Courage Best (Wells & Young's)

Name: Courage Best
Label: "Fully balanced malty flavour with a distinctive hop character - Outstanding quality beer brewed since 1787"
Brewery: Wells & Young's
ABV: 3.8%

Rating: "A pint of Best please, luv", as the pot-bellied bald man down the local would say. However, this beers taste belies its humdrum old-man-session-beer name. It's brilliant.

Game: Pre-ordering Dead Rising 2 from Play.com meant I get to upload my photo to the Dead Rising website and then they will send me a game cover with a zombified me on it. This is cool.  As for the game, that is also cool. The crazy time limited mission structure is all present and correct and, get this, the multiplayer is actually really fun! I've come to despise multiplayer but this game really seems to do something a bit different and I reckon I'll be on it for a good few months before the novelty wears off. Let's see...

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.

Yorkshire Square Ale (Black Sheep Brewery)

Name: Yorkshire Square Ale
Label: "Bred in Masham"
Brewery: Black Sheep
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: B & M Bargains were selling this for 99p. It was close to its sell by date (28/12/2010) however it tasted great, so whether sell by dates have any bearing on taste or not who knows?

Game: Mafia II lasted about twelve hours. Short and sweet and also awesome at the same time. It also boasts some interesting in-game collectibles such as Playboy centrefolds from the era. This is probably amazing for pre-pubescent males but not so much for a thirty-three year old.  But still, its always nice to look at a good pair of tits from time to time no matter what age you are. Bring on the boobs.

Spitfire (Shepherd Neame)

Name: Spitfire
Label: "Premium Kentish Ale - The bottle of Britain"
Brewery: Shepherd Neame
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: The beer is named after the legendary Spitfire aeroplane designed by R J Mitchell, and like the aeroplane, it's spicy, hoppy and bitter with hints of fruit and toffee.

Game: If you don't buy this game then you're a stoopid dumb f*ck motherfu*cker. You f*ckin' rat prick, you.  This sounds like I'm being horrible but I'm just trying to set the scene for the sweariest game ever made.  Mafia II is a record breaker and aside from the swearing it really is like an interactive gangster movie. Addictive with great missions and characters. So far this is definitely worth a 9/10.  You f*ckin wiseguy.

Old Thumper (Ringwood)

Name: Old Thumper
Label: "A beast of a beer - Award winning beer from the heart of the New Forest"
Brewery: Ringwood Brewery
ABV: 5.6%

Rating: It's got an angry looking wild boar on the label and it won CAMRA Beer of Britain 1988 - admittedly this was a long time ago, but it's still good, ok?

Game: Christ almighty, I'm suddenly really sick of sandbox action adventure games with millions of side missions and billions of mini-objectives. On my to do list was liberate Nazi occupied Paris, liberate Mars from the EDF (Earth Defense Force) and then destroy the Shadow Lord and get my daughter back whilst riding a tamed wild boar (strange coincidence considering the name of the ale I just bin sippin'). Obviously these tasks weren't in the same game. That would just be silly. No, it was Saboteur, Red Faction: Guerilla and Nier.  First two tasks are now ticked. Red Faction was actually pretty damn good considering it was only a fiver. 8/10

Irresistible Premium Ale (Natural Brewing Co.)

Name: Irresistible Premium Ale
Label: "The Natural Brewing Company uses only the purest ingredients from sustainable sources and applies traditional methods to create small batches of Brewery Fresh disarmingly delicious, beer."
Brewery: Natural Brewing Co.
ABV: 4.3%

Rating: Lovely beer, and after finishing a batch they probably all give each other a big hug then go outside to plant some trees.

Game: Dead Rising 2 is out soon. Woo! Because we're an impatient lot, Capcom have kindly released Dead Rising 2: Case 0, a download-only teaser game with achievements to get our zombified hands on. For a measly 400 Microsoft points we get what is effectively a prequel before the main Dead Rising 2 events in Las Vegas.  Some  people hate it, but I like the crazy game-save structure and annoying mission time limits.  So there. 8/10

Goldings (Shepherd Neame)

Name: Goldings
Label: "Summer Hop Ale"
Brewery: Shepherd Neame
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: Described as "Light malty flavours and smoothness provide a refreshing summer ale with notes of new-mown grass".

Game: I'd had my eye on the Saboteur for some time and then I spied it with my little eye for just eleven English pounds. It's got explosions, boobs and lots of Nazi killing opportunities.  Hopefully Saboteur 2 will contain Nazis with exploding boobs but until then this is just fine.  It plays like a cross between GTA and Assassin's Creed but doesn't do either particularly well. It is, however, a whole lot of fun.

Hop (Greene King)

Name: Hop
Label: "Beer to dine for - Crafted English Beer"
Brewery: Greene King
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: Contains Tettnang hops. Never heard of them but they make for good beer. I would definitely dine for this beer.

Game: Play.com had Nier for £9.99. I thought I would give it a go because of this review.  First impressions are positive. Looks like it will play a bit like a Zelda game which is always good. Its got a floating book in it, it's a bit "WTF?".  It seems to mix up RPG, platforming, 2D and 3D exploration into the same game and transition between styles effectively. Not much more to say on it yet, I'll see if it plays out as well as hoped and then we can look forward to the obligatory bad "near" puns in a later post.

Very Special India Pale Ale (Greene King)

Name: Very Special India Pale Ale
Label: "A masterclass in brewing excellence"
Brewery: Greene King
ABV: 7.5%

Rating: Brewed to emulate the early India Pale Ales shipped during the 18th Century. They must have had hell of a good parties on those ships. They probably partied every night like it was 1799.

Game: A movie tie-in now that isn't complete shit. The Bourne Conspiracy loosely follows the plot of the film but with the game seemingly devoid of plot. Quite an achievement in itself. It ends abruptly and it's not very long, however the fighting is brutal and the take-downs look punishingly painful. If you like a bit of repetitive fisticuffs with action that doesn't let up, this is definitely worth a look. 7/10

Double Century (Thwaites)

Name: Double Century
Label: "Celebration ale - This delicious strong ale has been specially created to mark 200 years of family brewing"
Brewery: Thwaites
ABV: 5.2%

Rating: It's double hopped, it tastes great, being picky but they've been brewing great beer for 203 years now. So it should be called "Double Century plus 3" or something, although that's not got the same ring to it admittedly.

Game: Playing Need for Speed Undercover. It was only 500 pence and I thought Need for Speed Most Wanted was the best racing game I've ever played. Undercover is just more of the same by the looks of it, which is just fine by me.  Its got proper video in it of actors that are trying really hard to be good. I could probably do a better job but I still think it's superb.  This game has also reminded me that Need for Speed Hot Pursuit is out soon which will almost definitely be a must-buy.