Now, I'm not a super-huge fan of Bush. I don't even know if those exist anymore. If so, it is probably one of those things beautiful to behold on account of their scarcity, like finding a unicorn in a forest glade on a dewy morn. All that said, Sixteen Stone is a damn fine piece of grungy pop-rock and, next week, three of the more popular tracks from the album will be hitting the Rock Band store.

You too can rock out like it's 1994 all over again with "Comedown," "Machinehead" and "Everything Zen" when they release on February 7 individually or as part of "Bush Pack 01" for a slight discount. You guys probably know how this works by now. 

2011 was the second year in a row in which EA Sports let fans choose the Madden NFL cover athlete, and the people voted 13 million times to whittle down a field of 32 options to put Cleveland Browns running back Peyton Hillis on the cover of Madden NFL 12. This time, EA is expanding the voting to a group of 64, bringing in two choices from each of the 32 NFL teams. The first round will serve as a team-by-team popularity contest to determine the one nominee per team that fans want on the box.

EA announced the competition at the 18th annual Madden Bowl, held last night in Indianapolis. New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, joined by teammate Jimmy Graham and nationwide phenomenon Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos, avenged his loss in Madden Bowl XVII with a last-second fourth-quarter comeback. Tebow Time doesn't end with the Broncos' season, it seems.

The voting will once again be held in conjunction with ESPN's SportsNation, and is set to begin on March 7. Visit the Madden NFL Facebook page in the coming weeks to see the 64 candidates be revealed.

'Madden 13' cover vote to kickoff March 7 [ESPN]
Madden '13 Cover - SportsNation [ESPN]
Madden Bowl XVIII: Tebow Time in Indianapolis [Madden NFL]

Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena's opening movie was posted on Atlus' YouTube channel today. It's not much more than the Persona characters being announced and posing, so don't get too excited. Teddy does look like a badass on the main stage, and the music is great, so you can at least enjoy that. Rise?

Persona 4: The Ultimate is coming to the Xbox 360 and PS3 sometime this summer. I predict that I'm going to suck at this game, but will continue playing it anyway.

Double Fine did a terrific job with Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster -- so much so, that I couldn't help but be jealous that kids were getting such well-designed Kinect games. For all of the millions of people who own the device, and given the technology powering it, the overall software quality is decidedly not where it ought to be.

At the same time, I have to be thankful for developers who want to make games for children and take the job as seriously as any other big-name project. With Happy Action Theater, Double Fine is once again using Kinect to target a younger audience. This time, however, there's some room for us too.

Double Fine Happy Action Theater (Xbox Live Arcade)
Developer: Double Fine Productions
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Released: February 1, 2012
MSRP: 800 Microsoft Points

Double Fine Happy Action Theater has more in common with an augmented-reality playground than what many of you would likely define as a strict "game." It's made up of 18 activities, which range from lava you can roll around in (YES!) to a Breakout-style level to a black-and-white scene that could be straight out of Godzilla.

What first grabbed my attention was that you're launched straight into the action. By default, "Director Mode" is on, meaning the on-screen activities are cycled through automatically every so often. In other words, parents can totally start the game up and let their children go wild without assistance.

Should you have a specific activity in mind, you can either press the start button on a controller or do the standard left-arm-out pose to land on an interactive level-select menu. While in an activity, you can also use a controller to manually skip to the next one. As far as navigation is concerned, they nailed it. It's both intuitive and unobtrusive.

As tends to be the case with games that bundle together many self-contained experiences, some are far better than others. Though a few of the activities in Happy Action Theater tread over similar ground -- throwing seeds for pigeons and planting flowers is essentially executed in the same way, for example -- there's more good than bad here.

My personal favorites are the aforementioned lava sequence, a disco club where your body is distorted and hops about sporadically, and the silly thing pictured above. In it, your photo gets taken, then you're allowed to move to a different position (while your clone remains stationary) and more photos ensue. Some dude is going to use this to hug himself and make a "forever alone" joke, just wait.

Even the less enjoyable activities are still entertaining. For instance, one of them puts you inside of a jelly dessert. That's it! You wiggle around and laugh about the insanity unfolding on your television. Replay value is definitely a valid concern -- less so for younger kids. I wouldn't go in expecting to get more than a few hours of fun out of this, personally.

The fact that up to six players can join in with practically no barriers to entry outside of turning on the Xbox 360 and booting the game up shows who the target audience is here.

None of the activities are particularly inventive, but I also wouldn't go so far to say they're boring, either. Enough of them are interesting that you probably won't regret buying Happy Action Theater for yourself. On the other hand, it should prove to be sufficiently engaging for kids (and kid-like adults, particularly when alcohol is in the room).

"Epic Quest" is next for Zen Studios, and it sounds effing awesome. It's an add-on table coming to Pinball FX 2 (Xbox 360) and Zen Pinball (PlayStation 3, Android, and iOS) this February complete with persistent loot and experience points.

This is one of the few tables outside of those based on Marvel properties that genuinely interests me. Zen Studios VP of marketing and PR Mel Kirk sums it up: "With a wink and a nudge towards classic RPG tropes, Epic Quest blends frantic pinball action, obsessive character building, and liberally applied tongue-in-cheek humor."

If for whatever reason you can't watch the trailer, Zen has provided us with more than enough screenshots.

Warner Brothers revealed pre-order plans for Lollipop Chainsaw today, promising perhaps one of the greatest bonuses of all time -- a costume based on Ash from Evil Dead. Yeah, shut up and take my money!

Ash will be exclusive as a pre-order from GameStop, while other bonuses are tied to various outlets. Here are your options:

• Amazon: Rockabilly outfit.
• Best Buy: Golden Foxy Funk and Goth Girl outfits.
• GameStop: Evil Dead Ash outfit. 

You can check out the skins in our gallery, and there's a trailer to gawp at too!

The new "Rise of the Martian Bear" downloadable content for Iron Brigade is available as of today for 400 Microsoft Points. With it comes 80 additional pieces of loot, four defense missions, two survival missions, and a boss encounter. This seems like a must-download based on the premise alone.

In other titillating Double Fine news, Costume Quest and Psychonauts are half off on Steam right now, and Happy Action Theater is live for Kinect owners. We'll have a review up later this week. If you end up getting the game, be sure to reenact the ending of Terminator 2 in the lava activity.

The Simpsons Arcade Game is set to grace Xbox Live Arcade on February 3 -- that's this week! -- and PlayStation Network on February 7. It's free for PlayStation Plus members and a reasonable $9.99 (800 Microsoft Points) for the rest of us.

I feel like I've been waiting to write this post for years now. Back when "Games you want to see on XBLA/PSN" lists were more prevalent, The Simpsons always seemed to make the cut. This version has online co-op and even contains the Japanese release as an unlockable. You've done well, Konami.

The Simpsons Arcade Game Confirmed [Game Informer]

I've been fortunate enough to play Street Fighter X Tekken throughout its development, including defeating Seth Killian in a grudge match. So it's little surprise that I'm really excited for this game. If you live in the SF Bay Area, you'll have the chance to experience the game yourself this Thursday, February 2nd!

Capcom will be hosting its Fight Club event (21+) at The Mighty starting at 8:00pm. Not only will there be the latest build of Street Fighter X Tekken on display, but you will also get the chance to play the PlayStation Vita edition of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. So if you are a fan of fighting games, this is an event you definitely don't want to miss!

Mindless Self Indulgence frontman Jimmy "Little Jimmy Urine" Euringer is providing music to Suda 51's gorgeously demented Lollipop Chainsaw. In addition to the tunes, he will also be the voice behind Zed -- a zombified punk rock boss that PAX attendees got to fight last year.

Urine's music will be specifically used for boss encounters, complimenting the score that Akira Yamaoka will be providing for the rest of the action. 

Well, if I wasn't excited enough for Lollipop Chainsaw before ...