Some of my friends often ask me for film recommendations so I figured I would put together my top 10 films of the year. There are a lot of smaller films I wish I had seen this year so maybe just think of this as 10 films I can definitely recommend.

10. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

Mission Impossible has always tried to compete with Bond and never succeeded in my eyes. Rogue Nation changed that and said lets be fun, let's be over the top and in my opinion this might make this the best mission impossible film ever made.

9. Spectre

Skyfall was a fantastic film and brought back a lot of old Bond that had been missing during the Craig films. Spectre did that even more. It’s not a better film but having a Bond film with a over the top henchman and a villain with a secret base sure is entertaining.

8. Kingsman: The Secret Service

This all keeps coming back to Bond. If you take every Bond stereotype and take it to the extreme you get this film and you get a lot of laughs.

7. The Martian

I’m rarely the person saying the book was better but it was. Saying that this the best possible adaptation of one of my favourite books. A great demonstration of Sci-Fi with a human side and my god that disco soundtrack is awesome.

6. Straight Outta Compton

This film works on so many levels. It educates you on a period in time, a place in the world and a genre of music. Saying that for the people who know the facts going in, it brings them to life in a really entertaining and stylish way.

5. Jurassic World

I know this is a polarising film but in my opinion this is the film it needed to be. This is Jurassic Park for a new generation and it had just enough call backs to keep veteran fans like me smiling. I believe my exact reaction after the film was a big smile and the words “Dinosaurs are cool”.

4. Ex Machina

I love Sci-Fi and this is one of the best ever made in my opinion. All the performances are incredible and the plot is full of exciting twists and turns.

3. Mad Max: Fury Road

There is no story. Max is barely a character but Furiosa is amazing, the visuals are amazing, the music is amazing and the action...that is the best action possibly ever.

2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

This should probably be around number 4 but I love Star Wars. This film made me cry with happiness. This is Star Wars back to form and yes it had too many call backs and wasn’t 100% original but I love this film. I love Star Wars.

1.Whiplash

Putting this above Star Wars is a big deal for me. I could not spot a flaw in this film if I tried and at the end I just had to burst into spontaneous applause. This is in no doubt my favourite film of the year. Watch it.

A lot of games remind me of a period of my life. Halo reminds me of my teenage years playing till late at night with friends and Burnout Paradise of a long summer of boredom but the Mass Effect trilogy is a series that hit me at some pretty big moments.

Mass Effect founds its way into my console shortly after I had just purchased my XBOX 360 but perhaps more importantly around the time I discovered Jeff, Ryan, Brad, Vinny and Rich. The summer before its release I started to really take an interest in gaming and of course I needed some advice on which games to play. I gravitated towards Gamespot and the constant exclusive clips of Mass Effect shown on On the Spot appealed to the Sci-Fi nerd within. When the game launched I was about to sit down and properly play my first RPG. It wasn't without its issues but the story was interesting enough for me to forget about the dodgy combat and frame rate. As for the Gamespot stuff it wasn't long before Giantbomb launched and I have been glued to this website since the Arrow Pointing Down Podcast and the blog. Mass Effect is a game that was not only the start of a great trilogy in gaming but a game that reminds me of discovering the website that I now call home.

At the start of 2010 I was in a bit of a bad place. I was halfway through my first year at uni and after my girlfriend of over 2 years broke up with me after a rough few months I needed an escape. Luckily I had a week off from full time lectures and Mass Effect 2 was in the post. As much as I enjoyed the first Mass Effect, the sequel was on a whole other level. Assembling a crew of memorable characters and completing missions in order to learn more about there lives, motives and feelings was exactly what I needed. A rich universe to explore with back stories of every race, perhaps the best ship in video games and a suicide mission that had real consequences. All I wanted at this time was to keep my head busy with other things and Mass Effect 2 managed it pretty darn well. Despite being one of, if not my favourite game of all time, Mass Effect 2 managed to be in my console at the time when I most needed it.

So that leads to today. I am about 10 hours into Mass Effect 3, enjoying university a lot and Giant Bomb is going back to CBS. At a time when Giant Bomb has gone full circle its hard not to look back at my time with the site. While I will reserve judgement on the final part of the Mass Effect trilogy till I have finished it, I will always have fond memories of this trilogy not just for its high quality but for the personal effect its had on me over the last 5 years.

Do you guys have good memories of the Mass Effect trilogy or perhaps another game that will stick with you for a long time?

I have always been a big fan of good length single player campaigns. I am not a big RPG fan but games such as Assassins Creed, Arkham Asylum or even Halo Reach give me the full fledged single player campaign I enjoy.

I am currently coming to the end of LA Noire with the intention of writing a review and the length of the single player should be exactly what I want. The thing is I feel like my feelings towards this game would be much more positive if it had ended sooner. This experience along with games like Call of Duty have got me thinking.

Do you think games need to be above a certain length to be value for money?

Is a short campaign acceptable if it is high quality?

Being born at the start of the nineties and not really getting into gaming till the Dreamcast era I seem to have missed the days of Sierra and Lucasarts battling for adventure game supremacy. Recently however, my love of Back to the Future has thrust me into the world of adventure games leaving me with a few thoughts on the genre.   
 

Why Battlefield 3 is important

After the mix of trailers coming out of the VGA's I thought I would right down my thoughts on a few of them. 
 

Forza 4

Mass Effect 3

Batman Arkham City

Elder Scrolls V

PS3 exclusives

I have like a lot of people been playing Reach lately but I also got a new mini HD camcorder so I thought I would use it to try and make a Video Review. I don't have a capture card so a lot of the gameplay is taken from Giantbomb but let me know what you think. Constructive criticism only please. 
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGDiHwhzB9g
 
Here is my normal written review as well  
http://www.giantbomb.com/halo-reach/61-26786/user-reviews/?review_id=16702

When Halo CE was released my home console was a Gamecube and I never got to play that game unless I was round at a friends house. When Halo 2 was out me and many of my friends would meet up and play some CTF on Zanzibar all night long. The multiplayer was like nothing I had played before and it was really what got me into gaming. When the next generation of consoles came out I knew I needed to own the platform that would allow me to finish the fight and I was ready when it came out. I spent the weeks running up to the release of Halo 3 playing through the previous games and loving the storyline. Halo 3 was a slight disappointment at the time but I am still playing the multiplayer to this day. After ODST helping to keep me interested in the franchise I am excited on Tuesday to finally play Reach which in my eyes will always be the last proper Halo game. I never consider myself a fanboy but I am really looking forward to getting my hands on the finished product. Thoughts on Halo anyone?

Today is my Birthday and the day of the Big Live Live Show Live! My birthday money will no doubt go on a subscription but I might be too busy with some drinks to watch most of the show! What are you doing today in honor of the Big Live Live Show Live! I expect to a lot of people are just avoiding their bosses lets find out

I have attempted many a time to do something useful in the Giantbomb community but apart from my reviews I am failing. So here is a question to the community is there anything you would like me or other community members to produce for the community in the same vein as the Luchazine etc.? On the other hand if you are looking for collaborators post in this thread and let people know.