Problem drinking?

I have recently gotten into a bad habit with drinking. Or at least I am not happy with the way I drink. I'm not sure if my drinking habit is considered to be a form of 'problem drinking'.
Basically whenever I go out with friends to bars and pubs etc, I can never seem to stop myself from drinking once I start. As soon as I have once, I just have to keep drinking until everywhere is shut and I'm forced to go home! That usually leads to me being out until 4:30-6:00 am. To add to this, after about four pints I usually smoke. I hate smoking and I gave up smoking regularly about two years ago, but whenever I drink a certain amount, I just give in.

This has been happening to me every time I go out for about the last three months. It's starting to make me quite unhappy. I feel guilty and angry at myself for not being able to know when enough is enough. I just want to be able to go out, enjoy myself, and then come home at a reasonable hour, having not smoked, so that I can get up the next day feeling like I had a good time, rather than feeling angry and stupid.
The hangovers are also monsters that last for two days!

I thought that would I need to do is set myself some goals for next time I get the opportunity to go out, like drinking only a certain number of drinks, making sure I'm home before 1:00.
Is this a good approach?

I've also thought about just stopping drinking all together. I didn't drink at all for the whole of October, and that was fine. But then when I went out again, I totally lost it, drinking until the early hours and smoking.

What can I do to get a handle on this?