Virtual reality is a making a strong comeback after being on hiatus from consumers for nearly 20 years. But the technology that's being developed for consumers is having some surprising innovative uses in the medical field too, one of those being the ability to help rehabilitate stroke patients just as quickly as traditional methods, but at far less cost to the patient.

That's an important consideration when in a part of the world where medical costs, and any resultant costs the occur due to that treatment, isn't part of a free program. Rehabilitation is a specialized activity that can also be quite tedious and immensely difficult when looked at head-on. But new advancements in the use of VR world's can help to make rehab a much easier to digest activity, one that could even be seen as being a fun activity, too.

Researchers from the University of Toronto have successfully shown that the Wii U is a better tool for improving motor functions after a stroke or similar brain injury. They took a 10 individuals and had them play on the Wii and 10 others that did normal rehabilitation activities, such as playing Jenga apparently. The Wii group was able to complete a motor function test 7% better than those that didn't play on the Wii. That's statistically awesome. It's not quite VR, but it's an interactive and immersive technology is a natural starting point to further, true, VR avenues.

Although Square Enix's event is only six hours away, the official release date for Final Fantasy 15 has been leaked ahead of schedule.

We've been waiting nearly a decade for this game, and now it has a concrete release date: Final Fantasy 15 is scheduled to launch on September 30 across PS4 and Xbox One. The date was accidentally leaked by a prematurely published GameSpot video, which you can see here.

The game's official demo will also be coming today, and it'll allow gamers to control a younger version of Noctis as he navigates a dream state. Remember that super sad cutscene with Noctis and his father? That's probably what we'll play, and it'll give a huge amount of inference on the character. Don't worry, though--you'll still get to fight.

Titanfall 2 doesn't exactly have big shoes to fill after the first failed to catch on quite like Respawn Entertainment wanted, but the multiplayer only FPS was still a cult hit that ran surprisingly smooth and had a vast, hidden backstory that was largely untouched in the original. There's plenty of opportunity to expand upon the premise, they just have to do it. And it looks like the second installment will be around 30% larger than the original.

The first game had a smaller development staff working on it, around 70 people, Respawn told Develop. But now they're hiring slowly and deliberately to ensure their staff is capable of creating a game that's much larger than before, with the same premise, of course. They have around 90 people working on Titanfall 2, and apparently have more ideas and projects in the works. "We had about 70 developers on the original Titanfall and we currently have about 90 working on the sequel. We expect our new team to grow to a similar size. " That team is likely for their unannounced third-person adventure game that's being directed by Stig Asmussen, of God of War 3 game.

They have big ambitions for the new game, with a large single-player campaign, better character development and a more human and realistic, expanded backstory. Titanfall was magnificent for being based on the Source engine, and hopefully whatever graphics tech they choose is enough to adequately communicate the narrative that's no doubt hiding inside.

Right now you can find the entire Metal Gear Solid series of games discounted fairly nicely in the PlayStation store. Discounts range from 33% on the newest Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain to 75% off of Ground Zeroes.

The deep discounts that you can find are only available through Monday, April 4th, and cover all games that are available on the PS4, PS3 and PS Vita. Sony and Konami still haven't gotten around to porting all of the franchises games over to be playable via the PlayStation 4, so PS3 or Vita is required for the older ones. But the discounts are still rather fantastic. Check it out, you only have a limited, albeit lengthy, time to get in if you've never played these classic games.

Just in case you already happen to have the other myriad accessories that are needed to make Sony's upcoming PlayStation VR work properly, you can now pre-order the "Core" version of the HMD that only includes the headset and appropriate connector cables.

If you only need the headset, or want have missed the pre-order cutoff for the larger, more complete, bundle, then you can find this one at GameStop, Walmart, Best Buy or Target for $399. It's currently listed as being unavailable on Amazon, though they're bound to open-up their pre-orders quite soon as well.

This standalone bundle was the first one announced when the price and availability was announced earlier this month. The $399 price (without console) is cheaper than the competing VR solutions despite being an incomplete bundle. Though the cost of entry to experience VR is still lower in total for the PlayStation 4 considering that they still aim to run games at the full 1080P and at least 60FPS that the headset is capable of. The graphics might need to be downgraded to achieve that performance. That lower cost of entry of the entire system could make it far more popular to the masses, out-selling and performing the PC-based counterparts. Sony has said that this is not only for the enthusiast, but for the mass-market.

American McGee's Shanghai-based Spicy Horse studio has had to cut their staff by a significant amount, leaving only a core team in place to tend to their projects. That also means that they're switching some of their recently released free-to-play mobile games to a paid model, to help generate revenue.

The news had already spread though American McGee himself took to NeoGaf to explain what's going on with his company. He told his fellow gamers that the rumors of the layoffs were true though they plan on working through the setback and should even have new projects that they'll be announcing very soon.

He continued and expounded on the fact that the current F2P model they're on just isn't quite working, necessitating a change. "The remaining team will continue to support our existing and recently launched mobile F2P titles. As has been mentioned in this thread, the F2P space has become quite brutal in recent years, and after 5 years and 7 titles, I feel it's time we pivot to something new." Overall the setback is a minor one overall. It certainly won't be stopping the creativity inherent in Mr. Mcgee from shining through like it tends to in most circumstances.

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3D, one of the best arcade-like space shooters of all time, has finally been made available on Steam.

The game was originally released in 1998 on both the PC and the Nintendo 64 to a very excited crowd who seemed to enjoy the good (for the time) graphics coupled with being able to take their beloved starfighters out in a series of dog-fights around a galaxy far far away. The storyline was every bit as Star Wars as you'd expect and the controls were especially responsive on the original version. It spawned several other console games that made it to future Nintendo platforms, but ultimately stopped there.

It became available on GOG just last year, though not without a few problems. It couldn't run certain resolutions without issues and controllers didn't have native compatibility, you had to either use a joystick (which is the proper way to play a flight/space sim anyway) or not play it at all. The Steam version is fairing a bit better with those issues seemingly fixed . You can find it for $9.99 on Steam, and it's just as marvelous as you might have remembered.

In the current slate of games, graphics are good - but nowhere near photo realistic. The best graphics around are found in the latest games like The Division and Rise of the Tomb Raider, but they're multi-platform games built for consoles - with PCs as an afterthought.

What if we had games use the true power of PC, requiring more than one GPU to power photo-realistic gaming? Well, a former DICE 3D artist has teased some of the best environments we've ever seen - powered by Unreal Engine 4. The video is above, and shows environments running in real-time, on UE4, and it looks absolutely insane.

Here are some screenshots that will blow your mind.

A new survey from EA may have given away some particulars about the story for Mass Effect: Andromeda, and it might have something to do with colonialism if the contents of the survey actually hold true. Let us all read these with caution, however.

The survey is one that's being made available online to users for what they're noting could be a possible future and direction for the series. This could either be a way to gauge interest for the present game they're working on, or to help decide the direction of a new series of games based on the same protagonist. Colonization of a distant galaxy is exciting in its own right, however.

We don't know very much about what the game is about, aside from that it'll be taking place not in our home galaxy, so seeing additional details, no matter how fleeting, is rather nice. This survey seems to point towards the human race fighting to establish a new home in a new galaxy against an intelligent alien race, though no specifics (obviously) were given. Survey's like these aren't uncommon to actually see if either their ideas are among the most picked or to establish a direction that they intend to take based on the feedback they receive. So it could be true, or it could be a way to establish where they're going next. This type of survey can also be a way to establish the best way to market to various parts of the world as well.

We reported yesterday that the FBI had broken into the iPhone 5C used by the San Bernardino shooter, without Apple's help. It's now being reported that Appel can't force the FBI to disclose just how it broke into their smartphone.

The FBI reportedly tapped the help of an Israeli security firm, which broke into the iPhone 5C, and with Apple unable to force the FBI to show them how they did that, it could mean that other iPhones could be broken into. Why? Because Apple can't fix the security hole that the FBI went through - mainly for iPhone users, but it's obviously a hole that Apple don't know about, or at least they don't know which method the FBI used. It's quite scary there's an easy hole for a company that's not Apple, nor the FBI, can use to break into iPhones - quite easily, it seems.

Ars Technica talked with a law enforcement official, who said: "We cannot comment on the possibility of future disclosures to Apple. [There] are legitimate pros and cons to the decision to disclose, and the trade-offs between prompt disclosure and withholding knowledge of some vulnerabilities for a limited time can have significant consequences," he said while explaining the Vulnerabilities Equities Process". So, there's no legal requirement of the FBI to disclose how it broke through Apple's much-touted security... well now.