An article in Zeenews states that Chirantan Patnaik, a 26 year old private equity broker, spent a massive 40 hours and 20 minutes playing GTA IV on the PS3 which may sound quite sad at first, but it is an impressive mental feat to pull off. The 40 hour marathon started from 10:00 am on September 4th and ending at 2 am on September 6th. The safety guidelines for the record allowed him to take a 10-minute break after every hour, but Patnaik said he only took four breaks throughout the entire attempt . The previous record for playing GTA IV was 28 hours 1 minute which was set late last year.

And by all accounts Chirantan had never played GTA IV!:

“There are so many other games which I have played for long hours. But I had never tried playing this particular game seriously. However, I knew that I can do it after I saw my brother playing it … I enjoyed the game very much. It’s fun playing long hours. It wasn’t that exhaustive for me, as one might feel.”

Chirantans’ marathon was monitored by Zapak.com which had observers in place to inform Guinness World Records and make the attempt legitimate.

Chirantan describes himself as an avid gamer that buys “The latest games in the market if it interests me. I don’t mind spending money on games at all.” To prepare for the massive endurance test he took up Yoga and exercised on a regular basis. He also drank a LOT of coffee during the marathon!

A true hardcore gamer! Hope he tries to break more records in the near future but I want to see some contenders to try and kick him off the podium!