Edge gave Cyberpunk 2077 a 9/10 before anyone could play it on console.

Let's establish the financial timeline. CD Projekt Red sent out PC review codes only. No PS4 build. No Xbox One build. No base-console footage allowed in coverage. The embargo specifically prohibited reviewers from using their own gameplay video. And GamesRadar looked at this list of restrictions — a list so suspicious it might as well have come with a ransom note — and said 'sounds great, where do we sign?'

Five stars. FIVE. STARS. 'A masterpiece, an opus, a tour-de-force.' Three synonyms for 'I have not seen this game run on the hardware 70% of buyers will play it on.' That's not a review, that's a press release with a star rating glued to the bottom.

Forty-eight hours after launch, Sony pulled the game from the PlayStation Store. Let me repeat that for the people in the back: Sony, a company whose entire business model is selling you things, decided this product was so broken they had to stop selling it. Refunds were issued. Class action lawsuits were filed. The CEO of CD Projekt Red recorded a hostage-video apology. And GamesRadar's 5/5 just sat there, glowing, like a Christmas light on a house that burned down.

The review mentions 'a few bugs' in passing. A FEW BUGS. T-posing NPCs floating through walls while the player's car merges with a hot dog stand is not 'a few bugs,' that's a David Lynch film. Cars spawned inside other cars. Police materialized behind you like Slenderman. The protagonist's genitalia clipped through clothing in cutscenes. None of this made the review because none of this was in the curated PC build running on a $3,000 rig in CD Projekt Red's PR-approved environment.

Here's the test for whether a publication is doing journalism or marketing: when a publisher imposes restrictions designed to hide product failure, do you (A) refuse to review until you can see the actual product, or (B) publish a 5/5 and call it 'an opus'? GamesRadar picked B. The masterpiece got delisted. The opus got refunded. The tour-de-force became a cautionary tale taught in business schools. Sponsored by the truth.