India Pale Ale (Finchley's)

Name: India Pale Ale
Label: "A style of beer enjoyed by generations - Brewed using only the finest ingredients - Specially selected"
Brewery: Finchley's
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: Pale & crystal malts combine with spicy and fruity hops to give a luscious flavour. This style of beer evolved from the strong, hoppy, beers that had the character to retain their refreshing flavour on the long sea voyage to India in the days of the East India Company.  Is that when the British Empire used to go to other countries and say "This is nice, we'll take it"?

Game: This week I've been playing a "Facebook game". It's shameful I know but it's worth a mention because it's quite good. It's Assassin's Creed Project Legacy and you do missions and stuff. It's kind of turned based strategy where you need to earn money, equipment and action points to progress through the missions. Sounds rather yawnsome but it's actually quite addictive. You can give it a go yourself here: Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy. 7/10

Golden Pale Ale (Finchley's)

Name: Golden Pale Ale
Label: "A style of beer enjoyed by generations - Savour the taste of this superbly refreshing Golden Pale Ale, Brewed using only the finest ingredients - Specially selected"
Brewery: Finchley's
ABV: 4.2%

Rating: A beer from Aldi. Yes, Aldi. The only place that makes shopping for food feel like you're at a jumble sale. Nice one.

Game: DLC time again and it's the Battle for Endor on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2.  Similar to the first games DLC, the level is short and sweet with a few achievements chucked in.  Except this time at a measly 80 microsoft points, it's ten (10) times cheaper than the previous add-ons. Splendid: 8/10

Phoenix (Greene King)

Name: Phoenix
Label: "Celebrate the Resurrection - A Rich & Smooth Full Bodied Ale"
Brewery: Tolly Cobbold (it says on the label but it's actually Greene King - it's mischief I tells ya!)
ABV: 4.2%

Rating: Including both oats and wheat, its distinctive biscuit malt and fruit flavours, combined with just a hint of sweetness, result in a rich and smooth, full bodied ale.

Game: Woo hoo, Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat! I don't really care about the goose though, I'm more bothered about the turkey because that's what I eat at Christmas. I hope it's not getting fat either, rather I hope its getting muscular, but not stringy muscle, I hope it's lean muscle.  I think we got off on the wrong foot there, let's start again. Woo hoo, Christmas is coming and the turkey is becoming more muscular. Not played much else except Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood for a whole month nearly! A host of games coming this Christmas though including Kane & Lynch 2, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Bring it, Santa.

Blonde (Lancaster)

Name: Blonde
Label: "National Award Winning Brewery - Vividly golden beer. Fine hand-crafted pale ale."
Brewery: Lancaster Brewery
ABV: 4.1%

Rating: A vivid golden bitter, Blonde (it says here) is designed to offer pale beer with real taste and aromatic impact. Like a big beer shaped asteroid.

Game: So back in September I pre-ordered Dead Rising 2 from play.com and as part of the deal, there was a feature where you could upload your photo to some website and be on the cover as a zombified dude. Well my cover arrived today and I look all zombie-like on the cover. I'm a lot thinner in real life - they do say that the camera adds a few pounds. Check the photo over there on the right, you can even click on it and see the cover in big.   Fame at last! Kind of...

Amber (Lancaster)

Name: Amber
Label: "National Award Winning Brewery - Proper Lancastrian bitter. Aromatic and bursting with flavour"
Brewery: Lancaster Brewery
ABV: 3.7%

Rating: A deep gold session bitter, punching above its weight in flavour. Abundantly hoppy with subtle floral and citrus aromas.

Game: The mulitplayer of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is pretty darn addictive.  I seem to range from being really rubbish to suddenly really pwning the other players. And they ain't no n00bs either because its ranked matches where levelled up players are matched pretty evenly.  Do people still say "pwn" and "n00b" by the way?

They Think It's Ale Over! (Barnsley Beer Company)

Name: They Think It's Ale Over!
Label: "Strikingly traditional English Ale! - Truly Bobby Moore'ish - A beer of two halves!"
Brewery: Barnsley Beer Company
ABV: 4.2%

Rating: It's ok to drink. The labels are dripping in poor football related puns and it mentions WAGs a lot. Maybe trying to market this to the typical English yob/football fan? I take slight offence to using Bobby Moore's name in that way too, and why is it "a beer of two halves"? Both halves of the drink tasted the same.  Barnsley Beer Co are possibly trying too hard, which is to be expected as the people I've meant from Barnsley have generally been complete wankers.

Game: Good value = Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. So much to do and so little time in the evenings. Been playing it for nearly a week now, only a few hours a night but still... usually I'd have finished a game in that sort of time frame, here it feels like I'm just scratching the surface. Ubisoft are great.

XXXB (Batemans)

Name: XXXB (Triple XB)
Label: "Gold medal winner international beer awards - Classic premium pale ale"
Brewery: Batemans
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: This beer tastes great. It smells ace too. B & M bargains are selling it for 99p and it's in a pint bottle too!

Game: Now playing Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.  When this was previewed a while back and the "multiplayer" was mentioned I thought Ubisoft had ruined my favourite game. I also thought this was going to just be Assassin's Creed 2.5 as it's set in Italy again with Ezio Auditore as the main protagonist. How wrong was I? Very wrong actually. The multiplayer is great (when the servers are up) and the amount of content in the single player story is immense. Stabby stabby time!

Sun Dance (Greene King)

Name: Sun Dance
Label: "A refreshing summer ale brewed in the heart of East Anglia"
Brewery: Greene King
ABV: 4.3%

Rating: Ok, it's not summer any more but that's no reason not to drink this lovely summer ale. Take that, winter!

Game: Another year and another Call of Duty game (this time it's Black Ops). I've not been caught up in the hype this year, I've been strong and said I'm not getting it, I'm not getting it, it'll be just like the last one, I'm not getting it. Anyway I got it on release day for £4.97 after trading Fable 3 in Assda (thanks for the assist www.frugalgaming.co.uk!) It is as awesome as expected and the multiplayer free-for-all is a lot of fun. I'm not trying out the team based multiplayer modes as that would involve speaking to people and stuff. The game looks great, although the single player campaign is a little bit short, 8 out of 10.

Seafarers Ale (George Gale & Co. Ltd)

Name: Seafarers Ale
Label: "Quality English Ale - For every barrel sold we'll make a £5 donation to Seafarers UK, the leading maritime charity"
Brewery: George Gale & Co. Ltd
ABV: 4.2%

Rating: It would be immense to live by the sea. In a house overlooking the beach, with a veranda and several crates of this beer within reach. It would be great even in the winter.

Game: Posts have been a bit sporadic of late. I'm either drinking less or I'm finally running out of different types of ales stocked by the local price fixing multi-billion pound profit making horrors that are the "big four" supermarkets. Anyway the games have still been flowing and in the time since the last post I've bought and finished Fable 3 and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2. Both are great games in my opinion although I did think "Aren't you a little short to be a game?" after finishing Star Wars. Both get 7.5 out of 10.

Oxford Gold (Brakspear)

Name: Oxford Gold
Label: "The Oxfordshire Beer - Craft brewed with a zesty aroma & fruity flavour - organic beer"
Brewery: Brakspear (Marston's)
ABV: 4.6%

Rating: Drink this for a completely organic experience. Remember that Organics shampoo advert that said a similar thing? I think its supposed to imply orgasm or something. A breach of the Trade Descriptions Act if you ask me.

Game: Just realised Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II is out on Friday (woo!).  I have it on pre-order with Game this time due to Play.com and Zavvi's past pre-order failures. It's going to be game-tastic now because Fable III should be arriving Tuesday as well!  If only I could get some time off work.  Annoyingly I'm being interviewed for my own job in a few weeks thanks to a stupid dumbass restructure so I guess I'll have to concentrate on that instead... for now, mwah ha ha ha....

Tibbie Shiels Ale (Broughton)

Name: Tibbie Shiels Ale
Label: "Tesco drinks awards winner 2009, Scotland"
Brewery: Broughton Brewery
ABV: 6%

Rating: Complex dark malty flavour but probably one of the scariest labels I've ever seen on a bottle of ale. Sorry, Tibbie...

Game: Paid 400 Microsoft points for Dead Space: Ignition. Unlike Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, this is not a taster of the gameplay for the upcoming sequel, it's an animated graphic novel interspersed with three different types of puzzley mini games. Its nice, quite cheap and has multiple endings and achievements to be earned. Worth a look 7/10.

Ruddles County (Greene King)

Name: Ruddles County
Label: "Proper country ale"
Brewery: Greene King
ABV: 4.7%

Rating: Tastes great. Used to be brewed in Rutland (the land of mammalian sexual activity).

Game: No new games for a while, so achievement whoring Mafia II and replaying Dante's Inferno at the moment. Dante's Inferno still looks and plays great. It's the only game ever that you'll be able to see babies with scythes for arms climbing out of a giant Cleopatra's puss filled nipples. Yes, it's as horrible as it sounds.

Hobgoblin (Wychwood)

Name: Hobgoblin
Label: "The unofficial beer of Halloween - Brewers of character"
Brewery: Wychwood
ABV: 5.2%

Rating: October means Halloween is on the way. A good excuse to get this seasonal version of Hobgoblin then.

Game: Finished the main story mode in Dead Rising 2, including Overtime. Managed to rack up over 5000 zombie kills during my first play through, most of which I ran over in the sports car that's on show in the mall area. I may have possibly played it too much recently because I was in our town centre shopping mall thing today and like in the game, there was a car on display. This got me thinking about driving it around the shopping centre, and as it's Warrington, the town centre is replete with its fair share of zombie look-a-likes. Oh no, the lines between gaming and reality are blurring.

Courage Best (Wells & Young's)

Name: Courage Best
Label: "Fully balanced malty flavour with a distinctive hop character - Outstanding quality beer brewed since 1787"
Brewery: Wells & Young's
ABV: 3.8%

Rating: "A pint of Best please, luv", as the pot-bellied bald man down the local would say. However, this beers taste belies its humdrum old-man-session-beer name. It's brilliant.

Game: Pre-ordering Dead Rising 2 from Play.com meant I get to upload my photo to the Dead Rising website and then they will send me a game cover with a zombified me on it. This is cool.  As for the game, that is also cool. The crazy time limited mission structure is all present and correct and, get this, the multiplayer is actually really fun! I've come to despise multiplayer but this game really seems to do something a bit different and I reckon I'll be on it for a good few months before the novelty wears off. Let's see...

Old Empire (Marston's)

Name: Old Empire
Label: "The original export - A true IPA with a strong hop aroma and flavour, a rich malty bitter taste and pale in colour"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 5.7%

Rating: Ok, it's appeared here before but the bottle and label has been redesigned. Has the beer changed? How the heck should I know, its been a year since I last drank some, almost to the day! Freaky.

Game: This is the racing game I've been waiting for. All these years and it's finally arrived. F1 2010 came out today. This is proper racing where it's not a case of just bashing your way to first place with RT held down for the duration of the race.  Tactics and split second reactions are needed, and earning a hard fought tenth place during a clean race is a lot more satisfying than bludgeoning your way to a hollow first place victory. Oh and it's got the best weather and rain effects I've ever seen, ever.

Yorkshire Square Ale (Black Sheep Brewery)

Name: Yorkshire Square Ale
Label: "Bred in Masham"
Brewery: Black Sheep
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: B & M Bargains were selling this for 99p. It was close to its sell by date (28/12/2010) however it tasted great, so whether sell by dates have any bearing on taste or not who knows?

Game: Mafia II lasted about twelve hours. Short and sweet and also awesome at the same time. It also boasts some interesting in-game collectibles such as Playboy centrefolds from the era. This is probably amazing for pre-pubescent males but not so much for a thirty-three year old.  But still, its always nice to look at a good pair of tits from time to time no matter what age you are. Bring on the boobs.

Spitfire (Shepherd Neame)

Name: Spitfire
Label: "Premium Kentish Ale - The bottle of Britain"
Brewery: Shepherd Neame
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: The beer is named after the legendary Spitfire aeroplane designed by R J Mitchell, and like the aeroplane, it's spicy, hoppy and bitter with hints of fruit and toffee.

Game: If you don't buy this game then you're a stoopid dumb f*ck motherfu*cker. You f*ckin' rat prick, you.  This sounds like I'm being horrible but I'm just trying to set the scene for the sweariest game ever made.  Mafia II is a record breaker and aside from the swearing it really is like an interactive gangster movie. Addictive with great missions and characters. So far this is definitely worth a 9/10.  You f*ckin wiseguy.

Old Thumper (Ringwood)

Name: Old Thumper
Label: "A beast of a beer - Award winning beer from the heart of the New Forest"
Brewery: Ringwood Brewery
ABV: 5.6%

Rating: It's got an angry looking wild boar on the label and it won CAMRA Beer of Britain 1988 - admittedly this was a long time ago, but it's still good, ok?

Game: Christ almighty, I'm suddenly really sick of sandbox action adventure games with millions of side missions and billions of mini-objectives. On my to do list was liberate Nazi occupied Paris, liberate Mars from the EDF (Earth Defense Force) and then destroy the Shadow Lord and get my daughter back whilst riding a tamed wild boar (strange coincidence considering the name of the ale I just bin sippin'). Obviously these tasks weren't in the same game. That would just be silly. No, it was Saboteur, Red Faction: Guerilla and Nier.  First two tasks are now ticked. Red Faction was actually pretty damn good considering it was only a fiver. 8/10

Irresistible Premium Ale (Natural Brewing Co.)

Name: Irresistible Premium Ale
Label: "The Natural Brewing Company uses only the purest ingredients from sustainable sources and applies traditional methods to create small batches of Brewery Fresh disarmingly delicious, beer."
Brewery: Natural Brewing Co.
ABV: 4.3%

Rating: Lovely beer, and after finishing a batch they probably all give each other a big hug then go outside to plant some trees.

Game: Dead Rising 2 is out soon. Woo! Because we're an impatient lot, Capcom have kindly released Dead Rising 2: Case 0, a download-only teaser game with achievements to get our zombified hands on. For a measly 400 Microsoft points we get what is effectively a prequel before the main Dead Rising 2 events in Las Vegas.  Some  people hate it, but I like the crazy game-save structure and annoying mission time limits.  So there. 8/10

Goldings (Shepherd Neame)

Name: Goldings
Label: "Summer Hop Ale"
Brewery: Shepherd Neame
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: Described as "Light malty flavours and smoothness provide a refreshing summer ale with notes of new-mown grass".

Game: I'd had my eye on the Saboteur for some time and then I spied it with my little eye for just eleven English pounds. It's got explosions, boobs and lots of Nazi killing opportunities.  Hopefully Saboteur 2 will contain Nazis with exploding boobs but until then this is just fine.  It plays like a cross between GTA and Assassin's Creed but doesn't do either particularly well. It is, however, a whole lot of fun.

Hop (Greene King)

Name: Hop
Label: "Beer to dine for - Crafted English Beer"
Brewery: Greene King
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: Contains Tettnang hops. Never heard of them but they make for good beer. I would definitely dine for this beer.

Game: Play.com had Nier for £9.99. I thought I would give it a go because of this review.  First impressions are positive. Looks like it will play a bit like a Zelda game which is always good. Its got a floating book in it, it's a bit "WTF?".  It seems to mix up RPG, platforming, 2D and 3D exploration into the same game and transition between styles effectively. Not much more to say on it yet, I'll see if it plays out as well as hoped and then we can look forward to the obligatory bad "near" puns in a later post.

Very Special India Pale Ale (Greene King)

Name: Very Special India Pale Ale
Label: "A masterclass in brewing excellence"
Brewery: Greene King
ABV: 7.5%

Rating: Brewed to emulate the early India Pale Ales shipped during the 18th Century. They must have had hell of a good parties on those ships. They probably partied every night like it was 1799.

Game: A movie tie-in now that isn't complete shit. The Bourne Conspiracy loosely follows the plot of the film but with the game seemingly devoid of plot. Quite an achievement in itself. It ends abruptly and it's not very long, however the fighting is brutal and the take-downs look punishingly painful. If you like a bit of repetitive fisticuffs with action that doesn't let up, this is definitely worth a look. 7/10

Double Century (Thwaites)

Name: Double Century
Label: "Celebration ale - This delicious strong ale has been specially created to mark 200 years of family brewing"
Brewery: Thwaites
ABV: 5.2%

Rating: It's double hopped, it tastes great, being picky but they've been brewing great beer for 203 years now. So it should be called "Double Century plus 3" or something, although that's not got the same ring to it admittedly.

Game: Playing Need for Speed Undercover. It was only 500 pence and I thought Need for Speed Most Wanted was the best racing game I've ever played. Undercover is just more of the same by the looks of it, which is just fine by me.  Its got proper video in it of actors that are trying really hard to be good. I could probably do a better job but I still think it's superb.  This game has also reminded me that Need for Speed Hot Pursuit is out soon which will almost definitely be a must-buy.

Buzzard (Cotleigh)

Name: Buzzard
Label: "Dark Ale - Finest Somerset beers"
Brewery: Cotleigh Brewery
ABV: 4.8%

Rating: The chocolate malt gives a nutty flavour, the finish in the mouth is dry with a smoky and smooth finish. Dark ales are for winter really. It's nearly winter. Woo.

Game: So Dark Void came and went in about five hours. It was ok, the vertical shooting thing was a bit of a gimmick and some piss poor quick time events (or "QTEs" as they're known in the trade, possibly) meant the game lands in the slightly-above-average bracket.  It could have been Dark Avoid but it turned out to be Dark Ok.  6/10

Tawny Owl (Cotleigh)

Name: Tawny Owl
Label: "Tawny Owl premium bitter is a classic west country beer whose robust malty nose has hints of toffee and citrus fruit"
Brewery: Cotleigh Brewery
ABV: 3.8%

Rating: Continuing a 200 year old Georgian brewing tradition in Wiveliscombe, Cotleigh Brewery has become one of the most successful award winning independent breweries in England producing around three million pints of beer each year. Three million people can't be wrong (or the person who has drunk three million pints can't be wrong, their liver might be a bit iffy by now though).

Game: Gamestation have a bit of an awesome offer on at the moment, four games for £20.  So with each game cheaper than a small round of drinks and as games rarely result in me waking up the following day throwing up and having a headache, it's a win win situation. Need for Speed Undercover, Bourne Conspiracy, Red Faction: Guerilla and Dark Void are now filling the current gaming er, void.  What better way to remedy gaming burnout than by buying four new games!

Original Ale (Badger)

Name: Original Ale
Label: "Classic English Country Ale - Delicate Notes of Fruit and Spice"
Brewery: Badger
ABV: 3.8%

Rating: An original ale with the unlikeliest of original names. Delicate is also pretty accurate.

Game: Downloaded a new DLC level pack for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.  Its the Hoth level but with the Apprentice taking the place of Vader and *SPOILER* turning Luke Skywalker to the Dark Side before he's even had chance to get to Dagobah! Who'd have thought it. The Tattooine mission level was miles better though, visiting Jabba's Palace, kicking Rancor ass, killing Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi in the same afternoon = win.

Monument (Cotleigh)

Name: Monument
Label: "Finest Somerset Beers - An explosion of flavours originating from American Cascade hops gives this brilliant pale golden beer a fresh aroma and fruit filled finish"
Brewery: Cotleigh Brewery
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: Brewed to celebrate the Town of Wellington and its' Food Festivals. "Category winner" at Excellence in Food and Drink Awards 2006. Can't argue with that.

Game: Just finished Splinter Cell: Conviction.  This game is a really enjoyable action/stealth shooter, the only problem is that a big deal has been made of the Co Op and mulitplayer modes. As a result, the solo campaign seems ridiculously short. Shame, because the "mark and execute" is a splendidly satisfying game mechanic, and shooting unaware dudes in the head didn't even have chance to get old. 7/10

Gold Miner (Freeminer)

Name: Gold Miner
Label: "Brewed in the Royal Forest of Dean by The Freeminer Brewery"
Brewery: Freeminer
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: Brewed for The Co-operative. Its cooperating by tasting really good thanks to the British Hops and Barley.

Game: And the winner for "Game with the Scariest Spider" goes to.... Limbo!  Even when you get to pull it's massive leg off, it's still scarily horrible. Thanks for that, PlayDead.  I'm sure this game made my headache worse as well.

The Rev. James (Brain)

Name: The Rev. James
Label: "A silky full bodied, warming ale brewed to a traditional recipe - A taste of the good life"
Brewery: S. A. Brain & Co Ltd
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: Its Sunday, the name sounds a bit religious. Let's drink.

Game: Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days was previewed ages ago and OXM were on about it being so amazing because it looked like a youtube video. I didn't understand. Video quality on youtube is shit. Having downloaded the demo though, I know now what they mean. It does look great, the shooty bits (i.e. all of it) feel about a million times better than the first game. First time I've actually enjoyed a demo since the C64 I think. Also downloaded a demo for Transformers: War for Cybertron but then realised it's just multiplayer. Boo you!

Southwold Summer Beer (Adnams)

Name: Southwold Summer Beer
Label: "Seasonal Guest - Zesty flavour of grapefruit, sweet with a hint of bitterness"
Brewery: Brewed exclusively for Marks & Spencer by Adnams
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: This makes it ace --> "Did you know... back in the days when every farm and every inn produced its own brew, seasonal beer was an integral part of British life. Light, refreshing beers were produced for workers at harvest time and stronger ones for cooler weather. This Summer ale helps recapture that ancient tradition."

Game: First part of Alan Wake DLC out next week. Apparently it will be a bridge from "Season 1" to "Season 2" of Alan Wake.  So that's why the end of the game made no sense whatsoever, so they could sell us DLC?

Canterbury Jack (Shepherd Neame)

Name: Canterbury Jack
Label: "1698 - Britain's Oldest Brewer - Fresh, Natural, Kentish
Brewery: Shepherd Neame
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: "Sharing its name with an ancient hop, and the nickname for a country rogue, it is truly a Kentish character ale"

Game: I've been feeling extremely nauseous when playing Metro 2033.  I could have sworn I've mentioned this previously about a different game *checks older posts*, well I never, back in February playing Bioshock 2.  I hope this isn't going to be a reoccurring theme when playing FPS games.  This could mean a game related crisis is looming, and nobody wants that. Pass the sick bag someone...

Founders (Ushers)

Name: Founders
Label: "A classic southern English strong ale, full bodied & fruity with a goldings hop aroma"
Brewery: Ushers
ABV: 4.7%

Rating: I thought Southerners only drank shandy (that tastes a bit like sick, or egg). Apparently not though as this ale competently proves.

Game: Metro 2033 was on offer at Zavvi. Story seems great and the developers have the post-apocalyptic, scary dark metro subway atmosphere thing nailed down. Weapons are a bit iffy, they don't seem to pack quite enough punch to be satisfying. Overall though its looking good so far.

Busy Fool (Davenports)

Name: Busy Fool
Label: "Ales from the nation's heart - Tesco beer challenge winner"
Brewery: Highgate Brewery
ABV: 5.8%

Rating: You're no fool if you pick up a bottle of this. You're probably not busy either unless you think being sat down drinking beer qualifies as being busy.

Game: I love the Guitar Hero franchise.  It rocks and I rock when I play it. Guitar Hero 5 however is a mixed bag of shit, pop and rock. "Shit" is perhaps a bit harsh, its just trying to cater to lots of differing musical tastes and falls short. Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl had a problem with the digital representation of Kurt Cobain being available as unlockable content and who can then feature in any song in the game. At first I didn't see a problem with it, however having unlocked the late great Cobain I can't quite stomach the sight of him playing guitar for, and singing along to, the likes of Bush, Bon Jovi, Blink-182 (and lots of others whose names doesn't necessarily start with a "B").  Nirvana is my all time favourite band, so I only play as Cobain for the Nirvana tracks and use my mini-me avatar thing to play along to all the crap, it just seems better that way...

Englands Glory (Davenports)

Name: Englands Glory
Label: "Quality English Ale - Beer at home"
Brewery: Highgate Brewery
ABV: 4.3%

Rating: Some might say it's ironic to drink this in light of England's poor World Cup performance. I'm not nearly that pretentious though, I just like ale.

Game: Played through Guitar Hero: World Tour again. Pretty good considering it's trying to cater for many musical taste. Roll on Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock though. Some proper metal shredding guitar action.

Combined Harvest (Batemans)

Name: Combined Harvest
Label: "Barley, oats, wheat, rye - multigrain beer"
Brewery: Batemans
ABV: 4.7%

Rating: Back of the bottle says that it has equal appeal to male, female and younger drinkers. Presumably this is to get away from the old, balding pot bellied real ale drinking stereotype?

Game: Just watched Germany thrash Argentina 4 - 0.  At least England managed to score two goals. Yes, TWO perfectly good goals against the Germans.

Lion's Roar (Banks's)

Name: Lion's Roar
Label: "English Ale - Fide et Fortitude 1875"
Brewery: Banks's but brewed and bottled by Marston's according to the label
ABV: 3.8%

Rating: Banks's Lion's Roar is a rip roaring beer for every English football fan to enjoy this summer.  Its got Latin on the label as well (faith and fortitude) "Nice to see your own beer with foreign words on it, thats loyal support for you, for f*cks sake."

Game: It's the eve of the crunch match with Slovenia. France are out. John Terry made a bit of an ass of himself by saying in a press conference that Fabio Capello should play Joe Cole. So that now puts a whole load of pressure on Joe Cole and probably slightly annoys Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard. And it pissed off Fabio Capello. And why is Terry pretending to still be Captain? Douche. Bag.

Spring Breeze (Batemans)

Name: Spring Breeze
Label: "Demeter Goddess of Spring and Fertility"
Brewery: Batemans
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: In Greek mythology, Demeter is the Goddess of the Harvest who taught mankind to sow and plough. Spring Breeze celebrates the gentle winds of spring which caress the harvests.  Not really a "rating" I guess, it just sounds nice.

Game: Still confident for Wednesday's game against Slovenia. England should get through easily and will probably top the group.

Captain Smiths (Titanic)

Name: Captain Smiths
Label: "Classic ales by Titanic Brewery
Brewery: Titanic
ABV: 5.2%

Rating: Captain Smith's last reported words as he went down with the ship were "be British boys, be British"

Game: The World Cup is well under way and in the group stage after two games so far Spain have lost, France have lost and Germany have lost. England haven't lost a game and yet the fans, lucky enough to be there, boo the team off the pitch after a 0 - 0 result against Algeria. Rooney loses his temper with the fans. I'm with Wayne on this one I think. The fans are whining that its cost so much money to get to South Africa. I guess they're forgetting that they haven't paid thousands of pounds just to watch England, they've also paid for their airfare, their hotel, their sustenance, oh and because they've gone on HOLIDAY.

Rhymney Bitter (Rhymney)

Name: Rhymney Bitter
Label: "Refreshing and full of flavour - Brewed to quench the fieriest of thirsts - Affordable indulgence"
Brewery: Rhymney Brewery
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: It says on the back label that this is a complicated beer using 4 types of Warminster Malt. This may sound slightly pretentious but is a surprisingly accurate description.

Game: No gaming recently because of the World Cup. Just received an email about the new Xbox 360. Spin sucks, so here are the new features as advised on the official email but with my comments tagged on the end:

Features:
Sleek New Design
A bold design and the glossy, black finish mean that the new Xbox 360 looks every bit as good as it performs. (So the Xbox 360 I have doesn't look every bit as good as it performs? The Elite console was black, does that also look shit now all of a sudden?)

Built-in Wi-Fi
Easily connect to Xbox LIVE, play with friends all over the world, and experience a world of entertainment. (Is it difficult to connect to Xbox LIVE now? No, but if so what makes this new one any easier? Just because the Wi-Fi is built in rather than something you stick in the back of the machine? Can't I play with friends all over the world now and also experience a world of entertainment? Yes I can, so WTF?)

250GB Hard Drive
The giant hard drive is perfect for downloading and storing HD films, games, game add-ons, music and more. (Is that really necessary? Films delete themselves after a few days or something so you ain't storing them long-term, and downloadable games and add-ons are such a stinking rip-off we should all be boycotting them anyway. And the DLC seems to be on the disc anyway - looking at you Bioshock 2.)

Whisper Quiet
The new Xbox 360 runs whisper quiet, allowing you to play games and watch films without interference. (I'm not interfered with at the moment when playing or watching films - chance would be a fine thing. And if I was being interfered with, how does a whispering Xbox solve this?)

Oh and Kinect my arse.

Discovery (Fuller's)

Name: Discovery
Label: "Refreshing Blonde Beer"
Brewery: Fuller's
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: A delicious malty taste bursting with rich biscuity flavours. It's getting really quite expensive now buying all the quality beer...

Game: Bought Guitar Hero World Tour ages ago and sold it. Now re-bought it for dirt cheap and I'm left wondering why the fiddlesticks did I sell it in the first place? Some quality tracks on there, a lot of chuff too, but some quality, and a Chimaira track downloaded for free, win.  A couple of Nirvana track packs are just asking to be downloaded soon too...

One-Twenty (Prospect)

Name: One-Twenty
Label: (Pre-launch edition with the 'unofficial' label)
Brewery: Prospect Brewery
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: The Prospect Brewery website. Go to it and buy some stuff.

Game: The World Cup is fast approaching and this means many nights of no gaming (sad face), but it also means lots of football and watching England win for a second time (smiley face). So no new games during the month of Footy so it's time to trawl through all of the Guitar Hero collection. This includes 2, 3, World Tour, Metallica and Van Halen. Thats a lot of songs and a lot of shredding to be done before Friday 11th June.

Big John (Prospect)

Name: Big John
Label: (Pre-launch edition with 'unofficial' label)
Brewery: Prospect Brewery
ABV: 4.8%

Rating: It's a stout, it's also probably one of the best stouts I've ever had. Admittedly I don't drink stout all that much, but still... If this was available in the shops I'd buy it regularly, that's all you need to know.

Game: What now after the mighty Gears of War 2? A bit of Forza 3 perhaps? Forza 3 ain't half yawnsome after spending the past few nights chainsawing dudes in the face. Bless it's little cotton wheels.  Not in the mood for driving games then? No.

Hop Vine Bitter (Prospect)

Name: Hop Vine Bitter
Label: (Pre-launch edition with 'unofficial' label)
Brewery: Prospect Brewery
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: Awesome, this should be available everywhere. Supermarkets should definitely be carrying this, why aren't they?

Game: Gears 2 ain't too bad on Hardcore difficulty. In fact I just kicked its ass, don't think attempting Insane difficulty is such a good idea though. Roll on April 2011 and Gears of War 3.

Piddle in the Hole (Wyre Piddle)

Name: Piddle in the Hole
Label: "Traditional Cask Ale"
Brewery: Wyre Piddle Brewery
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: Someone was obviously taking the piddle when they thought up the names for these villages; Upton Snodsbury, Peopleton and Crowle, Wyre Piddle, North Piddle and Piddle in the Hole.

Game: Just found out there's going to be three DLC releases for Alan Wake. My DLC boycott will be coming to an end I think, plus I get the first one free thanks to spending an inordinate amount of money on the Limited Edition on release day.  Hopefully Microsoft et al will have taken note of my boycott and will have fixed whatever I was moaning about in previous posts, I've forgotten what all the fuss was about to be honest. I'm rating Alan Wake 8 out of 10 by the way.

Pedigree (Marston's)

Name: Pedigree
Label: "Classic English Pale Ale - Official beer of England"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: This is the pale version, slightly different label too, its paler...

Game: Just remembered how awesomely violent the Gears of War games are. Currently playing on Hardcore difficulty. I remember trying it on Insane difficulty many many many months ago and it being far more difficult than Gears 1 on that difficulty. Lets see how we get on with Hardcore difficulty.

Waggle Dance (Wells)

Name: Waggle Dance
Label: "Beer brewed with honey - The Waggle Dance is the ceremonial performance a bee gives to alert the hive to a source of nectar."
Brewery: Wells
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: "Tantalising honeyed aromas tempered by a grassy, lemony nose - all leading to a finely balanced, fresh delicate flavour of hops with a lingering dry finish" - no wonder it costs £1.72 a bottle.

Game: Played a bit of DJ Hero to pick up some achievements, specifically the "5 star all songs on medium" achievement. Getting there but typically there's a song thrown in that is despicably difficult to 5 star even though the ones after it are peasy. This happens on Guitar Hero too. Annoyed... mildly.

Summer Lightning (Hop Back)

Name: Summer Lightning
Label: "Award winning golden ale"
Brewery: Hop Back Brewery
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: Hop Back Brewery has won more than 70 awards for this, its flagship beer.

Game: Another Super Street Fighter IV gaming night tonight hosted by the great Ugly Geezer from the Frugal Gaming community. Not played for a few weeks and it was really noticeable how much everyone else has improved. I won my first three matches but then everyone else must have warmed up as I didn't get a look in after that. They're all on fancy fightsticks as well (sad face).

Hot Cross Ale (Titanic)

Name: Hot Cross Ale
Label: "Brewed especially for Spring, this beer combines spices, sultana flavours and hops to create a delightful ale with a hint of hot cross buns - Seasonal beer, limited edition"
Brewery: Titanic Brewery
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: Does actually taste like hot cross buns. Spicy.

Game: The announcement of Gears of War 3 (here is the Gears of War 3 Ashes to Ashes trailer) has spurred me on to revisit Gears of War 2.  Having shamefully done only one play through so far, it's definitely well overdue a replay.

Cumberland Ale (Jennings)

Name: Cumberland Ale
Label: "Pure Lake District - Late afternoon in October looking over Cummock Water"
Brewery: Jennings
ABV: 4.7%

Rating: New label with nice picture.. still doesn't taste like sausages... Win.

Game: Oh no, gaming burnout? Worries about work and family stopping me from enjoying anything?  Depressed.  Don't know what to play, might be time to buy Red Dead Redemption, it's GTA but with horses. You can upgrade your horse. Everywhere is sold out. FAIL.