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roblox

Roblox Will Extend Age Verifications To Further Prevent Adults Talking To Children

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Popular gaming website Roblox is working to limit and prevent adult strangers from talking to children by the end of this year in an effort to remove “bad actors” from the platform. 

Roblox currently has more than 110 million users daily. There’s been multiple child safety concerns brought up, especially within the last year, as experiments showed children as young as five may be able to communicate with adults while they play certain games. 

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The company also announced that it was banning online vigilantes who were trying to catch predators. Last year Roblox also submitted more than 24,000 reports to the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children which is responsible for handling suspected child sexual exploitation in the US.

On Wednesday, Roblox announced that by the end of 2025 they will start requiring all users who use the text and chat communication tools to go through age checks. If they cannot prove that they’re 18 or older they will have to then prove that they already know the person they want to talk with. 

At the moment, Roblox only requires proof that a user is over 13-years-old in order to communicate with the tools. 

Matt Kaufman, chief safety officer at the games company, said: “We’re making two fundamental changes.”

“By the end of the year, we will require all users who have access to communication on Roblox to go through an age check process or age estimation process.”

“What that process does is it gives us more information about how old the user actually is without relying on their self-reported age at sign up.”

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“That’s important, both for young users, so that we know whether they’re really at the right age to be able to use communication features. And it also helps address bad actors who may try to impersonate younger users. The second thing we’re doing is we’re implementing limits so that younger users cannot talk to adults who they do not know in real life.” 

Roblox has grown in popularity rapidly. Recently they also began allowing movie, TV, and other gaming companies such as Netflix, Lionsgate, and Sega to create games using their intellectual property on Roblox, attracting even more users. 

In spring this year, the Guardian reported research that they deemed “deeply disturbing.” The reports showed how easy it was for children to encounter and interact with inappropriate content and interact with adults unsupervised. 

Within the report one parent stated that they discovered adult strangers had been able to approach their child on the platform and coaxed them into sharing nude images of themselves. 

In a blog post, Roblox stated:

“Our users, creator community, parents, partners, legislators all want the same thing we do: to help keep young people safe while they play, learn, or explore on Roblox.”

“We’re continually innovating on this front – refining and optimising our safety systems, policies and moderation tools,” the post stated.

grand theft auto

Vice City Reignites: ‘GTA VI’ Trailer Teases Crime, Chaos, and a 2026 Launch

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Gamers eagerly awaiting “Grand Theft Auto VI” will have to practice a bit more patience, as Rockstar Games has just unveiled a brand-new trailer after recently announcing a postponed release date, now set for May 26, 2026.

The trailer for the much-anticipated sequel offers fans an extensive sneak peek into the chaotic, adrenaline-fueled adventures awaiting them in the next iteration of the franchise. Central to the narrative are dual protagonists Jason and Lucia, a daring couple whose turbulent lives set the stage for plenty of classic “Grand Theft Auto” mayhem.

Set in Leonida, a fictional state heavily inspired by Florida, the trailer depicts lush palm trees, glistening beaches, and vibrant urban chaos, creating the perfect backdrop for the franchise’s characteristic escapades.

One notable highlight from the trailer is the return to Vice City, the iconic locale reminiscent of Miami, which served as the setting for the beloved “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City” back in 2002. The familiar neon-lit streets and pulsating nightlife promise nostalgic thrills revived by modern graphics.

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According to Rockstar Games’ official plot description, Jason and Lucia are partners not just in crime but in life, whose ambitions put them on a collision course with danger.

“Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive,”

The preview sets a cinematic stage for their Bonnie and Clyde-esque storyline. It begins with Jason, shirtless and working on repairs at a dilapidated beach house. The action then quickly escalates when he drives to pick up Lucia, who has just been released from prison. But first, he makes a spontaneous stop to rob a convenience store, briefly works out at a sun-soaked spot on the beach, and buys a six-pack of beer before the couple eventually reunites.

Their relationship reignited, Jason and Lucia waste no time diving back into a flurry of criminal activities. The trailer showcases their audacious antics: holding up businesses, exchanging gunfire with agitated police officers, orchestrating bank heists, and indulging in leisure activities such as high-speed jet skiing. The nightlife of Vice City serves as a colorful and chaotic playground where the protagonists let loose amidst vibrant clubs filled with music and excitement.

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Although an official release date had not been previously announced, Rockstar Games’ parent company, Take-Two Interactive, had repeatedly hinted at a fall release this year. The recent postponement to spring 2026 marks a significant shift in plans.

Rockstar addressed fans directly about the delay, emphasizing their commitment to quality.

“With every game we have released, the goal has always been to try and exceed your expectations, and ‘Grand Theft Auto VI’ is no exception. We hope you understand that we need this extra time to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve.”

As anticipation builds, the gaming community remains buzzing with speculation and excitement, dissecting details from the trailer as they count down to May 2026. GTA fans are accustomed to waiting. More than ten years have passed since the first release of Grand Theft Auto V, which has now sold over 200 million copies and has been released on several platforms.

As of right now, the game is set to be released on console only, and Switch 2 and PC support are still unknown. Fans believe a PC version will eventually be sold based on how Rockstar Games has previously rolled out their titles.

nintendo

Nintendo Hits Pause on U.S. Switch 2 Pre-Orders Amid Trump Tariff Turmoil

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Nintendo has indefinitely postponed pre-orders in the United States for its highly anticipated Switch 2 gaming console following the Trump administration’s announcement of significant new tariffs on imported goods.

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roblox

Roblox CEO Says Parents Should Take Their Kids Off The Platform If They’re Uncomfortable

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Roblox chief executive David Baszucki said that the platform prides itself on their commitment to safety and protecting its users despite reports of bullying and grooming. However, for the parents who are worried about their kids being on the site, Baszucki stated they should just not let them use it.

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World Health Organization Teaming Up With Gaming Industry To Launch “Play Apart Together” Campaign

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The coronavirus pandemic has forced the world into a life of solitude and quarantining. As we all know, preventing the spread of this illness while also taking care of those who have been affected by it is no easy feat. Keeping ourselves sane while we’re held up in our homes for an indefinite amount of time is also challenging. The world is, in general, just plain old overwhelming right now, and it can be easy to get trapped in that kind of negative thinking. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) wants the world to remain as calm as possible during this pandemic. 

Panic only causes more unnecessary chaos in times of crisis, so it’s important that we’re doing things every day to keep our minds and bodies active and stimulated. WHO has unexpectedly partnered with the gaming industry in order to ease the minds of the billions of worried citizens around the world, while also promoting social-distancing and isolation policies through their “Play Apart Together” Campaign. 

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Activision Blizzard, Twitch, Riot Games, and YouTube Gaming are just a few of the major corporations that are involved in the campaign. The goal is simple, through their services these platforms want to begin incorporating special events, exclusive offers, activities, rewards, and most importantly, inspiration to encourage gamers everywhere to do what they do best, stay inside and play video games, while remaining physically distant from everyone else; at least by 6-8 feet to be specific. 

“[We want to] emphasize the importance of isolation, and how gaming can help bridge the distance. It’s never been more critical to ensure people stay safely connected to one another. Games are the perfect platform because they connect people through the lens of joy, purpose and meaning. We are proud to participate in such a worthwhile and necessary initiative,” said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.’

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Many gamers are pointing out the irony of the WHO teaming up with all of these gaming platforms, especially considering back in the fall of this year, the WHO deemed “gaming disorder,” more commonly referred to by society as “video game addiction,” as an actual illness in which specific clinics will be opening to treat. Gamers took to social media to point out the hilarity of a major health organization telling people to stay inside and play video games everyday, but they also understand considering we’re currently enduring one of the worst global pandemics in history. 

In general, the gaming industry has already seen a huge spike in users, consumers, and new customers wanting to enter a new, digital fantasy world completely separated from life here on Earth. Verizon has reported that gaming usage on its devices has been up by 75% since the coronavirus pandemic/quarantine began. 

Steam Database has also reported that they’re gaming platform has hit a record high of 20 million users since the beginning of March, Activision has also reported that one of their most popular games in general, Call of Duty: Warzone, has had over 15 million new players within the span of three days.

While it’s definitely funny to read about the World Health Organization – who’s been delivering non-stop coronavirus updates since the beginning of this entire pandemic – encouraging citizens to stay healthy by playing video games, the reality of the situation is no laughing matter. The main goal of “Play Apart Together” is to get people to stay inside and respect your community members by not going near them. We all need to work together if we want to get back to a place of normalcy soon.

Auction

Rare “Nintendo Playstation” Prototype to be Sold at Auction

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If you’re at all familiar with the world of video games, you know that Nintendo and Sony, which makes the popular Playstation series of gaming consoles, have been fierce competitors for many years. But before Sony entered the video game industry with the release of the original Playstation, it had actually cooperated with Nintendo to develop a gaming system, though the results of this effort never saw the light of day. In fact, the name “Playstation” comes from this collaboration, as Sony adopted the moniker for itself after its relationship with Nintendo fell apart. Engineers from both companies worked to develop a prototype, the so-called “Nintendo Playstation,” which had both a cartridge slot and a CD slot, taking advantage of Sony’s expertise with the then-new digital storage medium. Only about 200 of these prototypes were ever created, with nearly all of them thought to have been lost or destroyed; the only known remaining prototype was discovered in a box full of junk after being sold at an auction for $75. Now, the prototype’s owner has announced he would sell it at an auction, and it is expected to sell for over a million dollars.

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For technology and video game enthusiasts, the Nintendo Playstation prototype is a fascinating historical artifact that suggests how the world of video games today could be vastly different if the relationship between Nintendo and Sony hadn’t turned sour. The Nintendo Playstation was intended to be built on top of the wildly successful Super Nintendo console, adding the feature of a CD-ROM drive as well as enhanced processing power. The device would have been sold in two forms: an accessory to the Super Nintendo called the Super NES CD-ROM, and a standalone console, which would have been called the Playstation and would have offered full compatibility with Super Nintendo games. However, in large part as a result of the breakdown of negotiations between the two companies and Nintendo’s collaboration with Phillips, one of Sony’s main competitors at the time, plans to release the device were cancelled. In the aftermath, the Sony Playstation went on to compete directly with the console that succeeded the Super Nintendo, the Nintendo 64.

It’s unclear as of yet exactly how much the system will sell for at the February 27th auction, but the Diebolds are sure to profit handsomely from the sale.

Few people know exactly what ended up happening to the 200 or so prototypes that were developed. But one of them ended up being sold in an auction held by Advanta Corporation, a company connected with Sony’s former CEO, for $75, with no one at the time recognizing the real value of the prototype. It sat in a box in an attic for years before being re-discovered by the son of the man who bought the prototype, who then shared pictures of the device online, drawing the attention of a large Internet community that immediately recognized the device, who described it as “priceless” and a “piece of history.” Dan Diebold, the man who shared pictures of the prototype online, also posted a video showcasing the device, which ended up getting over a million views. But people still doubted the authenticity of his claim, accusing Diebold of having orchestrated a hoax.

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Dan and his father, Terry, recognize the historicity of their possession, and have done their best to preserve and study the device. Fortunately, it still works, though the software being developed for it was never completed and thus its functionality is limited. That being said, it is fully compatible with existing Super Nintendo games, and it is also capable of playing back audio CDs. The console’s owners brought it to Ben Heck, a technology expert, who tore down the console to learn more about how it was built and also fixed some small problems with the device. Additionally, the father-and-son team spent years touring the system around the world, giving global fans an opportunity to see the device in person, an endeavor which they claim made them no money. Someone in Norway offered to buy the device for $1.2 million, but the Diebolds refused this offer. The upcoming auction will be hosted by Heritage Auctions, which previously sold video game artifacts like a sealed copy of the first Mega Man game for $75,000. It’s unclear as of yet exactly how much the system will sell for at the February 27th auction, but the Diebolds are sure to profit handsomely from the sale.

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Black Mesa, the Remake of the 1998 PC Gaming Classic Half-Life, is Complete

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On November 19, 1998, the video game developer Valve released its first title, Half-Life, which went on to revolutionize the industry by introducing several concepts that have become staples of the first-person-shooter genre. For instance, the game introduced the concept of an immersive, story-driven first-person gaming experience; throughout the entirety of the game’s main campaign, the player maintains control of the story’s protagonist, Gordon Freeman, as a compelling science-fiction story about an alien invasion at a research facility unfolds. Valve co-founder Gabe Newell likened other video games from the era as “shooting galleries,” whereas with Half-Life he wanted to create an immersive world. The game received rave reviews upon release, with many outlets considering it to be among the greatest games of all time and praising its innovative and revolutionary game design. Half-Life was a surprise hit for the company, as the game went on to become a best-seller, spawning multiple expansion packs and sequels.

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Now, over twenty years since the game was released, many video game enthusiasts are too young to remember the experience of playing Half-Life for the first time, and would likely be turned off by the title’s outdated graphics and game design. However, Half-Life has inspired a legion of enthusiastic and dedicated fans, who have created several modifications and other fan projects related to the franchise. Perhaps the most impressive of these projects is the fan-made remake Black Mesa which, after more than fourteen years in development, has finally been completed, albeit in beta form. Black Mesa gives a younger generation of gamers a chance to experience the original Half-Life adventure in a form that appeals to modern-day sensibilities, as the remake substantially improves the graphical fidelity of the original title while also tweaking elements of gameplay to address many of the criticisms of Half-Life that have emerged over the two decades since its release.

Initially announced in 2005, Black Mesa began life as a project meant to convert the original title to the then-newly-released Source engine, taking advantage of all of the features the game engine offers. Initially, the project was developed as a free modification of Half-Life 2, with the developers working on the project in their spare time, motivated by their own creativity and passion for the franchise. However, as time passed, the project grew in size and complexity, as the developers recruited voice actors to re-record the game’s dialogue and composed custom music specifically for the remake. As the years passed, many had doubted that the project would ever see the light of day, as the developers shared information sporadically and did not commit to a release date. In 2009 and 2010, Wired magazine included Black Mesa in its “Vaporware of the Year” lists, suggesting that few still believed that the remake would ever be released. In September of 2012, though, years after most people had considered the project to be dead, the first version of Black Mesa was made available as a free download to substantial critical acclaim, with many reviewers praising the developers’ attention to detail and the project’s high polish, particularly for a free title.

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This initial release of Black Mesa, however, only incorporated the first two-thirds of Half-Life, with the final third of the game, which takes place on the alien world Xen, still under development. Additionally, at this point, the developers announced that they had permission from Valve to sell the project via the company’s Early Access program, which enables customers to play unfinished versions of games at a reduced cost. The Early Access version of Black Mesa was released in May of 2015 for $20, featuring improvements to the original release but still lacking the final chapters of the story. Now, over four years later, these chapters of the game have been released, marking the first point in the title’s long development history that customers are able to play through the entire Half-Life adventure in its updated form. As such, if you’re a fan of the first-person-shooter genre but have never played the 1998 classic that revolutionized the industry, there’s never been a better time to immerse yourself in the title, as Black Mesa brings the original masterpiece into the 21st century and improves upon an already-excellent gaming experience. 

Colored Keyboard

Al Research the Games: Deepmind Beats Nearly AllComers

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When DeepMind, Google’s AI research outfit, set out to demonstrate its latest breakthrough, it had to confront an added twist: how do you set your robot free to play games on the internet without anyone realising they’re competing against it?

The company caused a stir when it announced that its AlphaGo AI had beaten a world-class player at the ancient Asian board game Go. A few months later, it beat the world number one player.

But for the deeply strategic real-time war game StarCraft II, it had a different goal: to reach “grandmaster” standard – putting it in the top 200 players worldwide – on the game’s public servers, building its ranking the same way any human player would. That meant being matched with a steadily improving cadre of other human players, and winning against them consistently enough to be promoted.

StarCraft may seem like an odd next step, for a team that has previously taken on chess and Go, but the game has some qualities that make it interesting to researchers. It’s real-time, with millions of possible actions each second, and a vastly more complex roster than the six pieces of chess. Most importantly, it features hidden information: for the first few minutes of the game, it’s impossible to even see what your opponent is doing, let alone work out what they’re planning.

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That means strategies have to be flexible enough to account for surprises, and need to incorporate mind-games as well. There’s also an advantage in a community where even the best players in the world can be found playing each other online, ranked according to a very public algorithm, with a ton of data flying around.

Players were told the new AI, dubbed AlphaStar, would be online, and were given the option of opting-in to play it. In order to ensure it achieved its rank fairly, it had to play its games anonymously, so that opponents didn’t spend more effort trying to trick it or break it than they did trying to win.

“There was a bit of a meme where people started asking ‘are you AlphaStar’ to others,” said DeepMind’s David Silver, one of the company’s co-founders and a lead author on the Nature paper announcing the StarCraft II victory. “We had the policy to just not chat – other than wishing people good luck, and then ‘good game’.”

The need to remain anonymous did also turn the experience from a test of raw skill into a sort of “Turing test for video games”, said Silver’s colleague Oriol Vinyals. “AlphaStar needed to play like a good human, not like a superhuman.”

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That meant taking a different approach from previous StarCraft AIs, which tended to lean on the abilities that only a computer could have. In a game where human competitors track their “actions per minute”, a professional-level player may hit three or four hundred, while some AIs were acting thousands or tens of thousands of times over a sixty-second period. At other times, AIs were given near omniscience, with all the information available over the entire map plugged into their systems at once.

“We really wanted to have an interface that we believe was reasonable from a capability standpoint,” says Vinyals. “So we added this notion of a camera view, which is very crucial for players to control where in the map they’re actually focusing on, and we also reduced the peak actions per minute, to 22 actions in a span of five seconds.” In other words, the AI is forced to play much more like a human.

All of which is moot if the AI gives itself away by, well, playing like a robot. Luckily, it doesn’t – quite. In the first series of matches played publicly, in January, AlphaStar did exhibit one slightly mechanistic behaviour, falling prey to an almost cartoonish tactic where its opponent, the human player MaNa, moved a unit into and out of its field of view, changing its behaviour each time. It worked for MaNa to eke out the only win the humans scored over those first 11 matches.

More interestingly, the AI did develop its own understanding of the best tactical play, occasionally differing from the generally accepted practice among pros. The intricacies are a bit specialist, but reinforce the idea that simply teaching an AI to perform a task to human level can improve our understanding of the work itself.

“AlphaStar has been an amazing experience,” Oriol says. “Not because we beat most humans. But it’s more like that we were able to see what some limitations might be, to inspire research that will come, hopefully in the next few months or years and decades. Picking harder and harder problems and trying to be very good at them has been clearly the way so far.”

Super Mario

Super Mario 64 Land Reimagines a 23-year-old Classic

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Millennials who grew up playing video games likely have fond memories of their favorite classics from the 90’s, particularly the groundbreaking and wildly successful early 3D titles such as Super Mario 64. This nostalgia is so widespread that it’s led enterprising fans to create their own reimaginings of classic games, using emulators and clever programming tricks to modify the original code. These fan-made projects have become so ambitious in scope that they can rival and even exceed the quality of the games they’re based on, replacing nearly every element of the original titles with custom content. This is perhaps best exemplified by the recent Super Mario 64 Land, a total conversion mod of Super Mario 64 that introduces unique art, level design, and gameplay mechanics to the game engine of the celebrated Nintendo 64 launch title.

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Despite legal challenges from Nintendo concerning the redistribution of their intellectual property, the emulation and modding community for classic Nintendo platforms including the Nintendo 64 has perhaps never been more active, as talented programmers and artists donate their time to create free, fan-made works inspired by their favorite titles. Due to its status as a best-selling classic and the litany of modding tools that have been developed for the title, Super Mario 64, released in 1996 to widespread critical acclaim, is the most popular N64 game to modify. Many of these mods exhibit impressive feats of programming and reverse-engineering, as in the cases of a mod that adds a 24-person online multiplayer feature to the game, a mod that lets you play the entire game from a first-person perspective, and even a custom level editor inspired by the recent Nintendo hits Super Mario Maker and Super Mario Maker 2.

The more inventive and creative mods, however, are those that replace existing game content with custom assets, including levels, character models, gameplay features, and music, to create an entirely new experience. Many such total conversion mods have been released over the past several years, including the popular Super Mario Star Road, released in 2011, and the cleverly-themed Super Mario 64: Halloween Edition. But the most recent release, created by a developer with years of experience creating custom content for Super Mario 64, aims to replicate the style and level of polish Nintendo is known for, and draws inspiration from the celebrated 3DS title Super Mario 3D Land. 

Super Mario 64 Land is, of course, of dubious legality, as the mod directly incorporates and redistributes Nintendo’s intellectual property

Super Mario 64 is not the only classic Nintendo title that has received attention from the modding community. Ocarina of Time: Four Swords Arena Edition allows you to play the critically-acclaimed N64 Zelda title with three friends, and another mod adds custom stages to the classic fighting game Super Smash Brothers. Perhaps the most impressive fan-made Nintendo project from recent years was the remake called AM2R, a total re-imagining of the Game Boy title Metroid II: Return of Samus for PC. While the developer was ultimately forced to remove access to the fangame by Nintendo’s legal team, the project ultimately allowed the developer to teach himself game design and programming, leading him to be hired by a professional game studio.

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Super Mario 64 Land is, of course, of dubious legality, as the mod directly incorporates and redistributes Nintendo’s intellectual property, borrowing concepts from newer Mario titles such as their power ups and enemies. The Japanese company is notorious for issuing takedown notices to developers who modify their games, who generally capitulate to the entertainment giant by deleting links to their creations under threat of legal action. As such, the future availability of Super Mario 64 Land on the internet is uncertain, so if you’re interested in playing it, it’s a good idea to download the mod to your computer ASAP. Links to the mod, which is free but requires a ROM image of Super Mario 64 and a Nintendo 64 emulator, can be found in the description for the mod’s YouTube trailer. 

Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality as a Medical Tool

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In recent years, virtual reality devices, including the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive, and Sony’s PSVR system have exploded in popularity, primarily for their application as gaming devices. Gamers use virtual reality to immerse themselves into their favorite game worlds, racing around a track from the point of view of a racecar driver or looking down at the world from the eyes of a pilot in a flight simulator. Although the technology was originally developed for this purpose, the proliferation of VR headsets has led to their applications in unexpected fields. For example, digital artists have taken advantage of virtual reality to view their creations from different angles or even created sculptures in 3D space using handheld controllers, and businesses have experimented with using virtual reality to hold meetings in a collaborative environment with people hundreds or thousands of miles away. But perhaps the most consequential application of virtual reality is in the healthcare field, as medical professionals are experimenting with using the headsets to treat a variety of conditions.

One application of virtual reality is pain management. For patients with certain conditions, the reality of living with chronic pain, which is resistant to traditional pain medications, can border on the unbearable. Chronic pain can prevent patients from engaging in a number of stimulating activities, confining them to their houses or the hospital. For some patients, pain management is less about reducing the amount of pain felt and more about developing strategies for coping with it. It is theorized that virtual reality can help in this regard by taking the patient’s mind off of their painful experiences by immersing them in a more relaxing environment. Virtual reality has the potential to bring sufferers of chronic pain the experience of sitting by a waterfall, or lying down at the beach, helping to shift their focus away from their pain towards more enjoyable sensations.

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Virtual reality shows particular promise in helping with the treatment of psychological conditions. Exposure therapy, for instance, is a method of helping patients address their phobias by introducing the person to their fears in gradual steps, until they are no longer so overwhelmed that their fears negatively impact their lives. Virtual reality can provide patients undergoing exposure therapy with a controlled environment to introduce them to their fears before tackling them in the real world. Someone with a fear of flying, for instance, can have the experience of being inside of an airplane through virtual reality, and would be able to take the headset off at any time. Additionally, variables such as turbulence, or other triggers such as taking off and landing, can be controlled by the therapist, to introduce the patient to these elements when they are ready for them.

Virtual reality has even been used as a pain management tool for women who are in labor, in a study that provided women giving birth with VR headsets which simulated the experience of scuba diving alongside dolphins and manta rays. In this study, the experience of VR lowered the womens’ self-reported levels of pain and anxiety, and 82% of the participants said they very much or completely enjoyed using the technology.

Virtual reality has also been used as a motivational tool for patients who otherwise might neglect to participate in physical therapy as often as they should by making the experience of physical therapy more engaging and entertaining. Certain VR applications require the user to stand up and physically move around, making them useful supplements to some physical therapy. For instance, a VR skiing game might require patients to shift their weight from foot to foot. Additionally, VR programs have been used for patients with mobility or balance issues undergoing physical therapy to provide them with visual feedback to improve their skills.

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Doctors, in addition to patients, have seen benefits from using virtual reality. In Minneapolis, doctors recently prepared for a surgery to separate conjoined twins using VR. A medical team took detailed 3D twins of the scans, then used visualization software to project these models in a 3D environment, and used VR headsets to examine the scans in close detail from a variety of angles to determine how best to approach the procedure. 

It should be noted that virtual reality comes with its own health risks. People with photo-sensitive epilepsy should not use virtual reality, as rapid changes in the display could trigger seizures, and many people experience a kind of motion sickness when the movement of images in VR headsets do not perfectly line up with the movements of the user’s head. Nevertheless, virtual reality is an exciting new technology, which still has plenty of areas of potential improvement, and the application of VR in the medical field shows promise for bringing relief to patients with any number of maladies.