Permanent Death

While reading a post about Minecraft (isn't that the media whore de jour), I found this mention of a machinima novel, 'Permanent Death'.

Thinking it strange that I had not heard of it before, I downloaded the pdf and started to read it. I am only a few pages into the document, but it is a fascinating read so far.

The author plays through Far Cry 2 with only a single life (hence the title) and captures the entire 20 hours or so of gameplay with a great pictorial (read screenshot) book of a whopping 391 pages!

I am instantly reminded of Freeman's Mind, the tongue in cheek playthrough that Ross Scott has been presenting for Half Life.

I am also reminded of Synechdoche New York.

Documentary? Fiction?
What are these constructs?
First person existential narrative?

Original post about Minecraft narratives that led me to this.
SLRC - Permanent Death.
Briefly mentioned here.