18-hour GTA 5 no-death run ends in tragedy after streamer runs out of road before returning for vengeance 14 hours later

Grand Theft Auto 5
(Image credit: Rockstar)

There are few games more potentially dangerous for novelty runners than Grand Theft Auto, as one GTA 5 streamer has learned after losing an 18-hour no-death run to a lack of road and an unfortunate tumble.

Twitch streamer Crayator was cruising up a multi-story car park during a mission when they decided to drive off a rather inviting billboard that had been turned into a ramp. As the camera turns to something more cinematic to show a grand stunt going down, the look on Crayator's face immediately becomes one of panic. And for a good reason, as his car bumped into the side of a building, landed slightly inconveniently, and then blew him up, meaning the mission failed.

Now, this is the sort of nonsense you face regularly in GTA 5, but what makes it worse for Crayator is that this was a no-death run he had sunk 18 hours into. The moments following feel like an eternity as Crayator covers his mouth in shock as we stare at the 'mission failed' screen.

Onlookers inevitably asked 'why' he would drive off the top of a multi-story car park when attempting a no-death run, to which Crayator says he thought there was a road "or something" underneath. In fairness to him, you're typically alright to make those jumps without dying; what was likely his demise is the slight slide he took the ramp with, leading him to fly into the side of a building and land on his engine awkwardly enough to blow it up. As I said – GTA is some serious nonsense.

Thankfully, the tale does have a happy ending. Crayator started another playthrough, got to the feared ramp four hours sooner this time, and lived! His reaction was suitably joyous, as I imagine he was relieved not to lose that many hours again.

We can't quite say the same about Chop the dog, however.

GTA: Vice City player loses a 98-minute run to an "old speedrunning legend," only for an OG Rockstar dev to show up and explain what happened - and why it's not his fault. 

Deputy News Editor

Iain joins the GamesRadar team as Deputy News Editor following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When not helping Ali run the news team, he can be found digging into communities for stories – the sillier the better. When he isn’t pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new hat, you’ll find him amassing an army of Pokemon plushies.

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