Cheshire Chocolate Porter (Unicorn)

Name: Cheshire Chocolate Porter
Label: "Based on an original recipe from 1899 created with the collaboration of renowned chocolatier Simon Dunn - Full bodied with ripe malt & velvety smooth chocolate taste"
Brewery: Brewed for Marks & Spencer by Frederic Robinson Ltd at the Unicorn Brewery
ABV: 6.0%

Rating: 'Renowned chocolatier Simon Dunn' gets around doesn't he, check out his other excellent beer related work here.  Chocolate doesn't agree with me so he's like my arch nemesis or something, but if you're normal and you like chocolate and beer, you should be drinking this by the gallon.

Game: Dead Island finished. Time to get that rotting corpse of a disc out of my Xbox and onto the trade-in pile. That sounds derogatory doesn't it, but it isn't meant to be. The game is brilliant and definitely worth an 8 out of 10. My only issue was whenever I found a vehicle I seemed to have the uncanny ability of getting it stuck on stuff or wedged between stuff and then having to abandon it. That might just be because I suck at driving though. Who needs vehicles anyway, mowing the zombies down in a jeep made things way too easy. Thrashing wildly about with only the "Feeble Wooden Spoon" equipped whilst completely surrounded by zombies is how it's meant to be played, right?

Poacher's Choice (Badger)

Name: Poacher's Choice
Label: "Notes of Damson & Liquorice"
Brewery: Badger
ABV: 5.7%

Rating: "The wily poacher knows the temptations the lush Dorset countryside has to offer. Just like the Badger, the Poacher craftily seeks out its treasures and makes the most of sumptuous local ingredients. This rich, smooth brew has softly spiced sweetness with dark liquorice notes and a fruity damson aroma. A gutsy ruby ale that is well matched with hearty game pie or a tangy mature cheese." I think my Badger collection with revamped labels is complete now... *hic*

Game: You're no doubt aware that Dark Souls is a pretty tough game. You should definitely know now as I've just told you in that surprisingly informative preceding sentence. Whilst unboxing Dark Souls I could see the control-pad start to cringe at the prospect of being launched through the telly in a fit of game-rage. The telly is just glad the game's not Kinect enabled as potentially I could be launching myself through the telly in a fit of game-rage. Fear not though my little beige controllery-type device and slightly aging HDTV. Its true, the game is absolutely and horrifically solid, however upon death there's more a sigh of resigned inevitablility than a bout of full on anger. You're supposed to progress a little bit at a time as you get better. Last night I got killed by a massive dragon, then some ghosts, then I fell down a hole a bunch of times and got absolutely nowhere in the process. So I put Dead Island on and mashed some zombie heads for an hour. Love it! I will master Dark Souls though, mark my words...

Abbot Ale (Greene King) - in an Abbot Ale tankard

Name: Abbot Ale
Label: "Bury St Edmunds - Gold Quality Award 2010"
Brewery: Greene King
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: "Brewed for quality of the highest order in the heart of Bury St Edmunds where brewing in the town's great Abbey can be traced back to 1086. Brewed longer to a unique recipe creating a full flavoured, smooth and mature beer. This irresistible ale has masses of fruit and character. A malty richness and superb hop balance".  Notice my swish new Abbot Ale tankard in the picture? Thanks Abbot Ale / Greene King!

Game:  I saw perhaps one of the crappest video game related play on words / jokes ever on Twitter the other day. It's either rubbish or I just don't get it, or both.  It referred to the CVG article EA shuts Australian Dead Space studio regarding yet another game studio closing and the resulting job losses etc. The "joke" on Twitter quoted verbatim was, "Shocking News! Ea shuts Australian in Davy Jones' treasure chest Space studio. (Dead Space studio)".  I'm no expert on comedy but that is just shit. Sorry.  I don't know why, I honestly don't, but just reading it again makes me feel confused and angry.  I had to unfollow them in a vain attempt at catharsis.  In other, happier, news I want Dark Souls and Rage. A lot. I will resist though until I've finished Dead Island. Don't forget, Batman is out in two tiny weeks, woo!

5 A.M. Saint (BrewDog)

Name: 5 A.M. Saint
Label: "Iconoclastic amber ale - BrewDog: Beer for Clever Humans"
Brewery: BrewDog
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: Ever felt you're getting a bollocking off your bottle of beer? No me neither, until now reading the back of the label: "You don't understand beer. You don't know what good beer is or how pathetic mass-market beers truly are. This is condemningly ironic considering how much beer we actually drink in the UK. Would you apply the same lack of care, knowledge and passion in other areas of your life? What does this say about you?" Crikey, well that's me told, I'm off now for a bit of a cry.  The beer tasted great by the way *sob*.

Game: Didn't get chance to revisit Dead Island because Transformers: War for Cybertron arrived. I'm a sucker for a Transformers game so when this dropped to £9.99 at play.com I transformed from miser to spend-thrift quicker than it takes to say "Autobots, roll out!". The game is surprisingly good, a bit like Vanquish but at a much slower pace. I'm not passing judgement yet as I've only played through the first Decepticon chapter.

1845 (Fuller's)

Name: 1845
Label: "Bottle conditioned ale matured to perfection for 100 days - Award winning strong ale - Celebrating 150 years of brewing excellence"
Brewery: Fuller's
ABV: 6.3%

Rating: When I was drinking this I thought it was like liquid Christmas cake (but in a good way), I might be getting better at this beer tasting lark as the back label says, "Being bottled conditioned and matured for at least 100 days before being released for sale, helps bring out the delicious fruit cake aroma from the amber malt and Goldings hops in the brew." Get in.

Game: Zombies. Lots of zombies. Played through Red Dead Redemption's massive Undead Nightmare expansion game and it was great: 8/10. Now playing Dead Island which seems to have received mixed reviews, possibly due in part to extremely high expectations generated by the rather exceptional and evocative official Dead Island trailer. This is probably one of the best video game trailers I've ever seen. Ever. No game could live up to the hype generated by that. Its selling well despite the mixed reviews. Most shops in town had sold out, Game only had a couple of copies left and had hiked the price up to £47.99, Gamestation had it pre-owned for £42.99!  So it's rareness suddenly meant I just had to have it. Asda saves the day though with plenty in stock for £10 cheaper than Game, their stock manager needs to win Colleague of the Month, Game's stock manager needs to be sent to an island full of flesh-eating zombies.