Part puzzle game, part reflex challenge. Like many VR games, Headmaster starts with a simple concept. The game throws soccer balls at you, and you move your head to hit them back. It’s wrapped in a story where you visit a center for soccer players who need help, but it’s really all about the feeling of a soccer ball hitting you in the head.
There’s a nice sense of timing when the ball flies in, a satisfying suction cup sound effect when it hits you and a quick bounce when it flies away. And you don’t have to move your head to the point of discomfort — you can slowly lean in and still get a pretty accurate shot, as long as you approach it from the correct angle.
Similar to something like Portal, the game is primarily a series of challenges, with bits of story and humor snuck in around the edges. Your main goal is to aim the soccer balls at specific targets. The more difficult the targets are to hit, the more points you get for them. Then as you progress, the game throws in obstacles and twists on the concept, with an excitable employee named Carl mixed in.
“It’s not wacky,” says Frame Interactive CEO Ben Throop. “It’s more like dark humor. The guy that runs it, you never see him. … Let’s just call him the headmaster. … He’s kind of only half paying attention, because he’s got a lot of other stuff going on. He hired Carl to do stuff, and Carl gets a little bit excited to make the challenges for you.”

Carl is the center’s only employee, and isn’t allowed to talk to you, so he leaves notes behind to tell you what’s going on and add some flavor. The bulk of the game, though, lies in the challenges he creates.
In the demo version on display at GDC, this plays out initially in a realistic sense, but soon ramps up. In one challenge, you get a giant beach ball that knocks over multiple targets at once, making aiming easier. In another, you get soccer ball-shaped bombs, which you use to blow up wooden crates and clear a path. One stage puts a forklift carrying an outhouse in your way, making you aim around it to hit your targets. And in the final stage before the GDC demo fades to black, you see the outlines of a rock concert stage, hinting at something more elaborate.
The developers are also planning a multiplayer mode called the “group session” where players take turns wearing the headset and pass it around, competing for score. “It’s kind of like you’re all visiting a football improvement center together,” says Throop. “You’ve all been bad players and got sent there by your club to improve.”
Frame is planning Headmaster as a PlayStation VR launch title to ship in October, exclusive to Sony’s headset because Sony funded the game.

They all have appropriately hellish names Doom will ship with nine multiplayer maps, publisher Bethesda Softworks announced today, and you can see all of them in action in a new trailer.
The trailer showcases four of the maps — Helix, Disposal, Chasm and Infernal — with lengthy fly-bys, and features brief glimpses of the five others.
Bethesda also offered some notes about what players will encounter on those maps. Some of the arenas include one-way or two-way teleporters, which will transport humans and demons but not weapon fire. Humans and demons can also use bounce pads to get to higher vantage points, and they’ll both have to avoid two types of instant-kill hazards: lava and pits of death.
Other things to keep an eye out for include explosive barrels and hazard canisters, the latter of which will leave behind harmful green slime when they blow up. Three other environmental dangers — fire, radioactive slime and energy/plasma — will only hurt humans, not demons.
Here’s the full list of Doom’s maps, complete with descriptions, straight from Bethesda:

Excavation: A modest-sized UAC mining outpost. Watch out for the rock grinder!
Infernal: A mid-sized Hell map with both interior and exterior elements. Lots of platforms and chasms, along with teleporters.
Chasm: This massive map takes you deep below the polar ice caps of Mars. A great place to play Freeze Tag.
Disposal: This smaller map is the main waste processing facility for the UAC research and residential complexes. Unsurprisingly, it’s full of radioactive slime.
Helix: This is where they experiment on demons and develop advanced weaponry. Which, naturally, makes it perfect for a quick round of Clan Arena.
Perdition: Disjointed and sadistic, this ancient arena is populated by the agonized moans of unfortunate souls who have suffered within its realm.
Sacrilegious: Set within a fracture of Hell, this map offers clear lines of sight. Move fast… or die faster.
Heatwave: An industrial UAC facility with glistening halls that will soon be slicked with human (and demon) blood.
Beneath: Before being beamed to Earth, the energies of Hell are harnessed in this symmetrical and cavernous location.

Doom is set for release May 13 on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. Its closed multiplayer beta, which will be available on all three platforms, will run from March 31 through April 3.

Developer Cliff Harris adds significant features for new game Democracy 3 Africa sounds like an expansion, but it’s not. It’s a standalone game, albeit one that will work with the core game’s previously released expansions.
Speaking to Polygon at Game Developers Conference, developer Cliff Harris said that the new game is aimed at fans of his much-admired government simulation who are looking for a serious challenge. The point. he explained, is that while running a country in an established Western country is tough, it’s an entirely different matter to maintain stability in many rapidly changing African countries, which often face a different set of issues.
Democracy 3 puts players in charge of a country and asks them to make decisions on a raft of issues. So, players can cut taxes or ban guns or increase fines for violations of the law. Different segments of the populace react differently to these changes. Sometimes a player loses voter support and is kicked out of office. Other times, he or she is assassinated.
In Africa, there are additional challenges. Many of the ten countries featured in the game have a history of unstable governments, rights abuses, poverty, civil war, coups and epidemics. They are often in the midst of a transition between agrarian and industrial societies. Old certainties, such as religion, are threatened by new experiments, such as liberalism.
Democracy 3 Africa will be released for Windows PC in April priced at $14.99

Sony’s virtual reality headset for PlayStation 4 is coming later this year PlayStation VR, Sony’s virtual reality headset for the PlayStation 4, will launch worldwide this October for $399, the company announced at a special event at this week’s Game Developers Conference.
The platform formerly known as Project Morpheus will sell for less than some other VR headsets launching this year, namely the $599 Oculus Rift and the $799 HTC Vive.
In Europe and the U.K., PlayStation VR will cost €399/£349. In Japan, the PS4 headset will cost 44,980 yen.
Andrew House, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, showed the final retail version of the PlayStation VR headset, and confirmed the platform’s hardware specifications. PlayStation VR will ship with a 5.7 inch OLED display that supports refresh rates of 120 Hz and 90 Hz.
House said that more than 230 developers are currently making content for PlayStation VR. He expects 50 titles to be available for PlayStation VR between the platform’s launch in October and the end of 2016.
For more on PlayStation VR, read Polygon’s feature on the making of Sony’s venture in virtual reality for its current home console.
Developing…

Sony left a small detail out of the PlayStation VR announcement Sony announced the PlayStation VR virtual reality platform will launch for the PlayStation 4 this October for $399, but neglected to mention that the hardware requires the purchase of the $60 PlayStation 4 camera to function.
Sony has confirmed to Polygon that the camera is required for the virtual reality headset to function, but said the camera is not included in the $399 package because many customers already own the accessory. The camera provides positional tracking for the headset.

Still no hard sales numbers, though Tom Clancy’s The Division continued selling well after its impressive first 24 hours, breaking Destiny’s record for the highest sales of a new franchise — in dollars, not number of copies — during its first five days of release, publisher Ubisoft announced today.
Activision launched Destiny in September 2014, and reported sales of $325 million from the game’s first five days on the market. Ubisoft announced today that estimated worldwide revenue from The Division’s first five days of release exceeded $330 million. Destiny launched on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, while The Division is available on PS4, Windows PC and Xbox One.

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The Division isn’t just Ubisoft’s next game, it’s the company’s future

“The Division taking the top spot in the industry for first week sales of a new franchise is a tremendous achievement," said Yves Guillemot, CEO and co-founder of Ubisoft, in a press release. "We are very proud of our teams, and humbled by and thankful for the millions of players who are giving us their feedback and support."
Last week, Ubisoft said that The Division set multiple internal Ubisoft records, including the one for number of copies sold on launch day. The publisher also said The Division came in as one of the top four launches of new brands in gaming history, with the other three being Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs and Activision’s Destiny.
Now The Division stands alone at the top of the opening-week sales chart. In addition, Ubisoft reported that The Division is now the publisher’s best-selling game of all time during its first week of release. The company has not announced specific figures for the number of copies sold.

Sony left a small detail out of the PlayStation VR announcement Sony announced the PlayStation VR virtual reality platform will launch for the PlayStation 4 this October for $399, but neglected to mention that the hardware requires the purchase of the $60 PlayStation 4 camera to function and provide positional tracking.
Sony has confirmed to Polygon that the camera is required for the virtual reality hardware to function, but was not included in the $399 package due to many customers already owning the accessory.

Electronic Arts’ Star Wars-themed shooter Star Wars Battlefront is coming to PlayStation VR, Sony announced today.
“This will be a Star Wars Battlefront gaming experience like nothing else," said Andrew House, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, "where players can transport themselves to a galaxy far, far away."
Sony promised more details on Star Wars Battlefront for PlayStation VR in the coming months.
Developing…

It’s a first for the revived baseball franchise R.B.I. Baseball 16, the third edition of MLB Advanced Media’s revival of the old-school baseball series, will be released digitally March 29 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the company announced today.
The downloadable console versions of R.B.I. 16 will be available globally, which is a first in the history of MLB Advanced Media’s stewardship of the R.B.I. Baseball franchise. The worldwide distribution will “more than double" the regions in which the game is available, the company said in a press release.
One week later, on April 5, retail copies of R.B.I. 16 on PS4 and Xbox One will arrive in the U.S. (at Best Buy, GameStop, Target, Toys R Us and Wal-Mart) and Canada (at the same stores, minus Target). R.B.I. Baseball 14 and R.B.I. Baseball 15 were available only as downloadable titles, making this physical release another first for the revived series.
It also means that R.B.I. 16’s cover athletes will actually see their faces on a box in a store, instead of merely in images on a digital storefront. As announced in January, the game’s cover will feature Boston Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts in the U.S. and Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Marcus Stroman in Canada. You can see the cover artwork below.
In the U.S., R.B.I. 16 will cost $19.99 on consoles and PC, and $4.99 on mobile devices. In Canada, it will sell for CA$29.99 on consoles and PC, and CA$6.99 on mobile. Pricing in other regions will also vary depending on the local currency.
R.B.I. 16 is also in development on Android, iOS, Mac and Windows PC, although MLB Advanced Media has yet to announce release dates for those platforms. Once again, an R.B.I. Baseball title is the only MLB-licensed baseball game available on an Xbox console. For more on R.B.I. 16, check out the gameplay trailer above.
U.S. cover art for R.B.I. Baseball 16, featuring Mookie Betts

Canadian cover art for R.B.I. Baseball 16, featuring Marcus Stroman

Pound for pound, it’s cheaper with better performance Razer today announced a new Razer Blade notebook with a faster CPU and more graphics memory.
The updated Razer Blade laptop runs on an Intel Core i7 quad-core processor and comes with 16 GB of DDR4 RAM, 6 GB of GDDR5 VRAM in its Nvidia GTX 970M graphics card — that’s twice as much memory as what’s in the existing Razer Blade model — and either a 256 GB or 512 GB SSD.
The 256 GB model of the Razer Blade will cost $1,999, and the 512 GB model will cost $2,199. Pre-orders begin March 16 at Razer’s website, with orders shipping next month.
Like the Razer Blade Stealth, both models of the new Razer Blade feature an RGB backlit keyboard and a 3200 x 1800 QHD multitouch display. (Razer is no longer producing a Razer Blade model with a non-touchscreen 1080p display.) You can see the full hardware specifications below. The new Razer Blade will also be compatible with the Razer Core.
“We are getting much more aggressive as far as price point, but that hasn’t come at a cost to the performance or design of the Razer Blade," said Min-Liang Tan, Razer’s co-founder and CEO. "We’ve improved nearly every aspect of the 14-inch laptop, from CPU and GPU performance to system memory and port selection."
Specifications

Intel Core i7-6700HQ quad-core processor (2.6 GHz / 3.5 GHz)
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M (6 GB GDDR5 VRAM)
16 GB RAM (2,133 MHz DDR4)
Windows 10 64-bit
256 GB / 512 GB SSD (PCIe M.2) options
14-inch IGZO QHD+ 16:9 Ratio, 3200×1800, with LED backlight and capacitive multitouch
Anti-ghosting keyboard with per-key lighting powered by Chroma
Killer Wireless-AC 1535 (802.11a/b/g/n/ac + Bluetooth 4.1)
Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C)
USB 3.0 port x3 (SuperSpeed)
HDMI 1.4b video and audio output
3.5 mm headphone/microphone combo port
Built-in webcam (2.0 MP)
Built-in stereo speakers
Array microphone
Dolby Digital Plus Home Theater Edition
7.1 codec support (via HDMI)
Trusted Platform Module (TPM 2.0) security chip embedded
Razer Synapse enabled with programmable keyboard, trackpad, backlighting, and fan control
Kensington security slot
Compact 165 W power adapter
Built-in 70 Wh rechargeable lithium-ion polymer battery
Dimensions: 0.70 inches (height) x 13.6 inches (width) x 9.3 inches (depth)
Approximate weight: 4.25 pounds