37:16:29

That’s the time on my in-game clock in GTA IV and the symbol of the story mode now being complete.  I have never devoted quite so much time to a videogame in all the years I have been playing them, and quite frankly I am staggered at how those hours flew past.

I completed the game on Friday night, and it’s not a spoilerama to say that there are two endings.  Throughout the game you are forced into making choices with peoples lives, and in the end it’s a big one.  I think they got it right on this weeks 1Up Yours podcast by calling it a Tragedy game, and when has a tragedy ever sold six million copies?

With Sally out shopping for my birthday presents yesterday, I loaded up my pre-decision save game and went for option B, breezing through it with surprising ease and enjoying the bittersweet “victory” for a second time.
Now I’m spending time exploring the wonders of Liberty City and enjoying all the subtle nuances of Rockstar’s world.  I must confess the last few hours of the game were a real slog.  I was progressing well, then went and did the nine assassin side missions, messed around some more and thought I was close to the end.  But the missions just kept coming and I felt myself groaning inside every time I had to leap in a boat or a car to do yet another chase mission.  I was totally burned out by the end, a videogame junkie who had to keep going to see how the story ended.  It’s a testament to the quality of the writing and my own stubbornness that I got there in the end.

Currently I’m really enjoying the TV stations, I put the TV on as background yesterday while sorting out my office and had to keep stopping what I was doing to watch and listen.  The game is so rich, so deep.  Completing just the main storyline is just one piece of the pie (albeit a rather large one).

There are still cars to steal, criminals to hunt down and a whole lot of pigeons to stamp out if I so desire.  But for now, I’m just going to take my time and enjoy the game world.

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Category: Videogames