with the latest DLC.

Now the good news: They are being included in a free update for the game across all three platforms, Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford told a live PAX audience they resisted making it a part of a DLC pack since if they included those features, "you'd have to buy every previous DLC" to get access to these new features. So, instead, Pitchford said they were going to release a "free update to Borderlands that will both rebalance the original game around the level cap and increase the level cap for everyone."

But Pitchford said the studio still struggled with how far to raise the level cap. On the one hand, they didn't want to match the 11-point upgrade that many people paid for with the "General Knox" DLC but they didn't want it to be too low, like 5-points. Instead, they came up with another number. "With the current level cap at 61," Pitchford teased, "we realized if we added 8 levels ... "

The audience groans.

So the new level cap is 69 and it will be released sometime around the October 12th Borderlands Game of the Year Edition release.

Free Borderlands update will raise level cap, rebalance main game originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Somewhere there's an alternate dimension where monster games like Rampage and War of the Monsters are not oddities but rather fine examples of a whole "monsters destroying crap" genre. Eat Them!, which I played recently at PAX 2010, is a game directly from that dimension.

In Fluffy Logic's (Savage Moon) upcoming PSN release, you play as a monster that you've customized every slimy, scaly inch of, from his shoulder rockets to his tentacle legs. Then ... well, you destroy shit.

Continue reading Eat Them! preview: War of the Rampage

Eat Them! preview: War of the Rampage originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A new, bug-free version of Crackdown 2's "Toy Box" DLC pack was released yesterday morning on Xbox Live Marketplace, according to Ruffian Games. Unfortunately, rather than a patch, the DLC has been re-issued, meaning that folks who downloaded the content will need to delete it and redownload. The new version fixes issues ranging from "crash on loading" to issues with the narrator's voice and Achievement problems, which we reported on earlier this week.

Ruffian says that the glitches were "caused by problems mastering the DLC package," thus the reissue rather than a patch. The developer assures players that "all will be fine" after the download, which was available publicly as of yesterday morning. We've yet to hear of any issues with the re-release, but feel free to let us know if you find any.

Crackdown 2 'Toy Box' DLC crashing issues resolved by reissue originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that only slightly more than one quarter of the country can correctly identify John Roberts as the Chief Justice of the United States:

Asked to name the current chief justice of the Supreme Court, and given four possible names, nearly one-in-ten Americans (8%) choose Thurgood Marshall, despite the fact that Justice Marshall left the Supreme Court roughly 20 years ago, and passed away in 1993. In fact, very few Americans can name the current chief justice in a Pew Research news quiz; just 28% were able to correctly identify John Roberts. Another 6% thought the recently retired Justice John Paul Stevens was chief justice, while 4% named Sen. Harry Reid. A majority (53%) admitted that they did not know the answer.

In many ways, Pew’s poll reflects the challenge facing progressives trying to educate the public about the harm Roberts caused since he became Chief in 2005. Roberts led a conservative bloc of five justices to grant corporate interests sweeping immunity from environmental law, from laws protecting women and older workers, from antitrust law, and — of course — from any meaningful restrictions on corporate money in American elections. Roberts’ dissenting votes go even further, declaring that rogue banks, drug companies and the tobacco industry should be immune from much of state law. But it?s hard to make the message about Roberts? extremism penetrate the public mind if they don?t even know who he is.

A mile-long oil sheen is now reportedly visible where an offshore oil and gas platform exploded this morning in the Gulf of Mexico. The Vermilion Oil Rig 360, owned by Mariner Energy — which was recently purchased by Apache Corp. — was producing about 58,800 gallons of oil and 900,000 cubic feet of gas per day.

As ThinkProgress noted, just yesterday Mariner Energy said the Obama administration’s moratorium on offshore drilling is “trying to break us.” Mariner Energy also made a recent filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission saying its operations “may be impacted in the future by increased regulatory oversight, which may increase the cost of” Outer Continental Shelf wells “and delay drilling and production therefrom.”

But if today’s explosion wasn’t enough evidence, government safety records indicate that Mariner Energy and Apache Corp. are desperately in need of regulation. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Outer Continental Shelf Civil/Criminal Penalties Program cited Mariner Energy for two violations just in the first six months of this year, and once more in 2007.

A summary of the fines assessed against Mariner Energy:

– Two violations in 2010, totaling $55,000.

– One violation in 2007, for $30,000.

Apache Energy has been cited for 22 violations since 1998, totaling over $1.74 million in fines, including a $435,000 fine this year for removing a key piece of equipment from a sump system, which then “could not automatically maintain oil at a level sufficient to prevent discharge into the Gulf of Mexico.”

A summary of the fines assessed against Apache Corp.:

– Two violations in 2010, totaling $690,000.

– Two violations in 2008, totaling $135,000.

– Three violations in 2007, totaling $486,000.

– Five violations in 2006, totaling $216,000.

– Three violations in 2005, totaling $122,000.

– One violation in 2004, for $5,000.

– One violation in 2002, for $13,000.

– Four violations in 2001, totaling $70,000.

– One violation in 1999, for $6,000.

Mariner Energy is probably right that the company will be “impacted” by “increased regulatory oversight.” But its workers, and the Gulf ecosystem, might avoid being impacted as they were today.

In their quest to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans, many leading Republicans have invented a fantasy world in which tax cuts always pay for themselves through increased economic growth. Extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich would cost $830 billion in lost revenue over the next ten years, but nonetheless, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) claimed, “You should never have to offset cost” of tax cuts, while Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) said, “tax cuts should not have to be offset.? Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) went a step further, falsely claiming that the Bush tax cuts have actually “increased revenue.”

But on CNBC today, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the ranking GOP member on the House Budget Committee, splashed some cold water on that delusion, saying dismissively, “I?m not one of these people who says that say that all tax cuts pay for themselves”:

ZANDI: Congressman, the president has proposed allowing the tax rates for upper income individuals to rise back to where they were in the 1990s, the CBO says that?s going to cost $700 billion over the next ten years. Do you those estimates are correct?

RYAN: I actually, I don?t think they’re correct. … But the CBO just gave us a report, Mark, the other day, that said that if we allow these top tax rates to expire, it?s going to cost us 1.25 million jobs next year, it?s going to shave off a full percentage point off of GDP, and it?s going to slow down the economy.

QUICK: But Paul, you just quoted the CBO on those numbers, but disagreed with them on the others. Where did CBO get it wrong on the other numbers?

RYAN: Well, on the revenues, because I believe you?ll get faster economic growth. Look, I?m not one of these people who says that all tax cuts pay for themselves, but tax cuts on the margins is where the growth occurs. And that does make a difference.

Watch it:

Ryan has received tremendous praise from his GOP colleagues for his supposed policy knowledge and economic smarts. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called Ryan “sharp,” while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich labeled him “extraordinarily formidable,” and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) touted that Republicans, “led by Congressman Paul Ryan, have already identified $1.3 trillion in specific spending cuts.” Indeed, Paul is absolutely correct that tax cuts don’t always pay for themselves.

However, his smarts didn’t stop him from contradicting himself seconds before that moment of lucidity in the CNBC interview. As host Becky Quick pointed out, Ryan quoted the Congressional Budget Office approvingly when their numbers supported his argument, but questioned their estimates moments earlier when they did not fit his narrative.

A favorite Republican talking point lately is that the businesses are not creating jobs because they are “hamstrung by uncertainty.” According to this argument, the specter of taxes and regulation is paralyzing companies, and if only Congress would preserve the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and promise to not produce any new regulations, a flood of business investment would ensue. Last night on CNBC, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) told supply-side guru and Reagan disciple Larry Kudlow that the way to get businesses to “unleash” the nearly $2 trillion in cash and assets they’re currently sitting on is to extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich and then cut marginal income tax rates even further. “C’mon, we know what works,” Pence said:

C’mon, we know what works. Larry, you know what works better than most Americans, and that is across-the-board marginal tax relief…We’ve got to demand, whether it’s this fall, whether it’s after the election, or whether it’s in a newly minted Congress next year, we’ve got to demand that we preserve tax relief, no American sees a tax increase on January 1, and then promote across-the-board tax relief on marginal rates that’ll really unleash all that more than $2 trillion in trapped capital in this economy.

Watch it:

It seems like some variation of “c’mon!” has become the Republican leadership’s go-to argument these days, but Pence shouldn’t be so smug when it comes to the efficacy of marginal income tax cuts to spur business investment. As The Wonk Room explains, business investment following the Clinton-era tax increase far outstripped that following either the Bush or Reagan supply-side tax cuts. “The failure of investment to respond to supply-side tax cuts greatly undermines the central premise of the theory underlying the policy,” wrote economists Michael Ettlinger and John Irons.

As ThinkProgress noted yesterday, Deficit Commission co-chair Alan Simpson recently started a political firestorm by complaining that veterans benefits allocated for servicemembers exposed to Agent Orange run ?contrary to efforts to control federal spending.” He even went as far as to say that ?the irony? is that ?the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess.”

Now, veterans advocacy group VoteVets, the nation’s largest progressive veterans organization, is calling on President Obama to fire Alan Simpson. Citing not only his comments about veterans benefits but also his earlier remarks comparing Social Security to a “milk cow with 310 million tits,” VoteVets asks that Obama remove Simpson from “his current position so that the commission can continue its work in a way that will give the military community — and all Americans — confidence in the conclusions it reaches?:

The nation’s largest progressive veterans organization, VoteVets.org, is calling on President Obama to relieve former Senator Alan Simpson from his chairmanship of a deficit reduction commission for defamatory comments about veterans. [...]

His comments came on the heels of outrageous comments about seniors and others on Social Security, as well as women. The veterans pointed to those comments as well, but wrote that Simpson’s attacks on ill veterans compelled them to write. They said firing Simpson was a matter of honoring our veterans. [...] “We ask that you remove [Simpson] from his current position so that the commission can continue its work in a way that will give the military community–and all Americans–confidence in the conclusions it reaches,” the letter concludes.

Additionally, last night on Countdown With Keith Olbermann, Paul Sullivan, executive director of the veterans advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense appeared to call for Simpson to be fired as well, saying he was “absolutely not” the right person to be co-chairing the commission. When Olbermann asked Sullivan if the the ex-senator should be fired, Sullivan replied, “Let me put it to you politely. There’s lots of work for out of work politicians in Washington. I’ll leave it at that.” Watch it:

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For months, congressional Republicans have refused to put forward a detailed policy agenda for this fall’s midterm elections, preferring instead to focus on their opposition to the Obama administration. Some in the House have dusted off former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s tarnished legacy and are advocating the creation of a new “Contract with America.” The contract gimmick helped propel Gingrich and his party to huge wins in 1994, and House GOP leaders are trying to make the same play again.

Both Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) have thus far been reluctant to lay out an alternative GOP agenda.

But two leading Republican senators this morning urged their leadership to come out with an agenda. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), appearing on Fox News Sunday and Meet the Press respectively, each floated the idea of a new Contract with America, in a seemingly coordinated message:

WALLACE: I just want to get back to this idea, the contract. The House Republicans are talking about, I guess they’ll call it a Commitment to America. But Senate Republicans haven’t been talking about that. Are you saying Senate Republicans should come forward with their own affirmative agenda between now and the election?

McCAIN: I think the Senate and House Republicans should come forward with an agenda before the election. Yes. You know, as much as, as happy as we are about the outcome of the elections, when you look at the approval ratings of Republicans they’re just as bad as Democrats. We have to give them a reason to vote for us.

[...]

GREGORY: Do you think the Republicans have some work to do before they can really achieve majority status?

GRAHAM: Well, I think what we have to do is to come up with a uniting agenda, sort of a Contract with America, what would we do different on spending? … Going forward, [we need to] show the American people that the Republican party can govern.

Watch a compilation:

When presented with one proposed positive agenda — Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) harsh Roadmap for America’s future — McCain declined to endorse it, saying he hadn’t studied it in “detail.”

Both Graham and McCain also praised tea party activists as a vital component of the GOP’s new base. McCain said, “Tea-partiers are a great addition,” adding with considerable understatement: “We’re going to have a broad array of different views in our Republican conference, and I think it might be more interesting than any I’ve been in in a long time.”