Original Ale (Badger)

Name: Original Ale
Label: "Classic English Country Ale - Delicate Notes of Fruit and Spice"
Brewery: Badger
ABV: 3.8%

Rating: An original ale with the unlikeliest of original names. Delicate is also pretty accurate.

Game: Downloaded a new DLC level pack for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.  Its the Hoth level but with the Apprentice taking the place of Vader and *SPOILER* turning Luke Skywalker to the Dark Side before he's even had chance to get to Dagobah! Who'd have thought it. The Tattooine mission level was miles better though, visiting Jabba's Palace, kicking Rancor ass, killing Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi in the same afternoon = win.

Monument (Cotleigh)

Name: Monument
Label: "Finest Somerset Beers - An explosion of flavours originating from American Cascade hops gives this brilliant pale golden beer a fresh aroma and fruit filled finish"
Brewery: Cotleigh Brewery
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: Brewed to celebrate the Town of Wellington and its' Food Festivals. "Category winner" at Excellence in Food and Drink Awards 2006. Can't argue with that.

Game: Just finished Splinter Cell: Conviction.  This game is a really enjoyable action/stealth shooter, the only problem is that a big deal has been made of the Co Op and mulitplayer modes. As a result, the solo campaign seems ridiculously short. Shame, because the "mark and execute" is a splendidly satisfying game mechanic, and shooting unaware dudes in the head didn't even have chance to get old. 7/10

Gold Miner (Freeminer)

Name: Gold Miner
Label: "Brewed in the Royal Forest of Dean by The Freeminer Brewery"
Brewery: Freeminer
ABV: 5.0%

Rating: Brewed for The Co-operative. Its cooperating by tasting really good thanks to the British Hops and Barley.

Game: And the winner for "Game with the Scariest Spider" goes to.... Limbo!  Even when you get to pull it's massive leg off, it's still scarily horrible. Thanks for that, PlayDead.  I'm sure this game made my headache worse as well.

The Rev. James (Brain)

Name: The Rev. James
Label: "A silky full bodied, warming ale brewed to a traditional recipe - A taste of the good life"
Brewery: S. A. Brain & Co Ltd
ABV: 4.5%

Rating: Its Sunday, the name sounds a bit religious. Let's drink.

Game: Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days was previewed ages ago and OXM were on about it being so amazing because it looked like a youtube video. I didn't understand. Video quality on youtube is shit. Having downloaded the demo though, I know now what they mean. It does look great, the shooty bits (i.e. all of it) feel about a million times better than the first game. First time I've actually enjoyed a demo since the C64 I think. Also downloaded a demo for Transformers: War for Cybertron but then realised it's just multiplayer. Boo you!

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?

Canterbury Jack (Shepherd Neame)

Name: Canterbury Jack
Label: "1698 - Britain's Oldest Brewer - Fresh, Natural, Kentish
Brewery: Shepherd Neame
ABV: 4.0%

Rating: "Sharing its name with an ancient hop, and the nickname for a country rogue, it is truly a Kentish character ale"

Game: I've been feeling extremely nauseous when playing Metro 2033.  I could have sworn I've mentioned this previously about a different game *checks older posts*, well I never, back in February playing Bioshock 2.  I hope this isn't going to be a reoccurring theme when playing FPS games.  This could mean a game related crisis is looming, and nobody wants that. Pass the sick bag someone...

Founders (Ushers)

Name: Founders
Label: "A classic southern English strong ale, full bodied & fruity with a goldings hop aroma"
Brewery: Ushers
ABV: 4.7%

Rating: I thought Southerners only drank shandy (that tastes a bit like sick, or egg). Apparently not though as this ale competently proves.

Game: Metro 2033 was on offer at Zavvi. Story seems great and the developers have the post-apocalyptic, scary dark metro subway atmosphere thing nailed down. Weapons are a bit iffy, they don't seem to pack quite enough punch to be satisfying. Overall though its looking good so far.

Busy Fool (Davenports)

Name: Busy Fool
Label: "Ales from the nation's heart - Tesco beer challenge winner"
Brewery: Highgate Brewery
ABV: 5.8%

Rating: You're no fool if you pick up a bottle of this. You're probably not busy either unless you think being sat down drinking beer qualifies as being busy.

Game: I love the Guitar Hero franchise.  It rocks and I rock when I play it. Guitar Hero 5 however is a mixed bag of shit, pop and rock. "Shit" is perhaps a bit harsh, its just trying to cater to lots of differing musical tastes and falls short. Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl had a problem with the digital representation of Kurt Cobain being available as unlockable content and who can then feature in any song in the game. At first I didn't see a problem with it, however having unlocked the late great Cobain I can't quite stomach the sight of him playing guitar for, and singing along to, the likes of Bush, Bon Jovi, Blink-182 (and lots of others whose names doesn't necessarily start with a "B").  Nirvana is my all time favourite band, so I only play as Cobain for the Nirvana tracks and use my mini-me avatar thing to play along to all the crap, it just seems better that way...

Englands Glory (Davenports)

Name: Englands Glory
Label: "Quality English Ale - Beer at home"
Brewery: Highgate Brewery
ABV: 4.3%

Rating: Some might say it's ironic to drink this in light of England's poor World Cup performance. I'm not nearly that pretentious though, I just like ale.

Game: Played through Guitar Hero: World Tour again. Pretty good considering it's trying to cater for many musical taste. Roll on Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock though. Some proper metal shredding guitar action.

Combined Harvest (Batemans)

Name: Combined Harvest
Label: "Barley, oats, wheat, rye - multigrain beer"
Brewery: Batemans
ABV: 4.7%

Rating: Back of the bottle says that it has equal appeal to male, female and younger drinkers. Presumably this is to get away from the old, balding pot bellied real ale drinking stereotype?

Game: Just watched Germany thrash Argentina 4 - 0.  At least England managed to score two goals. Yes, TWO perfectly good goals against the Germans.