Smoked Ruby (Adnams)

Name: Smoked Ruby
Label: "Specially brewed for Marks & Spencer"
Brewery: Adnams
ABV: 4.7%

Tasting notes: "This beer is brewed with malted barley that's been smoked with cherry wood, giving it an intriguingly sweet, nutty, smoky flavour. This beer's smoky notes work brilliantly with roasted meat dishes, or try it with a smoked cheese."

Game: Issue 13 of the Alien and Predator figurine collection - Hunter Predator. From Predator 2 - this one is ace, well painted and holding a bloody spine with skull attached.

Rating: 8.5 spines out of 10

Issue 13 of the Alien and Predator figurine collection - Hunter Predator

Ease Up IPA (Adnams)

Name: Ease Up I.P.A
Label: "Session Beer - Always best served chilled"
Brewery: Adnams
ABV: 4.6%

Tasting notes: "Big mango aromas, flavours of pine, melon & grapefruit. Clean, dry finish and subtle sweetness. A big hop bill, perfect for any session!"

Game: Starting off the series of game related figurines, specifically those included with special edition Assassin's Creed games, here's Connor from Assassin's Creed 3.

Fantastic detail on this one, from blood on the snow to the quiver of arrows and Brotherhood themed tomahawk.  The figure can be purchased separately but the Freedom Edition boxset with game (in steelbook case) is about £200 new or expect to pay around £80 second hand.

Rating: 8/10

Mosaic Pale Ale (Adnams)

Name: Mosaic Pale Ale
Label: "Jack Brand - Single Hop Beer"
Brewery: Adnams
ABV: 4.1%

Tasting notes: "Adnams Jack Brand beers pay homage to the generations of brewers that have come before us. With a firm nod to our history, we've added an exciting slurp of 'the modern' made with, you guessed it, mosaic hops. This pale blonde has bags of bold mango, peach, lemon & pine flavours with a dry hoppy finish. Big & fruity, it's a one-hop-wonder!"

Game: So we're finally home from E3 - whew! [you mean finally home from work like any other day? - Ed].  Stand-out reveals for us were Assassin's Creed Origins, Wolfenstein 2: The New Collossus, Evil Within 2 and of course the Xbox One X.  Slim pickings on the games front really. Here's hoping Spider-Man is only a timed PS4 exclusive rather than an exclusive exclusive!

E3 2017 rating: 6/10 - raised to 7/10 because we were actually there [no we weren't, so 6/10 - Ed]

Gunhill (Adnams)

Name: Gunhill
Label: "Full flavoured beer - Beer from the coast - Adnams Gunhill is proud to join the fight against Prostate Cancer by contributing a donation from Gunhill sales to the Prostate Cancer Charity."
Brewery: Adnams
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: "A traditional dark ruby ale, delivering full flavour at just 4% ABV. Full aromatic barley malts and an exquisite blend of hops combined to create a wonderful balance of sweet biscuit and subtle fruit flavours, with a hint of chocolate bitterness."

Game: What's all this "always-on connectivity" needed for the next Xbox then?  My internet connection sometimes drops. Not often. But sometimes. And last night I couldn't sign into Xbox Live. So Microsoft can't guarantee 100% service up-time, and to be fair, who honestly can? But to say that I won't be able to play any games on the next console if there's a loss of connection is absolutely bonkers! PlayStation 4 just took the next-gen lead #dealwithit

Sole Star (Adnams)

Name: Sole Star
Label: "Pale Amber Ale - From the Sole Bay Brewery"
Brewery: Adnams
ABV: 2.7%

Rating: "Named after the brightest star in the sky, which rises first over the Sole Bay Brewery every morning, Sole Star is a celebration of our very special East Coast location. This pale amber ale has a light floral, citrus aroma and gentle caramel notes - it's a great quality ale at only 2.7%"

Game: It's Tuesday, it's great when new games come out on a Tuesday, it means you don't have to wait until Friday. Today there are no new games out but I bought one anyway (take that, release schedule). Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. But what's this? The Thank You For Playing website is go, go, go! Being a contributor to the Indiegogo campaign thing that kick started this thing, it's a proud moment for me. Check it out, right now. Look out for the Escort Service clip too, it's brilliant.

Ghost Ship (Adnams)

Name: Ghost Ship
Label: "A ghostly pale ale"
Brewery: Adnams
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: "Suffolk's shore is littered with the eerie wrecks of smuggling ships, the ghost town of Dunwich and endless haunting tales. It was this colourful history that inspired Adnams Ghost Ship. This ghostly pale ale has good assertive pithy bitterness with a malty backbone and a lemon and lime aroma." Another scarily good ale from the Adnams family!

Game: Ok so this year I was a total Expo virgin. But after Eurogamer Expo 2012 I'm hooked, so much so I'm already planning for the trip to Eurogamer 2013! Below is my survival guide (for me to read back to myself as 2013's Expo approaches):

1. Don't get anxious about the travel. It's easy, don't be such a chicken. Book the train in advance so it's cheap, including a ticket for the Underground that covers Zone 1. All your travel covered on one handy ticket - just don't lose it!

2. Be prepared to queue up for stuff as it's mega busy. For some reason I was reluctant to spend time queuing up so missed out on some things. There's nothing wrong with queuing up for an hour, you're there for 8 or 9 hours at least!

3. Don't be scared of spoilers. I missed out on quite a few games because I didn't want to spoil them as I have them on pre-order. At the time this seemed perfectly logical. With hindsight it's completely ridiculous.

4. Pre-arrange to meet up with people. I wanted to meet up with some Twitter folk even though I'm not the most sociable person and it probably would have been well awkward at first. Mobile and 3G reception in the venue was rubbish. Man up and meet outside.

5. Take a colostomy bag. The toilets are grim. I pity the poor soul who was tasked with hosing them down after the event.

Point 5 is optional. The above might sound like I had a rubbish time. I didn't, it was ace. I just want next year to be even acer!

Southwold Winter IPA (Adnams)

Name: Southwold Winter IPA
Label: "A wonderful fruity aroma & bitterness balanced by sweet barley - Seasonal guest"
Brewery: Adnams
ABV: 6.7%

Rating: "A blend of Boadicea, Columbus and Styrian Goldings hops creates the wonderful grapefruit and tropical fruit aroma and bitterness in this beer, balanced by the sweet, spicy, biscuity undertones of the wheat malt and Pale Ale malted barley." Not sure why this seasonal guest ale is so blatantly out of season. The cynics would say it's Marks & Spencer trying to get rid of stock that's close to its sell by date and still charge full price. I don't believe that though, *checks label* 'best before November 2012'...

Game: I've been after Silent Hill: Downpour for quite some time and it's only recently hit the magic sub-£20 price tag (£37.99 preowned from Game was a definite tempter obviously).  So in Silent Hill it's scary, all the NPCs are annoyingly aloof and now it's raining. The monsters mostly come out when it rains... mostly. 7.5/10.

Southwold Blonde Beer (Adnams)

Name: Southwold Blonde Beer
Label: "A full flavoured beer with a subtle, refreshing citrus flvaour - Seasonal guest - Brewed exclusively for Marks and Spencer"
Brewery: Adnams
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: "Created by Adnams' Master Brewer, this pale yet full flavoured beer is made using a blend of East Anglian malted barley and wheat. Boadicea and First Gold hops from England and Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand combine to create the subtle citrus notes and refreshing flavour." Apparently 'works well with chicken, seafood, salads, lightly spiced dishes...' or in my opinion, great with anything!

Game: There seems to be a bit of a gaming lull at the moment until next week when Darksiders 2 comes out. Looks like its going to be great. In the meantime I've been busying myself going 3DS XL mad! Got a lot of Mario related games and also Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. I thought this game was amazing on the Nintendo 64 'back in the day'. Not sure exactly which day, but it was back there and there were probably loads of them. With revamped 3D graphics and being played by someone who doesn't quite remember the story that well, Ocarina is still amazing!

Spindrift (Adnams)

Name: Spindrift
Label: "Refreshing English beer from the coast - Full of flavour with a touch of wheat to make it sparkle, a Speciality beer from our own Suffolk shores. Spindrift, with its bright, crisp taste, evokes images of sea spray blown off a cresting wave."
Brewery: Adnams
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: This beer is dry and crisp with aromas of tropical fruits.  Every facet of Spindrift is refreshing, from the name to the colour of the bottle!

Game: Been back on Mortal Kombat with a vengeance recently. Played through the game with each of the 27 characters unlocking achievements for fatalities, throws and X-ray moves used for all characters. The only question now is whether to invest in the downloadable content. Four new characters for a bargain 300 Microsoft points each (with the online pass thing). One of the characters is Freddy Krueger. Not sure what Freddy Krueger has got to do with the Mortal Kombat universe but some slashy knifey gloved moves and fatalities can't be anything other than awesome, right?

Explorer (Adnams)

Name: Explorer
Label: "Serve Chilled - Beer from the coast - Brewery of the year 2011 - Awarded by the Good Pub Guide - Voted for by you, Thank you!"
Brewery: Adnams
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: I'm always a bit wary of any beer that advises it needs to be chilled in order to taste good. Examples being Carling, Carlsberg Special Brew etc - basically anything that would taste like piss at room temperature. But that's lager and this is Adnams blonde beer, and I can report that it is exceptional. It blends Chinook and Columbus hops from the New World and as it says on the label, the citrus attack will burst on your palate.

Game: Just been on UFC Personal Trainer. I've had a few problems tonight though, nothing to do with the software I hasten to add (it's awesome) but more to do with me being a bit rubbish.  This is probably down to 'bad form' but for this session my knees felt like they were crumbling whilst doing forward and backward lunges. Also, I managed to punch myself in the face whilst doing some 'rear elbow' moves. Still, I did it whilst sweating and being knackered so it must be doing some good...

Southwold Bitter (Adnams)

Name: Southwold Bitter
Label: "Southwold Jack is one of Adnams' oldest & most loyal figureheads, that's why we've chosen him to be the icon for one of our most famous beers."
Brewery: Adnams
ABV: 4.1%

Rating: Understated on the label with regards to ingredients, but this beer makes a cracking pint so say I.

Game: I saw a trailer for Deadly Premonition ages ago and it looked like crap. I heard some quite good things about it so I thought I'd give it a go.  It looks like crap. Why does it looks so rubbishy last gen? Anyway the actual game is a surreal, quirky, survival horror, murder mystery.  Think Twin Peaks meets L.A. Noire meets Silent Hill but with the aforementioned shit graphics.  It's absolutely brilliant though! At the moment I'm giving it 8 out of 10.

Southwold Winter Beer (Adnams)

Name: Southwold Winter Beer
Label: "Seasonal guest with English fuggles & boadicea hops - Fruity, deep & rich - Created by Adnams Master Brewer Fergus Fitzgerald
Brewery: Adnams Brewery (exclusively for Marks & Spencer)
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: Ok its not winter. So? This is made in the flavourful 'Broadside' style. The label mentions stuff about six eighteen-pounder cannons that commemorate the Battle of Sole Bay. What's this? Allied with the French?

Game: Got Red Dead Redemption a few weeks back. Somehow hasn't yet had a mention even though it's totally awesome.  Yes, it's a bit like GTA IV but with horses. It's the kind of game that makes me want to book a weeks annual leave from work so I can proper immerse myself in it's gun-slinging goodness. So far I'm giving it 8/10.  I'm giving work 2/10 though for stealing all my gaming time.

Southwold Summer Beer (Adnams)

Name: Southwold Summer Beer
Label: "Seasonal Guest - Zesty flavour of grapefruit, sweet with a hint of bitterness"
Brewery: Brewed exclusively for Marks & Spencer by Adnams
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: This makes it ace --> "Did you know... back in the days when every farm and every inn produced its own brew, seasonal beer was an integral part of British life. Light, refreshing beers were produced for workers at harvest time and stronger ones for cooler weather. This Summer ale helps recapture that ancient tradition."

Game: First part of Alan Wake DLC out next week. Apparently it will be a bridge from "Season 1" to "Season 2" of Alan Wake.  So that's why the end of the game made no sense whatsoever, so they could sell us DLC?