// Articles // 10th Dec 2018 — 6 years ago // By James Martin

Christmas Alcohol Pairings: First Person Shooters

It’s almost Christmas once again, so what better way to spend it than with a nice drink and your favourite games? But, have you ever thought about marrying the two more than ever before, to choose the ultimate beverage to accompany your playtime? Read on, and in this first article we’ll look at drinks to go with this years’ most popular first person shooters.

Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII

Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII follows every other game in the franchise with fast paced, non-stop action. You don’t want a mellow wine or harsh whisky with this; for your CoD playthrough, you need to go for a lager, such as Budweiser Budvar, brewed in the Czech Republic. It’s not related to that fizzy piss you might be fond of – and I’m definitely judging you for it – instead, it actually has flavour, and isn’t so strong that a couple of bottles is going to have you on your arse.

After all, you need to keep some semblance of alertness to you given the pace in CoD. Budvar sits in at 5% ABV (in the UK, strength may vary in other markets), but if you need something weaker you probably shouldn’t bother. Pilsner Urquell comes in at 4.4%, again another Czech production.

If these are too cultural for you, just stick with the Carling and Carlsberg. After all, perhaps that’s all CoD deserves.

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Battlefield V

Whereas Black Ops IIII is pretty much non-stop action (exception is the Blackout mode), Battlefield V is much more laid back. Well, as laid back as World War 2 can be. Massive maps lend themselves to a tactical approach, particularly in Conquest. Grand Operations can still get pretty hairy. So you still need to keep your wits about you, but with the amount of diversity on show, you need something with a bit of diversity for your mouth.

What on Earth do I mean by that? Something like an IPA, of course! What did you think I meant? IPA’s have been a pretty big rise over the past few years, so it’s not just hipsters with tweed jackets supping them in their mansions whilst sons Alfred and Victory are off in boarding school. (Yes, that is an actual name.) Brewdog’s Punk IPA is a personal favourite of mine, brewed with six different types of hops with a tropical fruit aroma. Goose Island IPA is another solid choice.

If you want to go even stronger, Belgium has you covered. La Chouffe offers an IPA variant, with the Dobbelen IPA Tripel a tasty 9% ABV. Might be quite difficult to find in the UK – if you take a trip over to France, or Belgium itself, you’ll find it easier to acquire. You won’t need many before you start hysterically shooting at houses instead of playing the objective.

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Counter Strike: Global Offensive

You could probably take most of what I said earlier for Black Ops IIII and apply it to CS:GO, but I think that would be wrong. With CS:GO, you should go an extra mile and ditch beer and go for something heavier, but play a game with yourself.

Get onto Demolition, and every time you die, have a shot of vodka / Sambuca / whatever other strong alcohol you’ve got. If you’re really, really shit, you’ll soon be too plastered to care. So this will give you some motivation to git gud.

If you don’t want to play these kinds of drinking games, then that’s okay. Stick to mixing with Coke or lemonade, so you don’t even realise you’re slowly moving from semi-competent to “oh fuck I’ve thrown a flash and it’s bounced back to me-”.

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