Battlefield 4 (Credit: EA)If you’re wondering what the next-generation of gaming might look like, you’ll want to check out Battlefield 4.

EA took the wraps off the next iteration of its military shooter franchise Tuesday night at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, demonstrating an action-packed, cinematic game boasting some of the industry's most advanced graphics. Players will get their hands on it this fall.

Lady Gaga vs. Sudoku (Credit: Getty Images)You're driving along, minding your own business, when suddenly "Doo Wah Diddy" or "Call Me Maybe" blares out of the speakers, and the pesky chorus lodges itself in your head for the rest of the day.

You try passing it on to someone or replacing it with a different song, but it just doesn't work. These so-called musical ‘earworms’ burrow into your brain and refuse to get out, running on a seemingly endless loop.

Leave it to science to come up with a solution. The best way to get rid of an earworm, it turns out, is to solve a puzzle.

By Derrick J. Lang, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It's a time of transition for the video game industry.

Journey (Credit: thatgamecompany)With last year's launch of the Wii U, the impending arrival of the PlayStation 4 and the likelihood of a new Xbox on the horizon, the next generation of video game consoles is nearly here.

However, more than half of the attendees at this week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco identify themselves as indie developers and their next creations will be for smartphones and tablets. So when it comes to the next generation of consoles, the question on their minds doesn't seem to be "What's next?" but rather "Who cares?"

BioShock Infinite (Credit: 2K Games/Irrational Games)How do you improve a classic? It’s a question that haunts anyone attempting a sequel or reboot to a beloved franchise, and more often than not, it’s answered with a resounding “you don’t.”

But don’t tell that to game design auteur Ken Levine and his team at Boston-based Irrational Games, because they’re not really listening.

Instead, they’ve been working on making BioShock Infinite, releasing Tuesday for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, as good a video game as humanly possible. For well over four years they’ve been at it, hoping that time and a budget of over $100 million yields a title that compares favorably to the groundbreaking 2007 shooter BioShock -- something the first sequel, the underwhelming BioShock 2 (crafted by a totally different team), couldn’t quite manage.

It certainly isn’t an easy task. Levine recently admitted as much, telling the New York Times that “it’s getting harder to ask someone to spend $60 on something that’s merely a good effort,” and that it has to be “different and really special.”

(Credit: Getty Images)As foreign hackers probe the U.S. infrastructure grid in an effort to infiltrate and undermine the government, the Department of Homeland Security is looking for a few good gamers.

Well, technically, it's looking for a few good hackers of its own -- but it's using games to find them.

The government organization has taken a cue from China and started to use competitions to root out the top teen hackers for possible recruitment to the agency, reports the New York Times. Using competitions like the Virginia Governor's Cup Cyber Challenge, teens take part in military exercises with names like 'NetWars' that have the feel of a game.

When it comes to video game conventions, GDC -- the Game Developer's Conference, if you'd care to be formal about it -- tends to live in the shadow of E3.

Unlike its flashier cousin, which is loaded with new console details and flagship game announcements, GDC is more about how those games are made. While it might not have the consumer pull of E3, however, GDC delivers an unvarnished look at the games business and often tells us where, exactly, we’re all headed.

Here are five topics we expect to dominate this year's show, which runs from March 25 – March 29 in San Francisco.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Credit: Blizzard)Through games like World of Warcraft, StarCraft II and Diablo III, Blizzard Entertainment built a real-world fortune. Now it's about to see what happens when it gives a game away for free.

At the PAX East convention in Boston, the company unveiled Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, a free-to-play collectable card game set in the well-known Warcraft universe. And in very un-Blizzard-like fashion, you're not going to have to wait a couple years to try it out. A beta of the game is due out this summer.

Cross with crosswords? Sick of Sudoku? Say hello to your next airplane addiction.

It's called “KenKen” -- Japanese for “wisdom squared” -- and it’s the smartest pencil-and-paper puzzler since Sudoku itself. It even promises to sharpen up your math skills.

Created in 2004 by Japanese math teacher Tetsuya Miyamoto, KenKen was popularized in the United States by New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz, who was introduced to the game when agent and toy industry legend Bob Fuhrer called and asked him to try out a new puzzle.