So there you have it... after 46 hours, 23 minutes and 51 seconds, I've finally got redemption - all 100G of it! The Red Dead Redemption disc has been spinning in my drive for weeks now and it's with great sadness that I've now reached the 100% complete marker and there's little left to explore.

It may not be anywhere near a record time, but it has certainly helped me justify my outlay - and I've enjoyed it thoroughly.

I stand by my bold claims in an earlier post that many games are pitifully easy nowadays, at least where the main story missions are concerned - and Red Dead was no different. There may have been 57 of the blighters but they took little time to get through; my stats reveal there wasn't a single level I failed and had to retry.

However, tracking down all the scraps for the multitude of outfits, aiding the strangers, capturing the bounties and getting all the jobs, properties and weaponry proved far more of a challenge.

Some of the objectives proved a bit of a grind perhaps - those damned flower gathering and pelt collecting tasks drove me mad on occasion - but I enjoyed the majority of them.

I love it when games get under your skin - when you regret that moment you switch off your console to go to bed you start to wonder whether you should boot up again for just one more go...

Grand Theft Auto IV did that to me, as did Assassin's Creed II, Modern Warfare II and Batman: Arkham Asylum. Each sapped hours of my life and left me feeling hugely satisfied when the credits eventually scrolled up the screen.

I've got Fallout 3 and Splinter Cell Conviction lined up next. Hopefully, they'll keep me as engrossed as Marston did!