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.
