f13.net

Fucking get this.

Emergent? sure. you're doing a jump puzzler as a fucking cat. The discovery and the story are just that damn good.

PC performance is poo, though, so may want to wait for a few patches if that's your platform.

It's "free" if you have a mid-tier PSN subscription. I have the basic one, but I noticed that I can upgrade to mid tier ("Extra") for the rest of the month for $1 so I am doing that and basically renting "Stray" for a week for 1 euro. Since it's not a long game, but certainly a worthy one, you should consider it.

I was so stoked for this game, then I saw the final trailer with the robot companion and it completely soured me on it. I've warmed a little since, but it still feels very much in the sale bin category just for the novelty of playing as cat.

edited to add: JFC am I agreeing with fucking Kotaku? Broken clocks, I guess. https://kotaku.com/playstation-plus-stray-sony-annapurna-cats-kittens-1849198656

Seems like a Spore type situation where a game is so far outside the mainstream that suits freak out and demand it become 'a game'.

I am not gonna read Kotaku. It's a great game. It's not gonna test your smarts or your reflexes, it's a very chill stroll in an extremely beautiful setting, and fortunately it has been priced right.

I was not expecting the robot companion and that soured me too when it happened in the game, but got over it very quickly. It's not a cat simulator, and that's a good thing. It vaguely reminds me of a Half-Life without guns. I am getting vibes similar to those '98 ones. Or some Portal, too. I am not talking about gameplay, just vibes.

Many years ago (pre-Portal, maybe roughly when HL2 came out) I had the idea for a first person puzzler set in a science lab where the player is a cat that's caught in a Groundhog-Day-esque casuality loop that has to be resolved by doing cat shenanigans like knocking things off shelves, sitting on buttons labeled "DO NOT PUSH," and distracting people at crucial moments.

Outer Wilds nailed the "exploring a causality loop" part, Untitled Goose Game nailed the "feral shenanigans" part, and now this game has apparently done the "cat" part, so I think I can finally rest easy that none of those ideas are things that have yet to be explored in a game.

The Kotaku review is trash. Is this game perfect? No. But it's just enough of a goddamn breath of fresh air and I'm here for it.

Just played until I got the robot and entered the city, but the start of the game is incredibly cute. Its disconcerting that it might morph into a more classical game later, but right now i am thoroughly enjoying it. I'm not  a hardcore platforming player, so the difficulty level seems about right for me to enjoy the environment without dying every 5 minutes.

I am past the halfway point and it does not morph into a more classical game. It's a walking simulator in disguise (unless something radical happens in the final part), and that's a great thing.

Runs beautifully at 2560x1440 on my 4 year old PC (admittedly with a 3060). It seems to be getting small patches daily, hopefully this will fix your problem, as it's just a fantastic, fun game.

Edit: Kataku Kotaku need to stop sucking on their own dicks. What a terrible fucking review by talent-less hacks.

Occasional freeze/hitch on a 6900xt, which is only a problem in a few running bits. Still annoying.

Just finished it. It’s beautiful. The shooty parts are brief and the discovery, hijinx and adorable bits far outweigh them. (And they’re not even real shooty bits)

There’s one really weird sequence that I’m still scratching my head about but it was overall amazing. 

More heart went into this game than the last decade of AAAs. Even gives my love for Horizon: Zero Dawn a run for it’s money.

I went ahead and preordered the iam8bit physical edition. That's how much I want to enshrine this game.

...mods are already out - Garfield anyone?
https://www.nexusmods.com/stray/mods/58

Now if it was the scary Garfield, that could be cool.

Oh, fuck that.

Though, if I ever get it on Steam, I may download a mod to turn him into a Russian Blue or a Tuxie.