Final Fantasy XIII-2 - Xbox 360

    Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a direct sequel to 2010's Final Fantasy XIII and is only the second time that developer/publisher Square Enix has released a direct sequel to a numbered Final Fantasy release. The game was released in 2012 on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. While XIII-2 keeps much of the same gamplay features that XIII had, new characters as well as some major changes keep the release from feeling as though the game is simply more of the same.

Wild Sour Series: Syncopathic Apricot - Destihl Brewery

    Wild Sour Series: Syncopathic Apricot is a Sour Ale brewed with Apricot and is dry hopped. The beer is brewed seasonally by DESTIHL Brewery in Bloomington, Illinois. From what I can tell, the "Syncopathic" sour series are named after their blending (or syncing) of flavors which may not normally go together. For example, Syncopathic Apricot combines the classic apricot sour ale with hops that are usually seen in Pale Ales.

    Syncopathic Apricot pours an orange-gold color with a massive, fluffy head that lingers. I wasn't expecting so many bubbles to hang around on top of the beer!

    The beer smells strongly of acidic tartness. I'm almost scared to taste it after that smell. Luckily there is also the pleasant, sweet aroma of apricots. It's almost like the smell of a candied apricot rather than the fresh fruit itself, and is very nice. There is also a slight scent of wheat behind these two strong aromas. I get the slightest hint of a weird metallic smell to the beer as well.

    The apricot sour sports a medium level of carbonation alongside a similarly medium body, making it quite smooth. This entry in the Wild Sour series comes in at an alcohol content of 6% ABV.

All the flavor of apricots, distilled into your beer!

    Oh wow. This beer is sour. Like, pucker-up, kind of burns your mouth, cloyingly sour. In fact, this flavor reminds me of the "extremely sour" candies coated in citric acid that I used to love as a child, and once burned the skin off of my tongue by eating too much of. Luckily the sweet and mildly earthy flavor of apricots is also present and balances out some of the acidic sour's assault on my mouth. Nice citrus and pine hops blend extremely well with the apricot, which convinces me further of the origin of this beer's name. Slight notes of bready malts lie underneath the apricot flavors as well. That weird metallic-ness from the aroma is also present in the beer's flavor. You know, those candies I used to love were all fruit flavored as well, but the star of the show was the citric acid. You would suffer through the sour layer and then be rewarded by the sweet but mild fruit flavors in the middle. It was cool to me as a kid, but I'm not such a fan of the same idea being used in beer. Syncopathic Apricot finishes dry, and luckily the cloying sourness doesn't stick around too long after you swallow.

    Wow, I wasn't expecting to be nearly blown out of the water by sourness on this one. Most of what I love about sour ales is the balance between tartness, funkiness, and malts or fruit flavors. This beer is definitely lacking in the balance department. It's really too bad as well - the apricot and hops flavors are delicious together! Maybe I'm just extra sensitive to sourness today, but I really feel that this beer is almost sour to the point of undrinkability - it's a sipper if anything, to be sure. I feel like DESTIHL mixed a really good flavor profile with a sour novelty in this one.

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Wolfenstein: The New Order - Xbox One

    The year is 1960. Nazi Germany controls most of the world, with just a few continents struggling to resist the ever-encroaching Nazi machine. Years of ethics-free research has provided the Nazis with a massive armament of high-tech weaponry and armor. Using their superior arms and numbers, Nazi forces have forcefully oppressed all local resistance into oblivion. Those resistance members who were not killed in battle are held captive in prison work camps in which they unwillingly help to strengthen the Nazi Empire even more. Rumors among those unhappy with Nazi rule speak of a resistance group operating in Berlin, the Heart of the Nazi Empire. Does this group have what it will take to topple the Nazi giant, inspire the rest of the world to rebel, and to survive?

Costume Quest - Xbox 360 Arcade

    It's Halloween! Tonight, kids all over are dressing up as ghosts and ghouls in hopes of scaring up some candy from their neighbors. I have a lot of good memories of trick-or-treating as a child, and even more of chowing down on my bag of Halloween candy for the next two weeks! Costume Quest brings back these good memories, as well as some of the excitement I would feel as a kid when Halloween came around each year.

Dead Inside - Pipeworks Brewing Co. and Angry Chair Brewing

    Dead Inside is an IPA created collaboratively by Pipeworks Brewing Co. in Chicago, Illinois and Angry Chair Brewing in Tampa, Florida. The beer is brewed with experimental "Idaho 7" hops, for a unique flavor profile.

    Dead Inside pours a hazy, golden orange with around an inch and a half of off-white head with great retention.

    There is a lot going on in this beer's aroma! The sweet scents of apricot, papaya, citrus and other tropical fruits are extremely strong and very enticing. A very slight piney, resinous scent compliments the fruit smells nicely. The smell alone of the beer has my mouth watering.

     Pipeworks' and Angry Chair's collab brew is full bodied with a mid-level of carbonation. The beer feels creamy and slightly oily in a pleasant way as the flavors stick to your tongue. The IPA has an alcohol content of 8.5% ABV.

I'm dying to get into that party!

     Dead Inside's flavor is nothing of the sort. Luscious stone and tropical fruit flavors burst from the beer with each sip. There's a very subtle hint of pine resin in the flavor as well, and it works just as well with the fruit flavors as it did in the beer's aroma. Hoppy bitterness is balanced very well by malt and fruity sweetness. I'm blown away by the balance that has been struck between these two opposing flavors.

    I have to say, this label leaves me with so many questions. Is this goat-man feeling beaten down and hopeless in a fit of nihilism? Is this satyr a graduate student? Does he literally have dead things inside him? If so, did he eat that entire skeleton, or how did it come to be in there? Was the skeleton animated when he ate it? Wouldn't this beer be better named "Undead Inside" if that were the case? Will drinking this beer turn me into a goat-man? Why does he have shoulder pad-like hair and no other upper-torso hair? At some point I had to just shut up and drink the beer!

    Dead Inside was an extremely tasty surprise. It's rare for me to find and IPA that surprises me lately, but Pipeworks and Angry Chair pulled it off! Massive fruit flavors, an amazing bitter/sweet balance, and managing to keep some of the classic piney flavors of an IPA coming through all make this one of the more memorable IPAs I've had recently. I've never had any of Angry Chair's beers before, but after drinking this collaboration, I'm definitely going to seek them out!

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Necromangocon - B. Nektar Meadery

    Legend has it that years ago a group of friends found an ancient book hidden deep in the darkest reaches of their basement. Against the friends' better judgement, the book's clasp was undone - unleashing the knowledge held within. It is said that the book levitated and that its pages began to turn themselves at an alarming rate. Amazingly, the friends found that the recipe for a mead was instantly burned into their minds. Little did the group know, the creation of this mead would lead to consequences so dire that they cannot be fully understood by the human mind. Well, that's what the label says anyway...

    Necromangocon (Necro for short) is a mead brewed with mango and black pepper. The mead was created by B. Nektar meadery which is based in Ferndale, Michigan. It may be of interest that another name for mead when it is brewed using fruit or fruit juice is melomel, though I'll stick to calling this brew what the meadery has labeled it.

    Necro pours a very light and transparent golden color. Absolutely no head forms at pouring, though a few tiny bubbles cling to the sides of the glass and swirl about its middle. I feel that I should note that it's not really a common characteristic of mead to have much head retention or a head at all.

Time for a little light, dark reading. Reader beware!

    B. Nektar's brew has a very faint aroma made up of honey, mango, and other floral scents. There's is a definite sweetness to the mead's aroma, as well as a very slight yeast spiciness.

    Necromangocon is light bodied, and almost a little watery. Similarly, the mead is lightly carbonated, with just a few small bubbles tickling your mouth as you drink it. Necro has an alcohol content of 6% ABV, which while low for a mead, isn't surprising as B. Nektar specializes in session meads.

    Necro tastes lightly of sweet, floral honey. Mango flavors are light, but bright, though I would have liked a little more out of the mead. There is only the slightest tingle of pepper at the end of the flavor. Necro tastes to me a bit more like a sweet, sparkling white wine than mead.

    Light, floral fruit and honey flavors combine with a crisp and slightly sparkling mouthfeel to create a pleasant beverage with a slightly spicy kick at the end.  I find myself wishing that Necro was a bit thicker, and of a higher alcohol content for a bit more warmth to the drink. Overall, I'm glad that I gave Necromangocon a try. B. Nektar's brew also now has the honor of being the first mead ever reviewed on Amulets and Ale!

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Layers of Fear - Xbox One

    Layers of Fear is a First-Person, Psychological Horror game created by Bloober Team and published by Aspyr Media, Inc. The game was released in February, 2016 for Mac, PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One. It has been announced that the game will see release on the Nintendo Switch in the "near future". What awaits us as we begin to peel back these layers of fear?

Two Evil: Geyser Gose - Two Roads Brewing Company and Evil Twin Brewing

    Two Evil: Geyser Gose is a Gose (say it similarly to "goes-uh") created in a collaboration between Evil Twin Brewing from Copenhagen, Denmark and Two Roads Brewing Company in Stratford, Connecticut. Geyser Gose features many unique ingredients that were procured when the brewers visited Iceland. This beer has a lot of international travel to thank for its creation!

    Geyser Gose pours a golden-straw color with a slight haze to it. A thin, white head tops the beer for a few seconds before settling down into a slight film on top of the brew.

    The Gose has a pleasantly tart citrus aroma that reminds me of lemonade. There is also a hint of some earthy notes - a smell that makes me think of hay or grass but not as strong. I've had quite a few of these beers lately, and I've only just recently noticed that something in the beer's aroma makes me think of being around the ocean's salty smelling air.

    Geyser is pretty light bodied, and has a medium-high level of carbonation. The Gose leaves just a tiny bit of an acidic feeling in your mouth, again, reminding me of lemonade. With an alcohol content of 5.5% ABV, Geyser Gose isn't exactly a session beer, though its so refreshing you might be tempted to try.

The first thing I'd visit in Iceand.

    According to Two Roads Brewing, Geyser Gose is made with Icelandic moss, herbs, sea kelp, Icelandic yogurt, rye, and smoked sea-salt. These ingredients may seem strange, but they work together so well that you hardly notice any one flavor without concentrating on separating them out in your mind. The main flavor in Geyser Gose is tart citrus fruits. This citrus flavor is light enough that the beer is extremely refreshing rather than cloying. There is also a slight saltiness to the beer, which is characteristic of a Gose. Much more subtle, flavors which taste like the ocean smells (minus the fishiness), and a slight mineral-like flavor are also present in the beer.

    I have not personally visited Iceland before, but I have heard only good things about it. I like to pretend that there are geysers in Iceland which have spouted this beer for ages unknown. Eventually, human settlers learned that they could collect this liquid shooting from the earth, and enjoy its refreshing and rejuvenating qualities. It seems a likely story that these collaborating brewers "came up with" this beer on their own. I find it much more likely that they stumbled upon one of these geysers on their trip to Iceland and immediately formulated a plan to can nature's bounty. It seems extra cheeky of the brewers then to indirectly admit to what they did by naming the beer Geyser Gose!

    I tried Geyser Gose for the first time early this summer and it quickly became THE beer of summer 2017 for me. I can't emphasize enough how refreshing this Gose is - especially on an outdoor patio, at the lake, or at the beach. My only complaint is that the beer seems to be a little over-complicated with its massive list of specialty ingredients that are hard to taste without concentration. I find myself wondering how much each ingredient actually adds to the overall flavor of the beer. I love Geyser Gose how it is, however, so I don't want to risk losing anything!

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Retro Review! Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire - PC

    Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire is a third-person shooter developed by Lucas Arts. The game was released in 1996 on PC, and again in 1997 with Nintendo as a publisher for the Nintendo 64 version. I remember renting this game for the Nintendo 64 multiple times as a kid. This was the first game I had ever played that took place in the Star Wars universe, and I was so happy that our local video store had it. I also remember being extremely confused about just what type of game this was. When I checked out the back of the game's box, the screenshots only worked to deepen this confusion. Was Shadows of the Empire a third-person shooter? Was it a flight-sim game? Was it a first-person shooter? The answer to those questions is...well...yes. I never got very far in the game when I was little, but I gave it another shot on the PC recently and was happy to relive some childhood memories.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon - Xbox 360 Arcade

    Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is a First-Person Shooter available on the Xbox 360 Live Arcade, PC, and Playstation Network. The game uses the Far Cry 3 engine, but has little in common with the game Far Cry 3 otherwise. Developed and Published by Ubisoft, Blood Dragon saw release in 2013.

Unravel - Xbox One

    "Lycka blommar ur små enkla ting" - Swedish for "happiness blooms from small, simple things."

    I've played a lot of games in my life, and very few have made me feel such strong emotions as Unravel did. In fact, I enjoyed this game so much that it inspired me to come back to Amulets and Ale and write about it after a long period of inactivity. Unravel is a platformer/puzzle game created by Swedish designers Coldwood Interactive and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released in February 2016 on PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One. For this particular review, I played the Xbox One version of the game.

Binary Domain - Xbox 360

    Binary Domain is a Third-Person Shooter developed and published by Sega. The game went relatively unnoticed for some reason or another when it was released on PC, Playstation 3, and the Xbox 360 in 2012. Even with its Third-Person shooter mechanics which are extremely familiar to gamers, Binary Domain still manages to impress with other innovation.

Yuzu Fierce - Off Color Brewing

    Yuzu Fierce is a variant of Off Color Brewing's (Chicago, Illinois) kettle-soured Berliner Weisse, Fierce, that is brewed with Yuzu fruit. Yuzu is a small citrus fruit that originated in China and is commonly cultivated in Korea and Japan. While the fruit resembles a mix between a lemon and a grapefruit, it has its own unique flavor that is bright, tangy, and floral.

    Yuzu Fierce pours a straw-like pale gold color. A minimal head forms upon pouring, and quickly recedes into almost nothing - just a few bubbles in a ring where beer meets glass.

    The Berliner Weisse smells of almost candy-like, sweet citrus . A mild sourness mingles with the earthy scent of wheat in the beer. Overall the beer's aroma is very crisp and clean.

    Yuzu Fierce has a relatively thin mouthfeel, and a medium level of carbonation. The beer is quite light and crisp, and has a very light alcohol content of 3.8% ABV.

I can only imagine how many fruits it took to get
enough juice for this brew - that thing is ALL seeds.

    Unsurprisingly for a kettle-soured beer, Yuzu Fierce has a slight tangy, sour flavor. This tartness goes nicely with the citrus, candy, and floral flavors from the yuzu and really shows off the unique flavor of the fruit. The beer's sourness is very light - not like that of a Sour Ale, but more like the tartness of lemonade. The beer's flavor is rounded out by clean wheat and grain flavor at the end. A small bit of tartness remains in the mouth after swallowing the beer.

    Yuzu Fierce is an extremely refreshing mix of crisp, clean flavors and a very sessionable lightness of body and alcohol. If you've never tried yuzu before, I highly recommend seeking the fruit out. Personally, I have found that I really enjoy the flavor of yuzu quite a bit. Off Color Brewing has done a great job in capturing yuzu's flavor and showing it off by presenting it alongside their Berliner Weisse, Fierce.

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Darkstar One: Broken Alliance

    Darkstar One: Broken Alliance is a Space Flight, Combat, and Trade Simulation game released on the Xbox 360 in 2010 after developer Kalypso Media upgraded 2006's PC release of the game with higher definition graphics and improved gameplay. There is a noticeable lack of this genre on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, so I was excited to see this game recommended by fans of the genre. Unfortunately the game turned out to be less of a "hidden gem" and more of a piece of space-junk that rips-off elements from nearly every popular Sci-Fi series.

Backmasking - Three Floyds Brewing Co.

    Backmasking is an Oatmeal Stout brewed by Three Floyds Brewing Co. in Munster, Indiana. This beer's name comes from many parents' worst fears when their children bring home a new album. Sure, little Johnny is a sweet boy now, but just wait until he listens to that rock music! It won't be long before your sweet little child is sacrificing goats to the dark lord! Named after the process of recording messages onto a track that can only be heard when playing the audio backwards, Backmasking just might be hiding a few secrets of its own.

    Gniksamkcab is a deep, black color. The tiny bit of light allowed through the dark liquid reveals a dark ruby tint. Upon pouring, a massive brown head forms, but quickly recedes into a thin, lacing leaving layer of bubbles.

    The aromas of dark, roasty malts, especially oats and chocolate, make up the majority of the beer's smell. This mix makes me think of the sweet, chocolate breakfast cereals little Johnny used to eat before switching to a diet consisting only of virgin's blood.

    Three Floyd's Oatmeal Stout is medium in body as well as in level of carbonation. Surprisingly, with an alcohol content of only 5.9% ABV, there is a slight bit of alcohol warmth on the tongue and back of the throat after swallowing. The beer finishes dry, but leaves a bit of stickiness on the lips.

Oh Johnny, you never should have been allowed to listen
to that One Direction album...

    Backmasking is surprisingly sweet, with a huge hit of chocolate malt and sweet oats. This brew reminds me of chocolate milk, only in beer form. There is a bit of roasted, smokey malt character to the ale, as well as a bit of piney hops. Overall the ale balances the super sweet flavors with the roastier, bitter flavors. Even with the sweetness, there is still a small amount of ethanol flavor that shows its head.

    It has always amused me that many bands labeled by the media as "evil" actually have better messages in their music than most of the songs on the radio. Other than the immature, angry minority making bad music in the first place, a good number of bands promote messages of peace, tolerance, and self-empowerment. The only major difference is that these messages are coming from performers who prefer a counter-culture style of theatrics for their performances. Think on that the next time your child is listening to music glamorizing getting drunk at the club and making regrettable decisions!

    While I found no hidden messages in Backmasking, I did find an enticingly sweet Stout that I surprisingly enjoyed. I'm content with my findings, as I'm not willing to drink the beer backwards to check for anything I might have missed. I do, however, think that the beer's sweetness could cause it to be a bit much in large amounts. Check it out, if you aren't afraid of any subconscious manipulation!

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