Manns Brown Ale (Thomas Hardy)

Name: Manns Brown Ale
Label: "First brewed in London in 1902. The complex blend of pale & dark roasted malts still lies at the heart of this English beer. A deliciously creamy, biscuity beer with a sweet, lightly hopped more-ish flavour."
Brewery: Thomas Hardy Burtonwood Limited
ABV: 2.8%

Rating: Wow, didn't realise it had such a weak alcohol content when I picked it up. Its ok though because it tastes fantastic.  A "session beer" I think.

Game: More yawnsome FIFA 10 anecdotes I'm afraid. Anyway, I was up 2 - 0 against Bolton and I substituted Albert Riera for Ryan Babel. Martin Tyler and Andy Gray went absolutely berserk in the commentary box. They were going on about how my decision "wasn't exactly out of the text book" and that it was an "odd decision".  Why Martin? Why Andy? It was a perfectly reasonable substitution considering Riera was looking tired. Also he doesn't even play for Liverpool any more! You pair of crazies!

Fine Raisin Beer (Cains)

Name: Fine Raisin Beer
Label: "Robert Cain brewery established 1850 Liverpool"
Brewery: Cains
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: A rich, fruit and amber ale infused with succulent Californian raisins. Raisins may look like flies with no wings or legs but they make excellent beer.

Game: So Forza 3 asks you how familiar you are with racing games before you start so I say "yeah pretty familiar thanks" and normal difficulty is selected. Normal difficulty has pretty much every single driving assist ever invented switched on as standard. If I held the controller with just my knees I could still probably win every race. Time to start switching off the assists... great game though by the looks of it.

Manchester Brown Ale (Joseph Holt)

Name: Manchester Brown Ale
Label: "A smooth traditional ale from Manchester's heartland"
Brewery: Joseph Holt
ABV: 3.8%

Rating: Quoting the label on the back "said to be the 'taste of coming home' by many a wanderer from the North West".

Game: Immediately disappointed with Darksiders unfortunately. Think I was expecting some kind of Dante's Inferno awesomeness but it's nowhere near.  Gave it a good go yesterday though and it's definitely picking up.  Still not convinced that the graphics are much cop, again comparing to Dante's Inferno (which incidentally has razor sharp visuals which look fantastic in glorious HD). Jury's still out.

John Willie's (J. W. Lees)

Name: John Willie's
Label: "Premium bitter"
Brewery: J. W. Lees
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: Named after Mr J W Lees himself apparently. Stop sniggering at the back.

Game: Everyone seems to be playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 at the moment. Everyone except me that is.  Think I've missed out here on some awesome gameage.  Seems almost as big as Modern Warfare 2, even without the Daily Mail incitement tactics to raise publicity.  Back to H.A.W.X then.  Off the top of my head H.A.W.X stands for High Altitude Warfighter.... er Xylophone perhaps?  I don't know what the X stands for at the moment, or the W for that matter (although the H and A are definitely correct). I will check and report back at a later date. The X can't be a full word though because it doesn't have the appropriate punctuation after the letter X.  <--- (like this X does).

6X (Wadworth)

Name: 6X
Label: "Rich copper colour, vibrant fruit and malt aromas, combined with tempting hop flavours: an easy drinking beer"
Brewery: Wadworth
ABV: 4.3%

Rating: I have no idea what 6X means. If you know please DM me @bickle77

Game: It's total game overload at the moment. I've bought a load of new games using "Easter" as a convenient excuse. Lots of great deals around so picked up Forza 3, Tom Clancy's HAWX and Darksiders. Still playing Borderlands, DJ Hero and need to replay Mass Effect 2. Just got back into FIFA 10 after definitely having my shooting boots on yesterday. Someone seriously needs to invent a cure for sleep!

Double Drop (Marston's)

Name: Double Drop
Label: "Crafted ale using the 'Double Dropping' brewing process"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 4%

Rating: Home Bargains - bringing out the full clean flavour of the malt for just 99p

Game: I haven't played FIFA 10 for a while. Tonight though I popped it on and played an absolute blinder. It's a pity the real Liverpool squad weren't watching because they could have picked up some tips. Beat Birmingham 0 - 1. Beat Burnley 2 - 1. Then the big game against Arsenal, I go 1 - 0 down due to some shoddy defending for a Fabregas headed goal. Then for the first time since Sensible Soccer in 1994, I managed to score a free-kick! Stevie G in the dying minutes of the first half: bit.ly/acrYpS (the lack of goal celebration and poor camera angle is down to shock on my part).  An Aqualani second half goal seals the victory. Goodnight!

Fifth Sense (Joseph Holt)

Name: Fifth Sense
Label: "A premium ale to captivate your sense of taste"
Brewery: Joseph Holt
ABV: 4.3%

Rating: Like the fifth dimension, this is well tasty.

Game: This week I've mostly been mashing up trax on DJ Hero or something. Admittedly there's a lot of musical chav pap in this game but there are also some gems hidden away, Foo Fighter's Monkey Wrench mixed with Beastie Boys Sabotage for example. Vanilla Ice Ice Baby / MC Hammer U Can't Touch This. Superb.  Makes you feel a bit like a DJ as well. Not quite as addictive as the first time you play Guitar Hero though but a nice twist to the music rhythm genre. 7/10

Roaring Meg (Springhead)

Name: Roaring Meg
Label: "Premium blonde beer with a citrus honey aroma and dry finish"
Brewery: Springhead
ABV: 5.5%

Rating: There are some ace things as well as this beer called Meg: Megan Fox, Meg Ryan and obviously, Mystic Meg

Game: Probably one of the most horrible things I've ever had the misfortune of viewing: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryH2WemACIM. Once again another example of biased one-sided "debate" between misinformed overfed, overpaid parasites. Alan Titmarsh's head is so far up his own fat arse he can no doubt see the backs of his stupid white teeth. Instead if celebrating the games industry for artistic and technological advancements by talented developers across the world, these clowns focus on highly tenuous links to negative aspects of gaming. Why could the idiots on this panel not get it through their stupid thick heads that games are age restricted anyway? On a more positive note, these tiny minded dinosaurs are dying out slowly but surely leaving us to get on with it. Yes Titmarsh, there are now millions of us who have grown up with gaming and now hold down jobs and raise families. How dare you presume we would expose our kids to violent video games.

Whitstable Bay (Shepherd Neame)

Name: Whitstable Bay
Label: "A modern ale from Britain's oldest brewer - Organic ale"
Brewery: Shepherd Neame
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: Whitstable is obviously better than Herne Bay or they would have named it Herne Bay.

Game: Welcome to my new feature called "Why I Hate DLC" - The new Modern Warfare DLC is priced at a scarily big 1200 Microsoft points which is £10.20 in real money.  After the horror of the Bioshock 2 debacle last week, this is another kick in the teeth for honest gamers. For the benefit of non-regular (irregular?) readers, last week 2K released "downloadable" content that you didn't really need to download because it was already on the disc - so you were effectively paying for it twice.

All the good work done by the developers responsible for the likes of Fallout 3 and GTA IV is quickly being undone by these con-like examples of overpriced content.  Downloadable content packs for Fallout 3 and GTA IV were essentially entire new games set in the same universe rather than an overpriced multiplayer map or level.  I am now boycotting all DLC until Microsoft and the developers revise their pricing models. Even for my favourite games like Assassin's Creed, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Dante's Inferno, they've been hit with sub-standard or overpriced DLC. By boycotting DLC, the money saved would soon build up to cover the cost of a full price retail game. Eat my goal.

Victory Ale (Batemans)

Name: Victory Ale
Label: "England Expects! - Brewed to celebrate the courage of Admiral Nelson and his crew."
Brewery: Batemans
ABV: 6.0%

Rating: FTW!

Game: After their recent DLC shenanigans, I'm really sticking it to 2K now by purchasing Borderlands. That'll learn them. Played about an hour of Borderlands and its head and shoulders above what I thought it would be. RPS - Role Playing Shooter - I think they just made that up.

Fairtrade Bumble Bee Honey Ale (Co-op)

Name: Fairtrade Bumble Bee Honey Ale
Label: "Made with Fairtrade Chilean Wildflower Honey and British malting barley."
Brewery: Brewed for the Co-operative group - actually by who though only they know
ABV: 4.6%

Rating: Is it fair on the bees though? Is it fair on the bees?

Game: This whole DLC issue is playing on my mind a bit now. Talk about a rip-off capitalist culture, crikey.  After my last post, I've had three maybe four minutes to think about it a bit more and I've come to the conclusion that I'm never going to buy anymore DLC. Ever ('cept maybe Guitar Hero tracks).  It maybe time to see what *whispers* Sony... is up to and how they deal with DLC. Also, Sony don't charge (at the moment) for the privilege of playing online but Microsoft do. Maybe its time to switch allegiances?

Sixex (Joseph Holt)

Name: Sixex
Label: "A traditional beer for real players"
Brewery: Joseph Holt
ABV: 6%

Rating: Looks like Coke, tastes like awesome.

Game: "Bioshock 2 DLC Already on the disc - Is That Okay?" http://bit.ly/9fRnEb.  No, that certainly is not ok. So downloadable content is already included on the disc that I've already bought? So buying the downloadable content is effectively unlocking what I've already bought rather than, er... downloading content?  Frankly that stinks.  This situation is like when John Lennon said The Beatles were bigger than Jesus. I'm going to burn my copy of Bioshock 2 - not really, but I have sold it, yesterday before I knew about this article... but anyway feel my wrath 2K!  At least John Lennon was right 2K, at least he was right.

Original Oak Aged Beer (Innis & Gunn)

Name: Original Oak Aged Beer
Label: "Brewed in small batches - Smooth Scottish Beer with hints of toffee, vanilla and oak."
Brewery: Innis & Gunn
ABV: 6.6%

Rating: Probably one of the best beers I've ever had the pleasure of tasting. Wish they'd given it a better name, and why the small bottle?

Game: Playing Bioshock 2 in small bursts just to slog it through to the end. Back playing Dante's Inferno again. It's a joy to play through the nine circles of Hell, it feels welcoming somehow, like I've returned home. Some more achievements to be had as well. Here's my review over at frugalgaming.co.uk. Don't forget to follow @FrugalGaming on Twitter. They is well awesome.

FA (Cains)

Name: FA
Label: "Prize winning - Formidable Ale"
Brewery: Cains
ABV: 5%

Rating: Awesome (formidable) ale. Used to be available in 1 litre cans - why not anymore??

Game: I want to like Bioshock 2, I really do. But I have a problem with it that I just can't put my finger on.  Maybe its just too similar to the first Bioshock.  And when you've seen one rusty corridor, you've seen them all. Looking out of the window at the sharks and jellyfish seems to be a particular highlight at the moment sadly.

Dragon Heart (Cains)

Name: Dragon Heart
Label: "Prize winning - Brown Ale"
Brewery: Cains
ABV: 5%

Rating: Brewed to a 19th century recipe and fermented in traditional open vats.

Game: Played through the three campaigns in Aliens Vs Predator.  Unfortunately this is bog standard FPS fare, however, its really well done and elevated to a level of almost greatness thanks to the franchise subject matter. Marine, Predator and Alien short but sweet (and gory) single player campaigns holds the interest, but not for long to be honest. Game over, man etc etc... 7/10

Pure Ubu (Purity)

Name: Pure Ubu
Label: "God love him, the dog is mad, but an inspiration to all who enjoy doing what they do and who want to be loved for being what they are - Premium amber ale"
Brewery: Purity
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: Pronounced "oo-boo" apparently.  Everything about it is strange... apart from the taste, which is ace.

Game: No proper games today, played a real-life game instead called "Squash" which involves going out of the house to a "leisure centre" that allows you to hit a small ball around an enclosed area.  We're a bit like this but three, possibly four, thousand times not as good.

White Star (Titanic)

Name: White Star
Label: "Founded in 1985 and based in Stoke-on-Trent, Titanic brewery is named in honour of the infamous ship whose captain, Edward Smith, hailed from the Potteries"
Brewery: Titanic
ABV: 4.8%

Rating: So easy to drink it will fool all but the crustiest of sea dogs.

Game: Today was a good day to be an Xbox 360 owner as Sony done a boob.  Thankfully, Microsoft allow you to actually play the games you've bought for your console without coming up with some horrible error message.  And I've only had the red ring of death twice...