Samson (Double Maxim)

Name: Samson
Label: "Its strength is its taste - Extra special bitter"
Brewery: Double Maxim Beer Company
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: A special brew forged to quench the thirst of Steel Workers on Teesside.

Game: WTF is with pre-orders not arriving on time?  When I pre-order something I expect it to arrive before release day or actually on release day at the latest. It's a shallow, instant gratification thing admittedly but I pay my money, so I want it delivering.  Zavvi.co.uk are the latest who will take the money but then don't deliver on time, and this was their first (and now subsequently last) chance to get my business. If they can't guarantee delivery on time, what is the point of pre-ordering?  Asda again to the rescue with Super Street Fighter IV, and they were selling it cheaper than Zavvi anyway! Asda FTW!

Double Maxim (Double Maxim)

Name: Double Maxim
Label: "All flavour, no flannel - Full of Northern Character - Premium brown ale"
Brewery: Double Maxim Beer Company
ABV: 4.7%

Rating: Still famous among discerning drinkers for its well-rounded flavour. Not sure where flannels come into it though.

Game: I can now confirm that Borderlands does indeed end. Enjoyable but straight on the trade pile. Something not quite right with it. Not sure what, and don't care now anyway. Rating: 7/10. Here ends my review.

Blonde - Lightly Oaked Beer (Innis & Gunn)

Name: Blonde - Lightly Oaked Beer
Label: "Fruity Scottish beer with refreshing hints of Vanilla and Oak"
Brewery: Innis & Gunn
ABV: 6.0%

Rating: The Scotch sure know how to make a great brew.

Game: Does anyone know if Borderlands ever actually ends? Been slogging away at it for weeks now with no end in sight. Mission after mission after mission after mission, followed by a few more missions. Collect this, shoot that, kill them, over and over again. I don't mind though because it's really quite addictive, I just hope I get to finish it this century.

Centurion's Ghost Ale (York Brewery)

Name: Centurion's Ghost Ale
Label: "Dark, Smooth & Mellow"
Brewery: York Brewery
ABV: 5.4%

Rating: York Brewery was established in 1996, didn't take them long to start making ace beer.

Game: Pre-ordered Super Street Fighter IV. Super Street Fighter IV is exactly the same as Street Fighter IV but with a few more characters and options. Fortunately I sold Street Fighter IV ages ago in preparation for the Super version (forward planning you see, I clever). Plus I get a free Blanka T-Shirt with this one so I can geekily sit and play Super Street Fighter IV with my Blanka T-Shirt on.

Maximus (Double Maxim)

Name: Maximus
Label: "National Award Winner - Strong Premium Ale"
Brewery: Double Maxim Beer Company Ltd
ABV: 6.0%

Rating: A strong warming beer that is also smooth and easy drink

Game: As previously posted, starting to clear the game decks in preparation for the arrival of Alan Wake in May. Completed HAWX on Normal difficulty (Normal strangely being the easiest setting in the list of difficulties). This is definitely the best of its kind on the Xbox 360 at the moment, ridiculous storyline but solid gameplay and a good variety of missions. The storyline in a nutshell (spoiler): you used to work for the US Government but now work for Artemis, a mercenary outfit. You do some contracts for the US, Artemis and US fall out, you rejoin with the US, Artemis takes over US and threatens nuclear holocaust, you save the world from the comfort of your cockpit. 8 / 10.

Shut Thi Gob (Wentworth)

Name: Shut Thi Gob
Label: "Cheeky strong brown ale. Beautiful beer, affordable prices"
Brewery: Wentworth for Barnsley Beer Company
ABV: 5.1%

Rating: Charming name. When I invent a beer I'm going to call it "Fuck off and die".

Game: Need to get a few games out of the way now in preparation for Alan Wake in May.  From the little I know of it seems like a Stephen King novel in game form so it's got Win written all over it.  This game is  looking great but I've got a horrible feeling it's going to be like Alone in the Dark.  Which wasn't bad, just a bit broken.

Nutty Stack (Wentworth)

Name: Nutty Stack
Label: "Cracking robust ale. Beautiful beer, affordable prices"
Brewery: Wentworth for Barnsley Beer Company
ABV: 4.4%

Rating: Deep red, nutty and full bodied malty beer, which enjoys a delicious caramel and toffee finish. It's also really fizzy.

Game: No gaming today. Mourning the untimely death of Peter Steele, lead singer of the band Type O Negative. Everything Dies.  Petrus T. Ratajczyk (January 4, 1962 – April 14, 2010).

Coil Oil (Wentworth)

Name: Coil Oil
Label: "Dark spiced porter. Beautiful beer, affordable prices"
Brewery: Wentworth for Barnsley Beer Company
ABV: 3.9%

Rating: Spicy! Spiced with a selection of anise, cloves, cinnamon, lime leaves and dried tangerine peel

Game: Today I've mostly being looking after my ill child. Sickness and diarrhoea is always a barrel of laughs. Cleaning up puke and the most horrendous watery pooh nappies you ever did see. The silver lining on this particular cloud was that I got to finish Darksiders while the nipper did a lot of sleeping.  A very addictive game with some awesome end of level bosses. 8/10

Bengal Lancer (Fuller's)

Name: Bengal Lancer
Label: "Bottle conditioned India Pale Ale"
Brewery: Fuller's
ABV: 5.3%

Rating: Like the dashing exploits of the Bengal Lancer cavalry regiment this should pass into folklore

Game: I pay £40 a year for the privilege of playing online against other gamers, however I rarely use the facility because I think it's a bit... meh?  So Battlefield Bad Company 2 seemed like a good idea for coaxing me into playing online more. So, started playing the single player campaign. Pretty good so far, like Modern Warfare 2 but your weapons can actually destroy buildings.

SA (Brains)

Name: SA
Label: "Premium Ale from Wales - Legendary premium ale brewed in Wales"
Brewery: Brains
ABV: 4.2%

Rating: Three hops: Challenger, Goldings and Fuggles.  I like Brains, best drank playing Left 4 Dead, or Dead Rising.

Game: No zombies in this game (well apart from the DLC) but Borderlands is actually pretty awesome. The cel-shaded graphics look amazing although the missions become a bit of a slog, but definitely keeps you coming back for more. 7.5 / 10

Old Tom (Robinsons)

Name: Old Tom
Label: "Voted World's Best Ale"
Brewery: Robinsons
ABV: 8.5%

Rating: I realise it's probably the strongest bottled ale I've ever drunk, but why the piddly little 330ml bottle?

Game: At this point in time I have so many games on the go it's getting obscene.  What better way to celebrate than by... buying another game. Battlefield Bad Company 2 has now entered the collective fray as everyone has been banging on about how good it is online, and the one thing I don't do enough of is play online. I pay £40 a year for the privilege so it's time to force myself to like it. Started off with the single player campaign though just to get used to the controls, obviously.

1698 (Shepherd Neame)

Name: 1698
Label: "Bottle conditioned strong ale"
Brewery: Shepherd Neame
ABV: 6.5%

Rating: The hops are added three times, hence it is 'thrice hopped', like the Easter Bunny

Game: Ow, getting headaches again that linger for days and than suddenly go all Migraine on me. It's either caused by beer, chocolate or stress. Chocolate sounds like a really lame way to get a headache though doesn't it. But I think this is the number one culprit - after-all, I have been stuffing my face with Easter Eggs all weekend and boom, hello pain. Tried to play DJ Hero but with a headache and it felt like my eyes were going to melt. It has a surprising amount of flashing lights in it, more so than any other music rhythm game I know of.  I'll give it 8/10, but dock it a point for not being easy on the eye for headache sufferers. 7/10

Champion (McEwan's)

Name: Champion
Label: "A very strong dark traditional Scottish Ale with an intense rich flavour, yet surprisingly easy to drink"
Brewery: McEwans's
ABV: 7.3%

Rating: The Special Brew of the real ale world maybe, but it actually tastes really good.

Game: So this week I've been in dire need of some Guitar Hero action. With Guitar Hero World Tour played/traded and Guitar Hero 5 still way too expensive, enter Guitar Hero: Van Halen.  To be honest I'm not immediately familiar with their material (despite realising how amazingly successful and popular they are) but from playing the game I recognise a fair bit. And it is good. I want to read this Van Halen entry on wikipedia but I just can't be arsed (have you seen how long it is?). Game on!

Best Bitter (St. Peter's)

Name: Best Bitter
Label: "A traditional best bitter ale brewed with Pale and Crystal malts and Goldings aroma hops"
Brewery: St. Peter's
ABV: 3.7%

Rating: The Brewery sounds like its steeped in history and the beer is great. I wonder if they do a larger range than the paltry two offerings that Asda provide.

Game: I found out: H.A.W.X stands for High Altitude Warfare eXperimental squadron. And there's absolutely no hint whatsoever of the developers coming up with a cool acronym and then trying to fit fighter plane related words around it.  Splendid game though and an absolute bargain at £6.98.