Time's running short and we haven't even touched the missions. But this is the inherently addictive nature of GTA IV. There's always something to grab your attention. There's always something to do. Always something to get you hooked. Liberty City is an incredibly intricate, lavishly detailed, utterly convincing world that exists in a constant state of flux and its impossible not to get willingly swept along.

We accelerate out of an alleyway and nearly send a homeless guy tumbling over the bonnet. He instinctively jumps out of the way... and straight into the path of an oncoming taxi. BOOF. Looks painful. The tramp hauls himself up and - with the intent of a narrow-minded guided missile - heads for the cab driver. Soon the two men are standing in the middle of the road having a full-blown fist fight. Horns blast angrily as cars pile-up behind the stationary taxi. A rusted old banger backfires, spewing a cloud of fumes with a size-20 carbon footprint.

Just seconds earlier the street was an idyllic picture of city calm. But we clumsily sparked the fuse and now it's in a state of exponential uproar. "Y'all need to wake up - aliens is among us!" shouts a passer-by in Niko's direction. With the mellow sound of cocktail jazz filling the car, we gently pull away, leaving the commotion to disappear behind us. We could've happily sat and watched the chaotic scene continue to unfold, but we've got places to go, people to see...

GTA IV is overwhelming. In the 120 minutes we've been kicking back, doing absolutely nothing in particular at all, it's kept us constantly entertained. It's thrown more snapshot moments at us than most games struggle to conjure in their entirety. And the majority of it has been unscripted. Just spontaneous madness. This experience has been exclusive to us. These are our stories.

But by far the biggest story isn't anything so self-indulgent as recounting personal experience. It's about the Big Picture. It's about how Rockstar appears to have created something far more satisfying and accomplished than we'd ever dared hope. It's about how - come April 29 - Rockstar looks poised to launch another megaton rocket up the puckered kazoo of the gaming industry. It's about how, like its criminally-minded predecessors, Grand Theft Auto IV is primed to be the new yardstick by which other sandbox games are measured and the new template that others will try to imitate. Yes, GTA IV looks ready to kick ass. And there's still so much we haven't seen. We are wet with excitement.

Are you dripping for more? Pump your mouse button here and check out our second, super in-depth GTA IV hands-on preview right now.