I've been reading quite a bit around the internet about a certain challenge. A specific way to play one of my favourite games, Grand Theft Auto IV. The aim is to play it as realistically as possible. While I'm playing, I have to abide by the following rules:

- Have a realistic sleeping pattern. There's time for around two missions on each day. I sleep at around 22:00 PM
- Doing missions only on weekdays, and spend the weekends doing activities with friends and buying clothes
- Eat regularly
- Change clothes regularly
- Drive safely, only drive recklessly when in a hurry or when getting away from the police
- Try not to commit unnecessary crimes
- Carrying a realistic supply of weaponry on you (nobody just has a bazooka in their pocket)
- Targeting mode set on 'Basic'
- Auto Aiming set 'off'

I'm also adding permadeath as a personal challenge. But let's keep it realistic here. Not everything should outright kill Niko. If I get beaten up in a fight, fall 'to death' from a small height, or get hit by a car from a slow speed, I'm allowing myself to continue from the hospital. If I get shot 'to death', I'll toss a coin to decide whether I play on or not since not every gun wound is fatal. Getting blown up by a grenade or exploding vehicle or getting burned alive is instant death though and I'll have to restart the game.

I've already tried the first couple of missions, and I had no idea it would be this much fun. I'm experiencing the game world in an entirely new way. It requires some patience with getting around (you can always just hail taxis) but if you own Grand Theft Auto IV and fancy a really interesting way to play, I highly recommend you try this.

When I was young and playing GTA or other driving games, I always tried to drive normally for a while, but I would go like 2 blocks and then the urge to be a complete jerk would take over and I'd go crazy lol, I'd never be able to play like this.

That actually sounds fun lol. I tried doing this as well- playing more realistically, but, never to this extent. So how does keeping a sleeping pattern work? I didn't know there was such a level of realism lol all I ever tried to do was walk like a normal person without getting into a fight or killing someone for bumping into me. Now driving normal is by far the biggest challenge, I cannot stay in the middle of the lane or take a curve as normal and keep the speed controlled. That has never worked for me. I literally just hit everything and run over everyone. I ended up destroying the car and having to "borrow" a new one. I think it's a great game and glad they have developed it to let you have more control over it- you couldn't even see the driver in the old GTA.

That's a fun way to do it. When I was younger and I played through MLB 2006, I did the same thing, where I would play a game a night and take the days off when I had days off in the schedule.

It was a fun way to balance out a season and play through the games. And I could keep up on what was going on in the real world and balance that against what was going on in the game. Safe to say, I'm not the guy who has to go 162-0 and I don't set the play on super easy. The Detroit Tigers finished better than I did and I was okay with that.

I barely made the ALDS and got blown out by the Mariners, of all teams.

That's cool that you're bringing reality to the game. It changes the feel and flow. Good for you.

I had tried doing this with other games along with Grand Theft Auto such as role-playing games like Skyrim. Here is what I have found:

With the Role-Playing games you are more expected to do this like sleeping and eating to regenerate health, that is pretty much how the games are.

With Grand Theft Auto however I had a harder time doing this as it is not as expected from you to do. It's pretty crazy for me trying to play a game like that and it felt strange. It's like when you play games like that you are expected to do things that you can't necessarily do in reality. Which is why you played the game in the first place.

To sum up, this was a fun challenge that I might attempt again in the future and hope for better results!

From what I've seen, this game is basically a mashup of The Simpsons: Hit and Run and The Simpsons: The road rage except you don't drop off passengers.

I should play GTA IV again while attempting this challenge. It sounds very fun and it's a nice twist from the traditional GTA Game play.