Wednesday 28 September 2011

First Gold (Badger)

First Gold (Badger)
Name: First Gold
Label: "Single English Hop"
Brewery: Badger
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: The last of the Badger re-labels. "First Gold are dwarf hops that grow in low hedgerows more reminiscent of a vineyard, enabling a better quality harvest.  A clean, fresh, distinctive ale with hints of orange and spice from the hop, perfect with traditional English roasts and pies."

Game: Up to the final chapter of Gears of War 3. Now, either I'm suddenly really awesome at Gears or the difficulty is a lot easier in this third instalment. Months ago I think a vaguely remember that salesman from Epic (Cliff Bellicky or something) saying that the difficulty was going to be easier in order to try and cater for a wider audience. It does seem easier, so for my second play through I'm ramping it up to Insane difficulty, baby. On a more worrying note (for me anyway), I've just realised I'm nearly out of new ales to try! Big sad face thing.

14 comments:

James said...

Shocking! Last time I went to M&S they had some specialist ales...could be worth a look. Alternatively, travel for ale. Bath ales are really good. I strongly recommend!

As for GOW, how are you enjoying it? I didn't think much of Gears 2 but thinking of getting 3. Either that or Dead Island. Thoughts?

GamingAles said...

Trip to M&S for me tomorrow then, thanks for the info. Might try and investigate ale by mail order too. Bath ales sound like a good place to start.

Really enjoyed Gears3. To be honest it's like Gears 2 just bigger and better. If you weren't fussed about Gears 2 then you may feel the same way about 3. Dead Island is great, a bit ropey visually and the tasks/missions are a bit samey (fetch quests etc). But it's beating zombies with various implements... which means its great :)

Unknown said...

(enters after a long night looking for thrash metal songs....)

...boy it's tough out there, almost got my ass licked by google...old age and poor eyesight what! you can't be out of bear...?

oh man... please tell me you at least got a fursty ferret left..

(heads to fridge...)

8(

THUD!

GamingAles said...

You did exceptionally well in your search, at one point I thought you were having some kind of breakdown, but you certainly pulled through and delivered the goods. Bodycount, eh, who knew. You knew!

Fridge is empty man. 'Cept for a bit of lettuce. And no-one wants lettuce when they're after beer.

James said...

Sound advice my friend. Dead Island it shall be...for now. How goes the quest for new libations?

Unknown said...

how did I confuse God of war for Gears of War, oh the shame..

(looks at lettuce...)

we couldn't ferment it I suppose :(

@James I concur with mr.Bickle Dead Island is a corker.. and all the bars are fully stocked

GamingAles said...

Yeah there's a lot of booze lying around on Dead Island. Hardly any in my local M&S though, yet the clientele seem worryingly similar to Dead Island's residents :(

James said...

Ha! Zombie shoppers, just like Romero predicted! Shame about the selection though. The one near me is a superstore so maybe try a bigger branch.

Thanks for tips both! I'm not sure about all this alcohol in games these days. Every time I turned to the bottle in Deus Ex it resulted in a quick and blurry death.

I like how wine and mead lowered your intelligence in the Elder Scrolls games though!

Unknown said...

@Bickle lol and I thought it was just my local m&s..

@James agree, intoxication in games has got to carry some penalty other than screen blurring and spinning, Red Dead Redemption had a nice touch, over intoxication meant supreme difficulty in standing :) kinda liked that one!!

GamingAles said...

Yeah Red Dead Redemption was certainly an accurate representation of being pissed (walking in a straight line without falling over being the challenge). Chuck's vomiting (rubbish pun intended) in Dead Rising 2 was quite funny too.

Unknown said...

...darn missed that, had so much to do in the first Dead Rising, never got round to the second one... and those damn photo shoots... another one to dust off...

James said...

Found Dead Rising 1 quite difficult in places, not to mention a little frustrating. I really enjoyed Case Zero on XBLA though...

Must get round to playing 2 sometime.

GamingAles said...

Yeah I'd second that. Dodgy Save system and frustrating time limits. Also you could only really get the benefit of special moves and extra inventory space gained by levelling up when you did a second play through. I still really liked it tho for some reason!

James said...

Yeah, it had it's charms. I remember running across the entire length of the mall to find a machine gun just so I could take down those bloody criminals in the jeep, only to have the respawn half an hour later.

It was fun making zombie-jam with their car in the meantime though!

Don't think I ever managed to survive once the soldiers arrived though :(