New World Pale Ale (Marston's)

Name: New World Pale Ale
Label: "An exotic Pale Golden Ale brewed with a blend of Australian hops"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 4.1%

Rating: "New World Ale is a new lineage for a great heritage beer. Born out of the craft and culture imbued in Pedigree, combined with the fresh, fascinating and funky hop flavours of Australia, this beer is infused with vibrant, exotic, contemporary flavours. Gleaming pale gold in colour,New World pours with a dense white head of foam and a fantastic fruity & floral aroma."  Awesome beer. Must buy more.

Game: So many games still to finish! Shadow of Mordor, The Evil Within, D4 and still popping on to Destiny every day.  But next week sees the arrival of Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Assassin's Creed Unity. Anybody seen that extra spare time I ordered? Anyway, I wasn't going to get Halo but then guess what? I pre-ordered Halo. Pretty amazing story right there!

Fever Pitch (Marston's)

Name: Fever Pitch
Label: "2014 - English Pale Ale"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 4.2%

Rating: "As the temperature rises to fever pitch for football fans everywhere, this beer is a certain winner. Using East Kent Goldings hops to produce a balanced, crisp and hoppy beer Fever Pitch is guaranteed to go down easier than a continental dive in the box!"  The World Cup is finished for 2014, sad face. But I got Marston's ales, mega face! Had a bit of a falling out with Marston's recently regarding a rubbish meal I had at a Marston's run pub. We've amicably resolved our differences though.

Game: Got to the end of Murdered: Soul Suspect. Really enjoyed it, solving crimes and what not.  It's a bit lightweight with simple controls and gameplay but with a really enjoyable story. The novelty of being a ghost able to possess cats never seemed to wear off either. Lots of collectibles too so probably warrants a second play through. Other reviews are overly harsh. 7/10.

Ashes Ale (Marston's)

Name: Ashes Ale
Label: "Definitely not for Aussies"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 4.1%

Rating: "A very easy drinking, light-coloured pale ale brewed using Cascade hops give a slight citrus and grapefruit aroma. Brewed to celebrate the Investec Ashes series and to spur on England's best, this beer is sure to bowl you over. Come on boys knock them for six." Drinking this then pissing on the Oval is entirely optional. Well done lads! *sighs*

Game: The 360 has been feeling neglected so I got it (me) Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Splinter Cell is definitely back to its best. I forgot how tough being stealthy is though. It's good that you can just go through the levels playing it like a shooter but it's far better to get your stealth on.  It's just finding the willpower to make sure the levels don't degenerate into a massive bullet-fest killing spree. There's an upgradeable aeroplane as well. Ace. Rating: a neck-snappingly good 8/10

Marynka (Marston's)

Name: Marynka
Label: "Polish hop - Single hop - Blonde ale with a herbal, berry fruit & floral aroma"
Brewery: Martston's
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: "A relative newcomer developed in Poland around 25 years ago, Marynka delivers a pale Blonde Ale with a distinctive herbal spice aroma and undertones of dark berry fruit."

Game: Finished a lot of games over the past view days. Saved the world in XCOM, saved the world in Assassin's Creed 3, and, er... saved the world in Halo 4. And that ladies and gentlemen is a lot of world-saving.  Still going steady with Hitman: Absolution too and tried to get back into Duke Nukem Forever tonight.  After about thirty minutes of Duke, this little thought popped into my mind: "Oh God, please make this end."  A quick check on IGN's walkthrough and was dismayed to find I'm not even a third of the way through...

Goldings (Marston's)

Name: Goldings
Label: "Single hop - English hop - Blonde ale with an aroma of spices, honey & caramel"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: "The quintessential noble English hop. Grown in Kent for more than 200 years and the foundation for many traditional bitters, Goldings delivers a pale Blonde Ale with subtle spice, honey and caramel notes."  I could have drunk gallons of this, alas, I only had one bottle. It's that good even the bottle looks drunk in the picture.

Game: Still not been able to shift my current XCOM addiction.  All the other games have gone out the window. Literally. There's a pile of games on the path three storeys below my window all with sad faces. DLC has been announced for XCOM too.  With Halo 4 and Assassin's Creed 3 imminent, are these going to end up on the pavement as well?

English Pale Ale (Marston's)

Name: English Pale Ale
Label: "We use lightweight bottles because they are better for the environment"  Er.. you mean because they're cheaper to produce right...?
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 3.6%

Rating: "Zingy, smooth and always exceptional, Marston's EPA is a light blonde ale with subtle citrus flavours and a delicate aftertaste. Now that's refreshingly different."  And exceptional it truly is. And a low enough abv means you can drink it midweek on a work night! And on the way to work the next day too! And while you're at work too! (That's a joke by the way. I would never drink on a work night.)

Game: This weekend sees the arrival of the Eurogamer Expo in London. And I'm going! Woo-hoo!  Although I'm really nervous about it. For a paranoid agoraphobe who thinks everyone will be out to get me, going all the way down to London is a massive, massive deal.  Also I'll need to go on the tube. I'm scared of a) being pushed in front of a train and b) getting my dangly bits (on my hoody) caught in the closing doors.  If I actually make it to the venue come and find me, I'll be the one giving out FREE bottles of ale! (not really).

Pedigree Pale Ale (Marston's) in a limited edition pint glass

Name: Pedigree Pale Ale
Label: "Bottled at the Marston's Brewery"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: "To celebrate 60 glorious years under the name Pedigree, we have brought back the original bottle label from 1952. Just like in 1952, Pedigree is still craft brewed in Burton Unions using the finest English ingredients." This beer is brillant, check it out in this awesome official glass too!

Game: Finally finished Catherine.  If ever there was a game to promote fidelity, monogamy and the great institution that is marriage, it's this game. The thought of having to go through anything like this nightmare should be enough to put anyone off having an affair. Absolutely horrific puzzles towards the end. Great game, but one of those that I never want to play or see ever again!

Sovereign (Marston's)

Name: Sovereign
Label: "An English Hop - Blonde ale with an elegant, floral, understated aroma - Single hop"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: "Developed at the end of the last century as a replacement for Fuggles, the most famous English hop variety, Sovereign delivers a pale Blonde ale with an elegant, floral, understated aroma."

Game: I've been playing Asphalt 7: Heat on iPad quite a lot recently. It's really impressive. Never thought I'd get into iPad gaming but writing the odd review for popbucket.co.uk means that I'm kinda getting into iPad gaming! Here's the full review on popbucket.co.uk. Oh and I also finished Crysis 2 at last. Although predictable, it got quite good towards the end. 7/10.

EPA (Marston's)

Name: EPA
Label: "English Pale Ale - Craft brewed"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 3.6%

Rating: "EPA is a refreshing lighter blonde ale with subtle citrus flavours and a delicate bitter aftertaste." B & M Bargains are doing some great ales at the moment, reasonably priced too.

Game: Well played to Amazon, they delivered Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim bang on time. Both games are absolutely brilliant, obviously.  And with Assassins Creed: Revelations arriving next week, I'll have lots of amazing games all with a colon in the title. Colon fans rejoice!

IPA (Marston's)

Name: IPA
Label: "Sainsbury's Tastes the Difference - Delicate, fresh nose with floral & Citrus aromas - A traditional brew with clean bitter hop flavour"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 5.9%

Rating: Sainsbury's tells us to literally "Tasts the difference". Just noticed the tiger on the label too - instant awesomeness right there.

Game: At the moment I have quite a few games currently on the go. In the fall of this year (sorry for the Americanism) and early next year there's going to be some mega games released that I simply HAVE to buy including but not limited to: Assassin's Creed Revelations, Batman: Arkham City, Rise of Nightmares (Kinect), Star Wars (Kinect), Silent Hill: Downpour, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, I Am Alive, Jurassic Park: The Game, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Halo 4, Gears of War 3 and Far Cry 3. Lot's of colons. That's how exciting it is!

Oxford Gold (Brakspear)

Name: Oxford Gold
Label: "The Oxfordshire Beer - Craft brewed with a zesty aroma & fruity flavour - organic beer"
Brewery: Brakspear (Marston's)
ABV: 4.6%

Rating: Drink this for a completely organic experience. Remember that Organics shampoo advert that said a similar thing? I think its supposed to imply orgasm or something. A breach of the Trade Descriptions Act if you ask me.

Game: Just realised Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II is out on Friday (woo!).  I have it on pre-order with Game this time due to Play.com and Zavvi's past pre-order failures. It's going to be game-tastic now because Fable III should be arriving Tuesday as well!  If only I could get some time off work.  Annoyingly I'm being interviewed for my own job in a few weeks thanks to a stupid dumbass restructure so I guess I'll have to concentrate on that instead... for now, mwah ha ha ha....

Old Empire (Marston's)

Name: Old Empire
Label: "The original export - A true IPA with a strong hop aroma and flavour, a rich malty bitter taste and pale in colour"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 5.7%

Rating: Ok, it's appeared here before but the bottle and label has been redesigned. Has the beer changed? How the heck should I know, its been a year since I last drank some, almost to the day! Freaky.

Game: This is the racing game I've been waiting for. All these years and it's finally arrived. F1 2010 came out today. This is proper racing where it's not a case of just bashing your way to first place with RT held down for the duration of the race.  Tactics and split second reactions are needed, and earning a hard fought tenth place during a clean race is a lot more satisfying than bludgeoning your way to a hollow first place victory. Oh and it's got the best weather and rain effects I've ever seen, ever.

Lion's Roar (Banks's)

Name: Lion's Roar
Label: "English Ale - Fide et Fortitude 1875"
Brewery: Banks's but brewed and bottled by Marston's according to the label
ABV: 3.8%

Rating: Banks's Lion's Roar is a rip roaring beer for every English football fan to enjoy this summer.  Its got Latin on the label as well (faith and fortitude) "Nice to see your own beer with foreign words on it, thats loyal support for you, for f*cks sake."

Game: It's the eve of the crunch match with Slovenia. France are out. John Terry made a bit of an ass of himself by saying in a press conference that Fabio Capello should play Joe Cole. So that now puts a whole load of pressure on Joe Cole and probably slightly annoys Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard. And it pissed off Fabio Capello. And why is Terry pretending to still be Captain? Douche. Bag.

Pedigree (Marston's)

Name: Pedigree
Label: "Classic English Pale Ale - Official beer of England"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: This is the pale version, slightly different label too, its paler...

Game: Just remembered how awesomely violent the Gears of War games are. Currently playing on Hardcore difficulty. I remember trying it on Insane difficulty many many many months ago and it being far more difficult than Gears 1 on that difficulty. Lets see how we get on with Hardcore difficulty.

Pedigree V.S.O.P. (Marston's)

Name: Pedigree V.S.O.P.
Label: "Very Special Old Pale - V.S.O.P. combines maris otter barley malt with fuggles, goldings and sovereign hops to produce a very special pale ale of exceptional character - Matured in the Burton Union oak barrels - Limited edition bottle: 20136"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 6.7%

Rating: For a minute I did actually wonder what V.S.O.P. stood for...

Game: The boss of Frugal Gaming is sending me a copy of Ironman 2 to review. How awesome is that, getting sent a game to review! I liked the first game to be honest, yes it was frustrating, yes it was repetitive, but there was something about it that made it fun, and for a movie tie-in it was pretty good. So I hold out hope that Ironman 2 will have improved on the first one and will be pretty good even though it's a Marvel / movie tie-in. Even if it's not that good, I can't complain because it's just ace reviewing and playing games!

Owd Roger (Marston's)

Name: Owd Roger
Label: "Very strong country ale"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 7.6%

Rating: Brewed to a recipe believed to be over 500 years old.

Game: More Battlefield Bad Company 2. Picked up some more achievements that I missed out on last time. Whilst playing, I realised that all this ale is costing me a bloody fortune... but the sheer variety of real ale on supermarket shelves is staggering, and it's all so yummy.  Since September 2009, already the amount of ales consumed and blogged about has past the century mark (now at 105 at the last count give or take a couple of duplicate ale posts).

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!

Strong Pale Ale (Marston's)

Name: Strong Pale Ale
Label: "Smooth, refreshing and remarkably easy drinking"
Brewery: Marston's
ABV: 6.2%

Rating: Exactly what it says on the bottle.

Game: As you'll know doubt remember, I've been having a bit of difficulty getting past the Sloth Demon in the Fade on Dragon Age: Origins. Well, no longer. I acquired myself an enchanted dagger and a big red dagger, and a drake scale suit of armour (drake is a male dragon apparently).  Have a bit of daggery goodness in your face Sloth bitch!