Shadows of the Damned - Xbox 360

    Shadows of the Damned is a Third-Person Shooter, Horror Game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Electronic Arts. Grasshopper Manufacture is headed by Goichi Suda (Suda51) who is known for his edgy style of game development. For this game, Suda51 teamed up with Shinji Mikami, of Resident Evil fame, to merge Mikami's Psychological Horror with Suda51's surreal, almost Punk Rock style. Shadows of the Damned saw release in 2011 on both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Crysis - Xbox 360

    Crysis is a First Person Shooter developed by the German game studio Crytek and published by Electronic Arts. Crysis originally was released in 2007 exclusively on the PC. For years Crysis was the game to use when showing off how powerful your new gaming computer was. Crysis featured some of the most beautiful graphics yet seen by the gaming world. In 2011 Crysis saw release on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 as a port and in digital download form only. Needless to say, the game does not look nearly as good on the consoles as it did on the most powerful gaming rigs, but after the console release and success of Crysis 2, Crytek decided to let console gamers experience the first chapter of the story.

Snake River Pale Ale - Snake River Brewing Company

    Snake River Pale Ale is an American Pale Ale created by the Snake River Brewing Company which is located in Jackson, Wyoming.

    The beer lives up to its name by pouring a pale yellow color with around a finger of head. Some slight lacing can be seen on the glass.

    The Pale Ale smells of citrus hops with a slight aroma of caramel malts. The hops scents are more floral than piney in this beer.

    Snake River Pale Ale is medium bodied with a moderate level of carbonation. This beer is an example of where a beer's body and carbonation can work together to make the mouthfeel seem much thicker than the beer would alone. There is absolutely no alcohol character to the 5.2% ABV beer.

    As opposed to the usual hops-forward flavors of other Pale Ales, Snake River's Pale Ale first tastes like light caramel malts. This sweetness is followed up by a nice citrus hops profile which comes off as more flowery than bitter. Neither the sweetness, nor the bitterness is out of balance in this ale.

I bet snakes are angry drunks.

    I have to admit that when it comes to phobias, snakes are my main terror. I can't even imagine what Snake River must be like. I'm going to just hope that it got its name from it's windy nature rather than that it is full of snakes. My mind jumps right to a river which is made up of writhing, slithering snakes instead of water. You would fall into it and be covered by their long, squirming bodies. At that point, being bitten by a poisonous snake would be a blessing to me.

    Luckily, this beer is nowhere near as terrifying to me as a river made out of snakes. This Pale Ale is actually very well balanced and manages to bring out the flowery nature of hops rather than just bringing the bitter, pineyness that so many beers can't get past. I would say that Snake River's Pale Ale is a good Pale Ale, but it really doesn't do anything for me past that. Overall I feel that it is solely an average Pale Ale.

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Dust: An Elysian Tail - Xbox 360 Arcade

    Dust: An Elysian Tail is an action game with RPG elements created by the extremely talented Dean Dodrill and published by Microsoft studios. That's right, you heard correctly, everything in the game except for the music, voice acting, and a small bit of story writing was all done by one person. The game was released 2012 solely on the Xbox 360 Arcade, but will be released later in 2013 for PC.

Fat Tire Amber Ale - New Belgium Brewing

    Fat Tire is an Amber Ale created by New Belgium Brewing which is located in Fort Collins, Colorado. Fat Tire is interesting, as it is commonly the first craft beer that people try. When New Belgium recently expanded their distribution to new parts of the country, I started hearing all about this new "Flat Tire" beer that I just had to try. Now that I've had a good number of different beers I find Fat Tire to be somewhat of an average Amber Ale, though I'm not at all surprised that people were blown away by it when they first tried it. When you go from drinking only light (or lite, as the case may be) beers to drinking an actual craft beer it's not surprising that it would be world changing. I can just see it now, "Hey! there's something strange in my beer! I think..I think it's..flavor!?"

    Fat Tire pours a fittingly amber color with around a finger of off-white head. There is some very light lacing.

    The beer smells lightly sweet with biscuity malts and lightly toasty. There is a very slight floral hop aroma to the beer.

    The Amber Ale is light to medium bodied with a moderate level of carbonation.

Fat tired bikes, you make the rockin' world go 'round!

    Fat Tire Amber Ale tastes of lightly sweet cereal malts. There is only the slightest bit of hops flavor, keeping balance against the sweetness and making for a very drinkable beer. There is no alcohol character at all. The beer has an alcohol content of 5.2% ABV.

    While I find Fat Tire to be only an average beer, I have to give New Belgium credit for introducing new markets to craft-style beers. As I mentioned before, I really am not surprised that some beer drinkers were blown away by the new style. Before the craft wave really hit the Midwest, all we had was basically the macro-brews and Samuel Adams, who might as well be a macro-brewer anymore.

    As with so many other beers, Fat Tire Amber Ale does nothing wrong, yet does nothing to stand out from the crowd. I have a special respect for New Belgium, however, for changing the minds of bad beer drinkers in my area. If nothing else, this would be a great starting point for someone to jump into the craft brew scene. If you have any interest at all in trying new beers, get on your bikes and ride!

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