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.