Hobgoblin - Bottle & Glass Gift Set (Wychwood)

Name: Hobgoblin - Bottle & Glass Gift Set
Label: "Brewed with roasted malts for a well-balanced, rich, smooth taste, a beer full of mischievous character"
Brewery: Wychwood
ABV: 5.2%

Rating: Tastes even better out of my awesome new Hobgoblin pint glass. Click the picture and marvel at its greatness.

Game: The game of Game of Thrones is a great game about the game of thrones. Graphics are ok and animation is a bit wonky but the actual story-line and how it slots into the wider picture is really well done. Appearances and cameos by the more famous characters from the Seven Kingdoms are most pleasing. Happy New Year!

Rudolph the Red Nosed White Horse (White Horse Brewery)

Name: Rudolph the Red Nosed White Horse
Label: "Quality brewing since 2004 - The mysterious White Horse is the most ancient chalk carving in Britain, dating back to the Bronze Age. This elegant chalk carving is located in the hills just above the White Horse Brewery, where traditional brewing craftmanship is kept alive & quality local ingredients are used to produce magnificent beers."
Brewery: White Horse
ABV: 4.8%

Rating: "As the snow piles up against the door & the wind whistles over pub chimneys, it's time to find a beer of noble heart & passionate tradition. Chestnut red in colour, the explosion of flavour will transfix the tongue while warm citrus & candied peel flavours mix with the dryness of a drawn out fermentation to produce a fabulous winter warmer." Who writes these descriptions? They're absolutely brilliant and luckily the beer is too. Win win.

Game: Annoyingly spent about an hour trying to kill a black panther using just a bow and arrow in Far Cry 3.  It's one of the Path of the Hunter side quests. Kept getting mauled to death. I need to craft some syringes to boost my skills but I can't be arsed getting the ingredients. I'm too stubborn sometimes. Mince pie time.

Uncle Scrooge (Oxfordshire Ales)

Name: Uncle Scrooge
Label: "Bah humbug, a Christmas Ale"
Brewery: Oxfordshire Ales
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: "Oxfordshire Ales is a family business, passionate about contemporary ales, brewed in the time-honoured way using the finest ingredients. We draw spring water, known in Marsh Gibbon folklore for its healing properties from the village spring at Stump Well. Our malt is from Britain's oldest floor maltings; our barley is grown on the Hampshire chalk downlands and the hops in the Pride of Oxford are Cascade and Perle."  I knew it! Beer (especially this one) has healing properties!

Game: Santa is ace. He must have seen how much I liked Game of Thrones on telly that he fetched me the game this year!  It's looking good, despite its middling reviews. Happy Christmas, one and all!

Mr Sno'Balls (Harviestoun)

Name: Mr Sno'Balls
Label: "Craft brewed in Scotland - Crisp Clean Citrus - Unusual name, unusual beer"
Brewery: Harviestoun Brewery
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: "This copper coloured beer is brewed with pale and crystal malts with a touch of roast barley. The hop additions are Challenger for bitterness and Styrian for its floral citrus aroma. A balanced and very moreish beer. Best served chilled." You know, like a snowman!

Game: So today I had to take over an enemy encampment. There were about six or seven pirates guarding the camp and no way to disable the alarm without being spotted... and I was almost totally out of ammo. Luckily I noticed a large, angry looking bear caged up within the camp. I took up a hidden position several hundred metres away. The bamboo cage door was no match for the single remaining bullet from my sniper rifle. The wood splintered and broke and the bear was unleashed. Mr. Bear then proceeded to maul every pirate to death for me. They tried but could not kill the beast, even with their not-so-fancy AK-47s. Losers. I sneaked into the camp and debated whether or not to go over to the bear and give him a big hug, he had just helped me out after all. Deciding that this course of action would probably end badly i.e. evisceration, I instead opted to loot the nearest dead pirate for ammo and proceeded to empty an entire clip into bear hide. I then skinned him. Sorry mate, ha ha ha ha. *Sob* I loved that bear. Mixed emotions... and that's why Far Cry 3 is so great.

Two Hoots (Holt)

Name: Two Hoots
Label: "With great beer comes great wisdom but we only care about the great beer - Golden Ale"
Brewery: Joseph Holt of Manchester
ABV: 4.2%

Rating: "Over 100 years of the collective wisdom and passion of our current brewing staff has been crafted into this light fruity golden ale."

Game: Visually Far Cry 3 is superb. The islands are teeming with wildlife too. And what's the first thing you do when you see loads of wild animals? Slaughter them of course and then skin them to make wallets and weapon holsters.  The skinning of animals has become quite popular in video games for some reason. In Assassin's Creed III, I didn't feel like there was much purpose to this animal bothering but with Far Cry it's a necessity. Especially if you want to take on the island's baddies with more than just a pea shooter and a small pebble.

Hop Garden Gold (Hogs Back Brewery)

Name: Hop Garden Gold
Label: "Tongham Surrey - Premium Golden Ale - ...the Golden Ale - Brewery conditioned: for all the taste without the sediment"
Brewery: Hogs Back Brewery
ABV: 4.6%

Rating: "Enjoy HOP, a refreshing hoppy pale golden ale with a good balance of aroma and bitterness from the finest English Malted Barley and 'Choicest' fresh whole English Hops..."

Game: Wasn't going to get Far Cry 3 because I was a little put off by Far Cry 2. Bit silly because I quite enjoyed Far Cry 2. I say 'quite enjoyed' as some bits of it were major suck and the thought of playing it all again (albeit re-skinned as a tropical island rather than Africa) left me a little cold.  So as is normally the case recently, I got it anyway.  So far, there's still a faint whiff of Far Cry 2 but it's obvious this third installment is a different beast entirely.

Fortyniner (Ringwood Brewery)

Name: Fortyniner
Label: "The New Forest beer"
Brewery: Ringwood
ABV: 4.9%

Rating: "Beer has been brewed in Ringwood for centuries ever since medieval man first mixed the crystal water of the River Avon with the malted barley harvested from the surrounding fertile fields of Hampshire. Fortyniner, a celebration of the New Forest, is a full bodied premium golden beer with a deep bitter-sweet finish. Brewed with Maris Otter barley, Goldings, Progress, Fuggles, and Challenger hops."  Hey, medieval man! You're the greatest!!

Game: Thanks to getting rid of the 'Abomination' (formerly known as Duke Nukem Forever) I was able to crack on with Hitman: Absolution.  It's a brilliant game, I start each level out with good stealthy intentions but as the level progresses it usually just degenerates into a massive bloody shoot-out with me (Agent 47) walking around like the Terminator, head-shotting everyone. Great fun. Although I read this on Twitter, "If you're playing Hitman like a shooter & enjoying it you're an idiot."  I love being an idiot.

Dizzy Blonde (Robinsons)

Name: Dizzy Blonde
Label: "Golden Zesty Ale - Hop variety: Amarillo - Craft beers"
Brewery: Robinsons
ABV: 3.8%

Rating: "A refreshing golden ale packed full of Amarillo hops from across the pond. Dizzy Blonde started life as a summer seasonal beer but incredible success has allowed us to back it as one permanently available in our pubs and now in bottle. Nicknamed Peggy, she is a vibrant beer with a distinctive wild aromatic hop. Enjoy the spirit of innovation that comes with Robinsons Craft Beers."  Dizzy Blonde, great beer. Is the name a teeny tiny bit sexist nowadays maybe? I'll let you decide. Nothing compared to the game reviewed below though...

Game: Ok, I did it. I got rid of Duke Nukem Forever and I wasn't even halfway through. I couldn't take it anymore. I could no longer stomach the pathetic graphics, the stupid sexist 'jokes' and storyline, the abominable animation, even "The Dukes" voice started to sound like fingernails down a blackboard.  The final straw came soon after the classily named level "Duke Nukem's Titty City". Duke was trapped in a toilet, of which there are many for some reason. He picks up a turd out of the toilet, says something banal like, "Huh, that's disgusting - I'm a f*ckin' idiot, huh huh" and chucks it at the wall.  Oh, the hilarity of it all.  Nah, it wasn't for me, sorry... 2/10

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...