Find 
yourself gaming more often than you used to? Don’t feel weird — we’re all doing it.
A new study by Nielsen reports that people aged 13 and higher spent 6.3 hours per week playing games in 2013, a 12 percent (or 42 minute) jump from the prio year’s 5.6 hours. Since 2011, players have added one hour and 12 minutes of play to their weekly schedule.
The 
world of virtual reality, essentially barren three years ago, is suddenly the Hot New Thing.
Samsung is reportedly working on its own VR headset, which would compete against the Oculus Rift and Sony’s “Project Morpheus.” Even crazier? It could ship sometime this year.
In 
most games, wars are disposable. Whether you’re fighting alien invaders, evil terrorists or generic bad guys with indistinguishable accents, the experience rarely makes you consider the realities of real-world conflicts.
Mitch Swenson wants to change that.
The 
battle over VR is getting ugly.
After making legal threats earlier this month, ZeniMax Media — the parent company of game publisher Bethesda — has filed suit against Oculus, saying the maker of the anticipated virtual reality Rift headset illegally used software developed by the game maker to create the device.
Microsoft 
is about to tackle one of the biggest problems with the Xbox One.
A June system update to Microsoft’s new console will enable support of external storage devices, alleviating fears that owners will have to delete games when the system’s somewhat paltry 500 GB hard drive fills up.
You 
expect certain things when you fire up a game of Wolfenstein. You know you’ll take down Nazis. You figure you’ll do this as roughneck series star BJ Blazkowicz. And you’re pretty sure there will be all sorts of over-the-top carnage along the way.
What you might not expect is a great story.
That 
powerful console in your living room could be driving up your electric bill.
A new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council specifically calls out the PS4, Xbox One and Wii U as huge energy consumers.
Two 
online video titans are about to team-up.
Variety and The Wall Street Journal are both reporting that Google’s YouTube is in negotiations to buy video game streaming service Twitch. Variety says the deal has been reached, with a price of $1 billion. The WSJ, though, contends talks are still in an early stage.
The most anticipated game for the Xbox One won’t be landing this year.
On Friday, Microsoft announced that Halo 5: Guardians, the next installment in the epic sci-fi shooter series, will launch in late 2015.
Flappy 
Bird’s course is about as straight as Woodstock’s crooked flight path in the Peanuts cartoons. After being pulled months ago, the one-time mega-hit is headed back to the App store.
Creator Dong Nguyen, in a conversation with CNBC, says he will bring the game back this August after famously pulling it down in February. And he’s making some changes.
Chris Morris: Journalist 