For the past eight months, my desktop background has been Cyberpunk 2077 concept art

It used to be a giddy reminder that the launch was getting a little closer with each passing day Now it serves as a warning not to invest too much in one medium before actually experiencing it

After playing Cyberpunk 2077 for 55 hours, during which I played through most of what the game had to offer, I submitted a refund request last week, which was officially granted a few days later

So Cyberpunk 2077 did not steal my hard-earned money However, it did ultimately waste something much more valuable: my time

I knew that I would have to make some concessions regarding performance since I would not be playing on a PC, the leading platform for development However, my overheat-prone MacBook would likely have spontaneously combusted if I tried to launch the game, so my journey through Night City always had to be done through the lens of the console

However, I was one of the lucky few who were able to get PS5 on launch day So even as early reports began to circulate that the game was in rough shape on almost every platform, I was confident that my super-powerful next-gen machine could handle the task

My confidence was misplaced Despite the pre-release warnings, I was not prepared for the bugs, glitches, and general level of unpolishedness found in the basic nooks and crannies of "Night City"

I encountered missions that wouldn't progress, a few that even a hard reset couldn't fix, and the total number of crashes hit double digits before my playing time And all of this was with a layer of shenanigans that permeated the entire experience In other words, this game was, and still is, a hot mess

"Cyberpunk 2077" will set a new standard by which unfinished games will be judged

The obvious question, of course, is that if the game was so buggy, why did it take me 55 hours to reach the breaking point and submit a refund request? [After all, "Cyberpunk 2077" is not the first overhyped game I wasted my time and money on As proof, I have the digital deluxe edition of "Marvel's Avengers"

I could argue that I was trying my best to be strong and determined But the truth is that, at the root of the matter, I genuinely had a great game and wanted to see V's adventure through to the end

However, Marcin Ivinsky, co-founder of CD Projekt Red, released a video apologizing Rather than appease, he became angry when he made questionable claims that internal testing had failed to detect many of the problems experienced by console players He also expressed satisfaction with the state of the PC version of the game, which may be in better shape, but still far from acceptable

After the disastrous launch, the CDPR boldly stated that two major patches in January and February of this year would put the game on the right track

Well, the January patch is out, but the game is still fundamentally broken In fact, the latest series of fixes introduced a new game-breaking bug that had to be hastily reverted

It was after this latest blow that I finally lost patience with Cyberpunk 2077 and decided that there was no longer any excuse for developers to release their products in such a sorry state The continued lack of delivery by CDPR with regard to modifications to the game was the final straw

Perhaps in the future I will return to "Night City"; if CDPR finally keeps its word and actually fixes the game and releases some worthwhile DLC, I will not be opposed to that idea But at least now I'm moving on to other games

Maybe it's time to change my desktop wallpaper