Dragon Age II - Xbox 360

    Dragon Age 2 is an Action Role Playing Game developed by Bioware and published by Electronic Arts. The 2011 game is the much anticipated second game in the series after Dragon Age: Origins. Dragon Age: Origins has become known for its tough, strategic combat and inter-character relationships. Dragon Age 2 improves on one of these aspects, and takes two steps backwards in the other.

Helios Pale Ale - Upland Brewing Company

    Helios Pale Ale is an American Pale Ale brewed by Bloomington, Indiana's own Upland Brewing Company.

    Helios pours a hazy straw color with a small, off-white head with decent retention. The beer appears quite active with hundreds of bubbles that stay around for a good, long time.

    The ale has a nice, floral hops aroma with a little bit of the sweet, bready malts coming through.

    The Pale Ale has a medium-to-light mouthfeel with a moderate level of carbonation. It goes down very easily and would be quite refreshing on a hot day. Helios has a light alcohol content at 4.9% ABV.

    Helios's flavor is nice and summery with floral hops flavors and a slight bitterness. The malts keep this bitterness from becoming unpleasant with their toasted-bread like flavor and sweetness. When compared with the ale's scent, the flavors seem to be lighter than you would have expected. This almost watered-down character of the flavor really makes me wish the beer tasted as strongly as it smells, especially since the aroma has such nice floral notes.

Forward! We must bring light beer to the darkness!

    Helios was the personification of the sun in ancient Greek mythology. He would ride his fiery chariot across the sky, pushing back darkness as he went. The tagline Deus Sol Invictus (basically, "Sun God Undefeated") seems to suggest that Helios was quite strong. If the sun god was as weak as this beer's flavor however, I'm glad that he only had to fight darkness. I mean, how hard is it to chase away darkness if you're made of pure light? Basically you would just walk up to the darkness and it would go away. A child with a flashlight could do just as good of a job. Maybe Helios was undefeated because he never fought anything that actually posed a challenge?

    Even though I'm disappointed in Helios's lighter-than-it-should-be flavor, I still think that it would be a refreshing drink if you were sitting outside on a hot day. I could see the ale being a great "lawnmower beer", but it's not something I would choose to drink otherwise. Maybe Upland should have chosen a less wimpy figure from mythology (like Hercules perhaps?) for their beer...

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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Xbox 360

    Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is an Action game created by LucasArts. The game was released in 2008 on, well, pretty much every gaming system on the market at the time (yes, even the N-Gage). The game takes place between the Star Wars movie episodes III and IV, and features locations and characters from both trilogies.

Campside - Upland Brewing Company

    Campside is an American Blonde Ale brewed by Upland Brewing Company which is located in Bloomington, Indiana. While the beer is described as a Blonde Ale, it definitely has the hops profile and aroma of an American Pale Ale, making it an interesting choice for a summer session beer.

    Campside pours a pale golden color with a small bit of head. The beer has a slight haze to it. Though the head fades quickly, the beer's bubbles leave a slight ring on the glass which sticks around much longer.

    The American Blonde Ale features great floral hop scents. Citrus and tropical fruit aromas accompany slightly milder pine-like smells. The hops aromas are more subtle than those found in IPAs or Pale Ales, but still very nice. Light biscuit or cracker malt scents back up the florals with sweetness.

    Campside is medium bodied with a light-moderate level of carbonation. The beer ends quite crisply, but leaves an oily, bitter film in the mouth. The beer's alcohol content of 4.5% ABV is somewhat surprising as I get a slight bit of warmth as it sits in my mouth.

    The ale's flavor is hop forward with a citrusy bitterness. The bitterness level is actually somewhat surprising for a Blonde Ale. The floral hops flavors are present, though less pronounced than in the beer's aroma. The slight sweetness of pale malts just barely come through. I feel as though the beer's bitterness is out of balance with the malt flavors. I still really like the floral character of the hops, but there definitely needs to be a bit more of a malt backbone to mellow things out.

    Normally when I think of a session (especially a summer session) beer, I think of something with a low alcohol content, low bitterness, and high "drinkability". I'm really glad to see Upland trying to use more of the floral properties of hops, but Campside comes off as too bitter for the regular "session" drinker. I like Campside a lot when compared to other Upland beers, but I can definitely see how others may not feel the same way about the American Blonde Ale.

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Comic Jumper - Xbox 360 Arcade

    Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley is an Action game developed by Twisted Pixel Games and produced by Microsoft Game Studios. The game was released in 2010 on the Xbox Live Marketplace.