Christmas Ale (St Peter's)

Name: Christmas Ale
Label: "Happy Holidays - Happy Christmas"
Brewery: St Peter's
ABV: 7.0%

Rating: "A smooth, fruity, full-bodied ale, the perfect companion for Christmas savouries, sweets and snacks."   And boy have I eaten a lot of Christmas savouries, sweets and snacks!  And this, another top quality Christmas beer. I wish it could be Christmas everyday! Hey, someone should write a song to that effect!

Game: Didn't think I'd make it but managed to 100% Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag. Was up until 2.30am treasure chest hunting and looting ships for metal to upgrade the Jackdaw and strangely enjoyed every minute of it. Had a bit of a panic when I only had 21/22 treasure maps but it all ended well. The Legendary ships were a bit tricky too. Luckily I seemed to start with the most difficult one so the others proved a lot easier.  Best Christmas ever!  A beer to celebrate you say? Aye!!

Christmas Ale (Shepherd Neame)

Name: Christmas Ale
Label: "Strong Kent Ale"
Brewery: Shepherd Neame
ABV: 7.0%

Rating: "A glowing winter ale with a heady fruity nose. Crystallised winter fruits combine with festive spicy hops on a platform of smooth warming alcoholic notes, leaving a refreshing cleansing hop finish."  Another Christmas Ale, this is one of my Christmassy favourites. Still seven days of Christmas to go!

Game: Haven't left the house in three days. Going for a record. Also trying to 100% complete Assassin's Creed 4 in between Forza 5 and Mario. Also, I did a survey about future Assassin's Creed games although Ubisoft have sworn me to secrecy! So I can't mention that in the next game Desmond comes back from the dead, goes mad, goes back in time, kills Altair and then jumps in a haystack eating a golden apple with some naked dudes running around whilst his future self disappears up his own DNA. Can't wait. Oh and keep it a secret.

Bah Humbug (Wychwood)

Name: Bah Humbug
Label: "Christmas Cheer!"
Brewery: Wychwood
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: "Brewed with the choicest hops & malt, lightly spiced with cinnamon, this is a rich ale complemented with subtle tones of dried fruits. To those who say that the spirit of Christmas is a thing of the past - we say Bah Humbug! Don't be a misery - go on!... Enjoy yourself!"  So it's actually pro-Christmas! Hooray!

Game: So as New Year steadily approaches, I'm turning my squiffy eye in the direction of 2014 to behold the mega-games on the horizon. My top picks are:

• Halo
• Quantum Break
• Titanfall
• Watch Dogs
• Destiny
• The Division
• Thief
• Dragon Age Inquisition
• Dying Light
• The Evil Within
• Mirrors Edge
• Star Wars Battlefront
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
• Wolfenstein  

Captain Christmas (Hardys & Hansons)

Name: Captain Christmas
Label: "A full bodied, malty and fruity Christmas Ale with a refreshing bitter finish"
Brewery: Hardys & Hansons
ABV: 4.2%

Rating: Not to be confused with Captain Caveman who lived in a cave, Captain Christmas lives in Christmas. And this is Christmas in a bottle! I was going to leave some out for Santa but he can get lost. I'm having the lot!

Game: Firstly, where the hell did my manners go? I forgot to wish everyone a Happy Christmas in the last post. So: Happy Christmas everyone! Cracked open Super Mario 3D World earlier. What a game! I'm so glad I bought the WiiU. This game sooo justifies the console purchase, it's simply sublime. If you're not grinning like a maniac when you play this then your brain is made of mushrooms and your heart is made of poison flavoured Bowser flame-vomit. I'm sure the game will get tough later on (especially trying to nab all the stars and stamps) so the grinning may turn to grimacing but I'm sure it will revert back to grinning just as quickly. Love it. Rating: 9.5 / 10

Yule Love It! (Thwaites)

Name: Yule Love It!
Label: "Thoroughly Festive - A Magically Festive Brew"
Brewery: Thwaites
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: "An amber beer with a balanced hop and biscuit malt flavour and lingering bitter finish".  Yes! Christmas beer! And I'll did love it! And yule will too!

Game: Two days after Christmas day and my stomach has finally shrunk back down to normal size so I can now see the telly again - bring on the games! Forza 5 is as amazing as I've been led to believe. One of the things that was putting me off about it was the Top Gear affiliation and Jeremy Clarkson's involvement. From what I hear from various sources Jeremy Clarkson is "a bit of a knob" and I'm not really into Top Gear. It just seems to be three blokes way too far up their own arses surrounded by a bunch of sycophantic wankers for an audience. That's what I've gauged from the 20 second or so snippets I've seen of the show, so I'm more than likely wrong about everything and the show is great. Aaanyway, the game, as already stated is amazing. And Jeremy Clarkson's voice over bits are genuinely informative, engaging and oft-times humorous.

Christmas Eve (Batemans)

Name: Christmas Eve
Label: "Infused with a touch of spice!"
Brewery: Batemans
ABV: 4.4%

Rating: "With a liberal measure of cinnamon and the subtle hue of fruit cake and some say even whiskey this indulgent tipple is the perfect way to toast the onset of the festive season. A deeply flavoured malty beer brimming with rich molasses, caramel and sweetness all offset with a touch of spice."  I was planning to have this on Christmas Eve, ya know - because of the name and stuff, but I supped it on Christmas Eve Eve Eve instead. Christmas is the best!

Game: Not played any Dead Rising 3 or FIFA 14 or Ryse. It's all just been Assassin's Creed 4. Really addicted to it. Seriously, I think I need help or some sort of intervention. Santa should be fetching Forza 5 and that new Mario game round in a couple of nights so hopefully that will prise me away from pirating.

Black Cat (Moorhouse's)

Name: Back Cat
Label: "Brewers since 1865"
Brewery: Moorhouse's
ABV: 3.4%

Rating: "A dark ruby ale with a rich dry chocolate malt taste"  Leftovers from Halloween I think. Leftovers rock!

Game: Main storyline completed in Assassin's Creed 4. I'm experiencing quite a profound AC4 addiction at the moment, even though the story is finished there's still billions to do! Using the companion app for plotting courses on the map in real-time is absolutely superb by the way. It saves you having to drop out of the game to go to the map screen. Sounds trivial (even by my standards) but it's an absolutely brilliant use for the second device / smartglass functionality.  I'm giving AC4 9.999999999999 / 10 which as you can obviously see is slightly more than I gave Ryse. But that's just because AC4 is my favouritest. And it's got the BEST ever rendition of the Drunken Sailor sea shanty you will ever hear ever. Ever!

Wild River (Fuller's)

Name:Wild River
Label: "Double Hopped Pale Ale - Brewed beside the Thames since 1845"
Brewery: Fuller's
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: "Inspired by the American craft brewery movement, this double hopped pale ale uses a unique blend of the finest American hops including Liberty, Willamette, Cascade and Chinook giving a wonderful zesty beer bursting with citrus flavours and a satisfying bitter finish"

Game: Still can't believe some of these Ryse reviews, man. 4 out of 10?? Seriously?? Pop it on Legendary difficulty smarty pants and see how simple it is then! You can't just mash the attack button, you've got to do countering. Like, proper countering, with proper timing and everything. I still stand by my 9.99999999 / 10 review I gave it last time. Epic. And a Gaming Ales review is the best in the journalism (sic).

Top Totty (Slater's)

Name: Top Totty
Label: "Blonde beer - Brewed in Stafford"
Brewery: Slater's
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: "A stunningly blonde......beer, full bodied with a voluptuous hop aroma. This award-winning beer is brewed using Halcyon Pale Ale and Wheat malt with Whitbread Golding Variety hops producing an initial burst of bitterness with a citrus fruity finish. Now brewed at our State of the Art Brewery in Stafford."

I hate the title, but love the beer, so mixed emotions with this one. And whoever invented the word "totty" needs a slap.

Game: Realised today I could probably just play Assassin's Creed games for the rest of my life. Assassin's Creed 4 is fabulous... me hearties, Arrr! etc etc. I have been playing other stuff though, check this Killer Instinct video I uploaded whereby I totally dominated and managed to pull off an Ultra finishing move against a human opponent *whispers* I must confess though, I completely button-mashed my way through that bout so apologies to XI Aguero16x whoever you are...