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GTA IV was Aronofsky's moment of 2008

His brilliant film-brain likes games.

Screenwriter and director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) has said playing Grand Theft Auto IV was one of his highlights of 2008.

Speaking to the New York Times (spotted by Kotaku) about the "Moments That Mattered" to him throughout the year, Aronofsky suggested videogames had never been so accomplished.

"Looking over Niko's shoulder up at the virtual parachute jump in Grand Theft Auto IV's version of Coney Island, grabbing a dollar hot dog off the boardwalk to get my health back, then leaping into a bullet-hole-riddled Hummer and smashing through my childhood neighborhood, flying over sand dunes on Manhattan Beach and finally drowning in the sea off Brighton Beach. Thinking, Man, I wish they made this game when I was a teenager," he said.

Aronofsky's most recent work includes The Fountain, starring his wife Rachel Weisz and Wolverine actor Hugh Jackman.

Aronofsky's latest, The Wrestler, launches in the UK early next year. It centres on the life of Randy "Ram" Robinson (played by Mickey Rourke), a wrestler from the 1980s who's forced to retire because of heart problems. But everything soon goes pear-shaped when the prospect of a rematch with his old nemesis pops up.

The Wrestler's supposed to be quite good, according to some Venice Film Festival award. And apparently we're turning into Film Night 2008.

Back to games: Grand Theft Auto IV launched earlier this year and gathered perfect scores across the board. It's clearly one of the contenders for Game of the Year, a list we'll be putting together at the end of December.

Let's take bets.