(Microsoft)If you thought cell phones were a drive time distraction, just wait until people are trying to play Kinectimals during rush hour.

A want-ad placed by Microsoft's Connected Car team indicates that the company is investigating ways to include Kinect's motion-sensing technology into vehicles as it strives to become a player in the "smart car" field.

Of course, playable games aren't what Microsoft has in mind as it explores uses for Kinect in automobiles. The company is more likely looking for ways to use the camera's voice-recognition software as a way to control other smart car offerings, like changing the information shown on the dashboard or tweaking the temperature.

Click to enlarge (Provided by 2K Sports)He might not have stopped LeBron James from winning it all this year, but Kevin Durant just one-upped the newly-crowned NBA champ in another field: video game covers.

The Oklahoma City Thunder forward will be joined by Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose and L.A. Clippers highlight-machine Blake Griffin on the cover of the upcoming NBA 2K13. Unlike last year's cover trio of Magic, Bird and Jordan, however, the three stars will share one cover rather than have separate covers of their own.

"Because of the company they were in -- and the passing of the torch from Jordan, Bird and Magic, so to speak -- they were all really happy to share it together," said 2K Sports' VP of Marketing, Jason Argent.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted (EA)Hollywood loves a good high speed car chase — and EA's Need For Speed franchise is chock full of 'em. It was only a matter of time before the two came together.

DreamWorks Studios has acquired the film rights to the racing franchise and is fast tracking it for a 2014 release, which will coincide with the series' 20^th anniversary. Filming is set to begin next year.

Zynga HQ (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)Over the past year, no tech company has had ups and downs quite like Zynga.

In the days leading up to its debut on Wall Street last December, the social game kingpin was heralded as The Next Big Thing, an unstoppable force in an evolving industry, with proponents pointing to the enduring draw of games like Farmville, Mafia Wars, and Words With Friends. Lately, though, the company's stock has taken a brutal beatdown and those proponents have changed their tune.

It's a pretty rapid reversal, but is it one Zynga can survive?

Nintendo 3DS XL (Nintendo)The 3DS is getting supersized.

Nintendo announced plans in an online video early Friday to roll out a new version of its 3D handheld system — called the 3DS XL — which will effectively double the system's screen size. The handheld will go on sale in the U.S. on Aug. 19 for $200.

Like the 3DS, the 3DS XL will have a non-3D touch screen as well as the larger 3D screen, which still does not require the use of special glasses. But despite the bigger screen, the new model will reportedly have a longer battery life, letting people play games for up to 6.5 hours, a 1.5-hour improvement over the original.

The original Pac-Man lives in a two-dimensional world.  Up, down, left, right — that's all he can do.  Perhaps that's why he's so iconic: his simple pizza-pie face (body?) and crisply-defined universe stick with us long after more elaborate worlds and characters have been forgotten.

But 3D pavement artist Leon Keer decided to bust Pac-Man out of his dimensional prison.  An accomplished illusionist whose works have appeared on sidewalks from Amsterdam to Abu Dhabi, Keer recently produced an anamorphic Pac-Man maze on a street in Venlo, Netherlands:

Diablo III (Blizzard)If you're just now getting around to Diablo III, you might want to buy a retail copy instead of downloading one.

In its most recent patch of the game, Blizzard Entertainment has capped how far players who purchase a digital copy of the game can advance in the first 72 hours. Despite inevitable protests to the contrary, it doesn't look like the company is planning to change its mind about the decision.

Click through to see the hottest games of the coming months!

Burn easy? Out of sunblock? Whatever your reason is for staying indoors this summer, the video game industry has you covered. Over the next three months, these 15 games will do their darnedest to keep you away from those harmful UV rays.  Note: All games are set for release between June 20 and September 22. Go now >>