It is, say those who have been standing in the cold for a good half hour on Oxford Street, the game that brings every boy's ultimate fantasies to life.
There are gangster exploits, car chases, the atypical busty blonde and a number of missions within Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the new instalment of the controversial video game from Sony PlayStation 2.
Teenage boys began milling around the entrance of Game on Oxford Street from 11pm last night with the promise that the first copies of the game would be on sale from midnight at £40.
By 11.30pm more than 70 queued down a leg of the street joking among themselves that there would be no sleep tonight and no entry into the outside world for the entire weekend.
"You know what it is about this game, man: it keeps us off the street," said Andie Spence, 15. "You can go around robbing people's houses without actually doing it."
Andie is not old enough to purchase the game, which carries an 18 certificate, but he has enlisted the help of an old friend who is also buying copious copies for other under-age boys in the crowd.
"We're planning to play it until tomorrow morning, it keeps the testosterone levels up and you know there's drive-by shootings and everything," said a friend of Andie's who did not wish to be named.
Pondering the game's allure, he said: "When you're doing it you can just do what you want, you know, you can be arrested, you can shoot Feds, whatever, that's the best thing."
There were also a few women sprinkled throughout the queue last night. One, Trudie Clarke, said the game did not hold only teenage boys in its thrall.
"I was hooked on the last one," she said. "I would play it until one or two o'clock in the morning. I can't explain, it's just a good feeling, it's wicked. Plenty of other girls I know like it too."
By midnight there were up to 100 outside the store while many more queued inside, and those behind the till waited happily, ready to put through all the sales.
The game, made by the Edinburgh-based Rockstar Games, follows the exploits of a career gangster as he carries out drive-by shootings, steals vehicles and hangs around with prostitutes.
Although the franchise has come under criticism for its violent content, its supporters argue that brutality is not necessarily at the core of the game, which is considered unique for the depth of its non-linear play and ability to roam freely.
"It's a very well-designed game providing extreme escapism," says Mark Griffiths, a psychologist at Nottingham Trent University.
"Most designers take a 'kitchen sink' approach and put lots of things in to offer psychological or physiological rewards to players. It can give them the buzzes, the highs, the whole range of emotions.
"Video games make fantastic distractor tasks; they are dissociative experiences and literally offer players escapism. It is very similar to watching a gangster movie or The Sopranos; this game lets people have experiences which they might not be able - or want - to undertake in real life."
