Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
The Movies: Take three parts Pirates of the Caribbean (pirate-y skullduggery, boat hijacking, booty-snaffling and all manner of sword runthrough-ery), and a teensy bit Inception (pseudo sci-fiery in which dreams can be inhabited), and you get...
The Game: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Sure, the Johnny Depp-associated may be obvious, but it's the sense of fun in which you ram-raid each and every unsuspecting (often pirate-y) bystander that's adrenalising. Throw in a modern sci-fi twist, in which gamers are inhabiting the memories of their ancestors to travel back in time, and you've got the recipe for a barnstormer of a gaming blockbuster.
Ryse: Son of Rome
The Movies: Mash together two of the most testosteroney, violent, bloody, tragic and Roman gladiator-filled movies of recent cinematic memory and you get one of the Xbox One's most testosteroney, violent, bloody, tragic and Roman gladiator-filled games. Surprising, that.
The Game: Young Roman soldier Marius Titus witness the murder of his family (*cough* Gladiator *cough*), and thus begins a slash-happy vengeance-filled murderathon (*cough* 300 *cough*), as gamers are put in control of Titus and the armies of killer soldiers at his disposal.
Watch Dogs
The Movies: Cyber hacking and action are a combination long made in Hollywood heaven. Swordfish sexified the possibilities inherent in the counter-culture thrill of bringing down the big man from the technological inside, whereas The Matrix had similarly cyberpunk leanings with an action-packed finish.
The Game: Watch Dogs is an open world action-adventure game in which players control a vigilante named Aiden Pearce who hacks into an array of electronic devices tied to the city's central operating system. In short, lots of vigilante chaos - bank accounts are raided, traffic light systems are mistimed to cause car crashes, CCTV cameras are hacked. Throw in Aiden's parkour-style ability to bounce around the city, and it's a whole world of possibilities right at your finger tips.
Dead Rising 3
The Movies: The A-Team were always brilliant in a crisis. Specifically so, in their ability to craft together all manner of escape plan from whatever happened to be lying around. Who needs an AK-47 when you have cellotape, a Ryvita and a squirrel? Meanwhile, Zombieland nailed the gloriously bleak, black humour inherent in a zombie apocalypse. Sure, there are zombies to be murderised, but that doesn't mean you can't have a little fun along the way.
The Game: Dead Rising 3 is the ultimate in dark humour-filled goregasms. When you're not obliterating hordes of the undead, you're working out ingenious and comical ways to fashion together the finest in zombie-slicing weaponry. Fun, silly, scary and pretty darn brilliant.
Titanfall
The Movies: Take one of 2013's biggest and most bombastic of blockbusters, stuffed to the - aha - rim with all manner of giant weapon-flinging mech-monsters, and smoosh it into one of cinema's most exhilirating sci-fi's, and you get something a little akin to...
The Game: Titanfall is already being hailed by all manner of gaming luminaries as the best shooter of the new generation. Whether as a man on the ground or piloting one of its giant, amazing mech-units, it's firearms-o-clock. Giant mechs battling teeny people using jetpacks, all with perfectly crafted visual and blockbuster spectacle? Sign us up.
There's a new Mummy movie on the way from the director of Evil Dead Rise and I just want to know if Blumhouse has called Brendan Fraser yet
Marvel Rivals made Jeff the Land Shark so stinkin' adorable that the MCU is bringing him on as an official hero: "We're all Jeff fans around here. Man is he fun to play"
There's a new Mummy movie on the way from the director of Evil Dead Rise and I just want to know if Blumhouse has called Brendan Fraser yet
Marvel Rivals made Jeff the Land Shark so stinkin' adorable that the MCU is bringing him on as an official hero: "We're all Jeff fans around here. Man is he fun to play"
