Stray

Stray ; Available on: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and PC ; Developer: BlueTwelve Studio | Publisher: Annapurna Interactive ; Release: July 19, 2022 ; Under embargo ...

It wasn’t always clear why I could jump to one surface but not another either, and a lot of frustration could have been saved with some kind of mechanic to highlight the climbable ledges a la the Horizon series. The bulk of “Stray’s” narrative is told through memories and the bits and pieces of information you glean from your surroundings as you trek upward through the city’s levels. Minor complaints aside, “Stray” is an enrapturing experience, the kind of game that doesn’t leave your brain after the credits roll. You sneak around a stark, concrete facility that looks like it could have been plucked from any other stealth game, which is a particular shame given how memorable the other parts of the city are. You team up with a small drone, B-12, that connects to a harness and can hack terminals, translate the language of the city’s robotic inhabitants and unlock clues called “memories” to learn more about what the hell happened to this place. Playing as a cat makes this easy to convey without explicit explanation: A heart will appear on a robot’s face when you nuzzle up against its leg; an angry face flashes when you cause mischief; they trip if you dart between their legs. The residents of the city’s slum live in constant fear of Zurks, little chittering critters that eat everything in sight and will swarm you on sight. Your ability to move through the world like a cat informs much of “Stray’s” level design, which focuses heavily on verticality. “Stray” is a master class in environmental story telling and level design. You can claw at doors and furniture by alternating the L2 and R2 triggers, leaving behind scratch marks, or knock things off tables just because or jump on a stack of books to send it toppling over. The platforming is broken up by puzzle-solving sequences that call to mind “Half-Life 2” in how they seamlessly incorporate the environment into physics-based puzzles, forcing you to examine your surroundings in new ways to figure out the solution. Playing “Stray” felt like a surreal 4D experience at times: There’s a dedicated “meow” button, and my orange cat Cheeto, who lay beside me as I played, perked up whenever I hit it and the sound echoed through the PS5 controller (the cat will also meow randomly — again, just like a real cat).

A cat walks the wet, neon-lit streets of a walled cybercity in Stray Image: BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive. Stray is a game about an adorable ...

Additionally, the cat does get injured at points during the story, which can be difficult to watch. If you can’t shake the enemies and escape, the cat will get overwhelmed by the beasts and collapse on the ground. To ease your anxieties, we’re going to answer two different questions: Can the cat in Stray die if you fail?

Pattering through a ruined city, being petted by robots and watched over by a friendly drone, cat lovers may regret finding the escape.

We might literally control the cat in Stray, but figuratively, there’s always a little distance between us and the creature. Near the start of the game she dons a harness and spends the first few minutes flopping around in a state of indignant confusion that will be familiar to anyone who’s ever ill-advisedly tried to put a kitty in a Halloween costume. There’s always something a little wild about them, and they bring that wildness wherever they go. I had little trouble with any of Stray’s puzzles or challenges, but that might be because I grew up on a combination of 3D platformers and point-and-click adventures in the 1990s, and Stray is a blend of those two genres. The robots are unexpectedly characterful, too, with their emoji-screen faces and impressive animation. Stray sounds like a shallow meme – it’s the cyberpunk cat game!

The new video game that lets you be a cat is even more enjoyable than it sounds.

But weirdly even more rewarding is seeing the world the developers have built through the eyes of that cat – a bit derelict, a bit sad, but also kind of beautiful. The complete extinction of humanity is treated with more or less a shrug, with the robots being generally incurious as to the fate of their creators, melancholically living in their little makeshift society through the constant darkness of their walled city. Bittersweet is a rare note for a game to aim for, and it’s even rarer for a game to actually hit that note and maintain it without being cloying. I kept coming back to a poncho-wearing robot who sits to the side of a street, strumming a guitar – you find sheet music throughout the game, and hand it to him. The feeling of slinking around with feline grace is remarkably satisfying, almost as satisfying as scratching a door to be let in (thanks, Playstation 5 haptic triggers!), or knocking things off a table just because. The real success of Stray isn’t just in the way it lets players embody a cat, but in the world that the developers, newcomers BlueTwelve Studio, have built for that cat to inhabit.

A delightful cat-based platforming adventure in a cyberpunk world worth exploring.

B-12 accompanies your cat for most of the campaign, and the relationship that forms between them is a nice cornerstone for the plot as a whole. That means the only difficulty associated with any of the platforming is wrestling the camera into the right position to hop to the spot you want, and you don’t exactly move with the nimbleness of a cat once you do – though that’s partly the fault of the movement animations themselves, which can be noticeably stiff at times. It’s fun to scamper up air conditioners mounted to the sides of buildings or walk along railings, but you don’t actually have a dedicated jump button to do any of that with. The latter sections, on the other hand, shift Stray into a genre more akin to a point-and-click adventure game – except in this case your pointer is a cat. The robotic denizens of this cyberpunk world generally talk to you like they would anybody else, and the only way it’s ever really relevant to the story or the action is because you can fit into tight spaces they can’t. To be clear: you’re not a magic cat, not a mutated sci-fi cat, not some kind of sentient super cat – just a normal, cute cat, albeit one that displays the sort of intelligent awareness we all like to pretend our own cats do when we aren’t looking.

We didn't realize such purrfect cat animations were even pawsible. Sorry. Sorry! (It's great, though)

Hello, and welcome to the “Do bad things happen to the cat in Stray?” sidebar! The answer to this question, without getting too deep into spoiler territory, is that they can—this is a video game with enemies and fail states, so you may see a cute kitty with the word “DEAD” printed over it in cyber-block letters if things go wrong. The latter, one of your most common actions, isn’t a free leaping situation, either, but a matter of finding the right place to point the cat toward and then hitting a button to execute the leap. (This is, as far as we know, the first ever video game to present every new carpet as a fresh opportunity for making biscuits.) Watching the cat (never named) move through the world Blue Twelve has created for it is often jaw-dropping, both in its technical execution, and its specificity. Which brings us to an issue that may be looming for some people who’ve been curious about Stray for years now, and which we’ll address in a sidebar here so as to quarantine spoilers. That being said, there is an objectively correct way to play Stray, the new puzzle platformer from developer Blue Twelve Studio and publisher Annapurna Interactive: With your own kitty cat curled up against you on the couch, as you navigate the game’s central character, a very capable orange tabby, through a cyberpunk dystopian world.

The exciting new adventure game, which released on the 19th July 2022, sees you play as a cat with a backpack. The main objective is to roam surroundings, ...

Alternatively, you can play Stray if you're a subscriber to one of the new PlayStation Plus Extra or Premium tiers. Just make sure you cancel the subscription tied to your bank card and make the purchase with your PS Store credit. If you're not already a member, you can currently claim a free 7-day PlayStation Plus Extra/ Premium trial to play the game at no extra cost. If you haven't managed to get a PS5 console yet you can check our PS5 stock checker page. Stray looks like a lot of fun and something very different to other games. The main objective is to roam surroundings, defend against unforeseen threats and solve mysteries in a place inhabited by curious droids and dangerous creatures.

Note: For this chapter, there is the Pacifist Trophy, awarded for not using the Defluxor weapon to kill any Zurks. For more info, see our guide: Stray Trophy ...

Descend the stairs and use a series of pipes to get down to the lower floor. Once the door is open, proceed into the next horrifying room and watch the cutscene. Climb the barrels to a higher platform to cross over to the left-hand side of the room. Hop off to the right and through the gate. He'll open it just enough for you to get through using the floating barrels in the water. When you're ready, hop on and the chapter will begin.

It's okay, sometimes being a cat on a robot-filled sci-fi adventure is thirsty work; that's why we have information on how to get an energy drink in Stray ...

If you’re looking for more information on solving some of the game’s tougher puzzles, we have a Stray walkthrough with tips and guides right here. If you’re playing Annapurna Interactive’s game and wondering how you can get your hands on an energy drink or two in Stray, we’re here to help you out. We know the Stray game length isn’t necessarily anything to write home about, but for a game that’s not too long, it’s packed with more character and detail than you’d expect.

Your ultimate Stray resource - Stray is a narrative adventure for PS5 and PS4 in which you play as a cute little cat. Deve...

Here, you can see any items you're holding, as well as any B-12 Memories. It's worth having a look around, because you can inspect objects to see them in a 3D view, but most importantly, any Memories in the area will show you a glitchy clue as to their whereabouts. You can't just jump around willy-nilly in Stray. If you want to jump somewhere, you'll first need to approach the edge, wait for the X button prompt to appear above your desired landing spot, and then jump. In this part of our Stray guide, we have pages telling you where to find All Collectibles throughout the game. In this section of our Stray guide, we have a breakdown of All Chapters in the game. If you're looking for help while playing Stray, this is the place to be. In this Stray guide, we will be exploring everything the game has to offer.

Stray is a true catventure, which means sometimes getting lost. In this guide, we explain how to find all four plugs in The Flat, unlock B-12, and leave.

By the computers that you just powered, there is a yellow illuminated surface to place the bot on. Once the computer has moved, a plug at the bottom of it is revealed. The fourth and final plug is here. Sure enough, whoever is on the other side of the computer screen responds. Jump atop the keyboard that sits in front of the screen, and in typical cat fashion, start hammering away at the keys with your paws. Once you make your way into The Flat, the next action to take may not seem so obvious.

Stray Memories locations · Inside The Wall - no memories · Dead City - no memories · The Flat - 1 memory · The Slums - 7 memories · Rooftops - 3 memories · The Slums ...

Get past these to find a pipe you can climb into on the left, and at the other end you can scan the sewer system. You can also talk to Elliot while you're here to complete a stage in the process to unlock the Stray safe code. You can also start your search for the Stray Notebooks here, if you haven't done so already, by talking to Momo. If you picked up a fourth can of energy drink, you can also purchase the Stray Sheet Music Azooz is selling. We've taken the legwork out of this search, with the full lowdown on all of the Stray Memories locations. Also, in Chapter 6 you revisit the same area of The Slums that Chapter 4 is set in, so those memories can be found during either level.

In "Stray," the game for PlayStation 5, PS4 and PC, there are tons of catty things players can do. Some have in-game functions, most don't, but all are ...

If you poke your nose around too much, you’ll suffer the consequences, like getting your head stuck in a bag. For an added touch of realism, the PS5 DualSense controller’s adaptive triggers, which adjust the tension of the rear buttons in response to gameplay, are harder to press down during these sequences. First and most importantly: There’s a dedicated button (circle on the PlayStation controller) to “meow,” which you can mash to your heart’s content.

Complete walkthrough for The Flat in Stray - The Flat is the third chapter in Stray, where you'll meet your companion, B-1...

Carry on to the right and jump across the railings and ledges until you reach another bucket zipline. After the game teaches you how to access the inventory, head out into the main part of the flat and to the left, then unlock the door. The first is on the desk in the middle of the room. Use B-12's flashlight to illuminate the next room. Press Triangle to pick up the drone, walk back to the other room, and insert it in the station. The chapter starts when you arrive in the titular apartment.

Stray, the new game from BlueTwelve Studio that puts you into the paws of a cat, introduces a beautiful sci-fi world. But it's all grounded by the fact that ...

Those are just 10 of the fun ways Stray lets you be a totally normal cat in a totally new world. Well, they certainly seem to react to a cat rubbing against their legs, and some of them certainly seem to love it, if the hearts on their monitor-faces are any indication. Thankfully, BlueTwelve has placed a few distractions around its world to allow you to do just that. Sometimes you need a break from exploration, piano playing, and clawing up the furniture, right? It's ok to paws when you come across a carpet, wall, or couch that needs scratching on your adventure. But it's all grounded by the fact that, as a cat, you can do some pretty normal cat things while playing Stray.

Electric cable; Poncho; Tracker. In this Stray guide, we'll be looking at how to get Elliot's poncho. Turns out, even robots feel the cold ...

Head back to Azooz to get the electric cable and give it to granny, who'll knit you a sweet poncho. To start this quest, you'll need to speak to Granny, who'll tell you that she'll knit you a lovely poncho if you can get her some electric cable. In this Stray guide, we'll be looking at how to get Elliot's poncho.

To open Seamus' secret room in Stray, you have to find a four-digit code. We've put together a guide which will show you exactly where it is.

To the right of the table where the keypad is, you’ll find a couple more frames that can be knocked off the wall. Once you enter the room, play around with the picture frames directly in front of you on a table. In Stray, in order to get to the transistor fixed, you need to get into Seamus’ secret room.

Complete walkthrough for The Slums in Stray - The Slums is the fourth chapter in Stray, taking place after you beat The Fl...

Topple these to reveal the safe. You'll receive the keys to a safe. Jump to the balcony and go through the small gap into a library. Jump through the window. Use the bucket to get down, then turn right and get across the rooftops. To get there, walk back along the pipe to the rooftops you were on earlier. Up here, take a left and use the air conditioning unit to get up to a balcony. Talk to Momo and show him the postcard. On the rooftop, take the power unit out to stop the fan from spinning. From Guardian, turn back around and you'll see a dumpster near a sign for Super Spirit. Use this to climb up and to the left and you'll get on the roof. If you're looking for collectibles in The Slums, see our guide: Stray: All Collectibles Locations. First, show Guardian the postcard in your inventory.

Stray isn't on Xbox or Game Pass yet but there's a chance it will as it's listed at 'console exclusive for a limited time'.

As for the Stray Xbox Game Pass release, that's a little harder to predict. That suggests it's only a timed thing and will eventually be a Xbox release as long as you don't might the wait. In our Stray review we called it a "phenomenal, if compact, feline adventure" and awarded it 4.5 out of 5.

Here's where to find each and every piece of sheet music in Stray to give to Morusque the musician for the Meowlody trophy.

Hand them all over to Morusque in order to get the Meowlody trophy. Elliot can translate the note, pointing towards the Dufer Bar. The code is found underneath a painting just above the bar. In the apartment filled with books, you’ll find a piano next to a sleeping robot. In this guide we’re breaking down where you can find each music sheet in Stray. Make sure to locate all the notebooks and open all the safes, too! Enter through the window. One of the first optional collectibles you can grab is a set of eight music sheets.

Early on in Stray you'll come across a safe in The Slums. On the safe you'll find a clue to help you find its “mysterious password,” but none of the robot ...

Grab this treasure and take it over to Morusque to continue his quest. Face away from the Guardian and walk straight until you see a neon red sign, which adorns the entrance of the local watering hole. After you talk to the Guardian and they deem you safe, turn left.

If you want to unlock more secrets in Stray, you're going to have to go on the hunt for four special vending machines and collect some energy drinks.

- To get the last can, head to see Granny, then head to your right towards a stack of boxes and a ladder. You'll see another rooftop with a couch and TV on it, so drop down and head to the left to find another vending machine. - From the bucket lift that heads up to Momo's apartment, head across the plank to the rooftop with a mattress and bottles on it.

You probably already know that humans like Stray, informally known as “the cat game,” very much. The more pressing matter is this: How do cats feel about it ...

It’s unclear yet if this week’s buzz is a flash in the pan among the plugged-in social media set—seeing as “cat gets lost in cyberpunk city” is scientifically calibrated catnip for the Extremely Online—or if it’s indicative of a potential jump to a broader audience. (Refer to the pic at the top of this post.) Stray’s ultimate reach remains a variable. Others, unaware of their limitations, try to scale the wall a TV is mounted on.

'Stray' gets the most out of its cat protagonist, as this new PS5 game fully understands everything we love about our feline friends.

The camera actually pulls out a bit to frame the shot so you can see everything this mischievous cat is pumping into its text prompts. It’s kind of their whole "thing." Any given cat will spend as many as 18 hours a day catching Z’s because they need to store up energy to knock things off shelves, scratch at doors, and generally be weird menaces in the middle of the night. Another universal truth about cats is that they hate any door that’s closed and will do anything it takes to let you know that. I’m pleased to report that this game makes the most out of its material by fully grasping what it is that makes these enigmatic creatures so beloved as pets and internet icons. That stuff is all fine and good, but it’s secondary to the part where yo this game is about a cat. This type of gravitational ambition is fully on display in Stray, which occasionally asks its nameless protagonist cat to gently paw at objects until they fall off high surfaces for the sake of solving puzzles.

The location of Doc's notebook in Stray is perhaps the hardest to find, so we've put together a guide that shows you exactly how to find it.

In one of the corners of the city, there’s a face that sits next to a small gap in a wall. Look down the rows in the shops until you find the books categorised by the letters ‘K, L, M, and N.’ Stacked up in the centre is a ton of books. Most are lying right in front of you, however, one is a bit trickier to find.

Stray is a joy to play on the PlayStation 5 controller. The haptic feedback makes being a cat immersive thanks to a mix of rumble types, adaptive triggers, ...

So much of the game succeeds thanks to its faithful renditions of feline movement and behavior — the catting of it all, you might say. The haptic feedback’s varying intensities, as you get up to cat antics, read as practically invisible and delightfully immersive. The adaptive triggers come into play when you scratch surfaces like mossy poles, sofa arms, and rugs (is the latter actually “doing biscuits”? I’ll count it). To scratch, I alternate the left and right triggers, which take a satisfying amount of pressure to push down, before yielding with a little controller rumble as the cat peels away from the surface with his claws.

Stray is a puzzle platformer where you play as a cat in a futuristic city. Here's whether it's on Xbox consoles.

On PlayStation consoles, Stray is actually included in PS Plus for July. It’s certainly a unique take on the genre, and has won the hearts of gamers and cat-lovers with its feline protagonist. It combines stealth-based action with puzzles and environmental storytelling to tell the story of a robotic civilisation, in a world filled with anguish.

The Annapurna-published 'Stray' features an adorable cat, winsome robots and furry-yet-ferocious (furr-ocious?) enemies. Beyond the cuteness, however, ...

We even have a little one as a companion — a little drone-like feller named B-12. The latter affixes to our back — at first causing our cat to moan and crouch and not want to walk — but B-12 is a helper bot, able to translate robot speech and render all sorts of objects as a mysterious collection of molecules that allow our cat to transport them around town. The goal is to climb through lower- and middle-class worlds and finally once again reach the triumph of the natural world. “Stray” encourages us to linger and to enjoy the cat life. That’s good for us, as playing as a cat in “Stray” is a joy. And “Stray” does an excellent job at forging a connection between player and digital cat. Twice while writing this review, my own cat has pounced across the keyboard, which just so happens to be an action we take late in “Stray.” I found these action-game overtures just the right amount of challenging, and thankfully they largely stay true to cat behavior — that is, we run, sneak and duck into cardboard boxes and tiny crevices. We also scratch couches and pull apart computer wires, the latter part of destroying a security system. And yet I can’t recall a game that treats cats, in this case a spry orange feline, with as much reverence as “Stray.” Though bearing a sci-fi dystopian setting, “Stray,” from French firm BlueTwelve Studio, works hard to capture cat movements, cat behavior and cat idiosyncrasies, even down to its themes — a mixture of loyalty, independence and personal rebellion. We do this by running and jumping rather than pure fighting (we do get a simple light-based weapon at one point), and later our feline pal will have to stealthily avoid the surveillance state. There are hints of a plague that wiped out humanity (thus it’s 2022 topical). Largely good-natured robots, apparently once designed to be subservient to humans, are torn between following the status quo or taking part in an insurrection. Cats, those household pets that still double as the king of online memes, have of course been given the video game treatment before — narrative adventure “Night in the Woods” or mobile platform game “Super Phantom Cat” among them.

The next memory, this time a mural of a companion, is to the left of the Guardian in The Slums (the robot carrying the staff you meet when you first arrive).

Memory 24/27: Now, go across the street to the barbershop, the building to the left of the hat shop. Turn right as you go through the gate, and pass the yellow barrels by the gate. There will be a table with bottles on it in the center of the basement when you arrive. Memory 22/27:After picking up the battery in the Neco factory, return to the central square with the large hologram in the middle. Interact with the memory in the back left corner. Go through the gap in the fence at the top, and turn right. Memory 20/27: Follow the stairs up from the subway tracks. Memory 18/27: From there, take the ladder up, and pass the two robots playing a board game. Go downstairs, and interact with the mannequin behind the Companion you meet. Follow the pipe left, and jump over to a smaller pipe along the left wall. Memory 12/27: After Seamus opens the gate for you, go straight until the path breaks left and right. Memory 7/27: In Momo's apartment, go past Momo into the bedroom behind the beads.

This now-lost city on the outskirts of Hong Kong is perhaps the most influential gaming location you've never heard of.

As he decompressed on his flight back home, he revealed a vain hope: to catch a second glimpse of an ongoing obsession “before the future comes to tear it down.” This obsession was the Walled City of Kowloon. He wrote: “Hive of dream. On your daily strut through the ruins of industrial civilization, you slip down a crevice, into the darkness, landing hard in a moldering sewer. How they seemed to absorb all the frantic activity of Kai Tak airport, sucking in energy like a black hole. But I’m going to focus on something else: namely, the seemingly limitless influence of the now-lost Walled City of Kowloon. Thanks to a partnership with Travel Cat, there’s even a Stray-themed collection of harnesses and backpacks capable of carrying “25 lbs of cat in its sturdy, well-ventilated chassis.” You hammer L and R to scratch trees (and furniture). You purr from nooks and lounge in crannies.

In order to complete Stray's fourth chapter, players will need to get their paws on four notebooks, each of which contains details about the outside.

After entering the window and squeezing through a gap in the glass-paneled sliding door, players will be able to find Clementine's Notebook on the desk near her computer. They can then head back out into the main part of the flat and into a row of bookshelves with a ladder at the end of it. Momo will give players his notebook after they speak with him, before going on to reveal that he's now done with dreams of the outside world.

Before they'll be able to open the safe in the slums, Stray players are first going to have to follow a few cryptic clues to find its four-digit code.

To use it, players can head back around the corner and give it to Morusque, who'll then proceed to play it. Players can then return to the safe and open it up by typing 1283 into the keypad. A trip to Elliot Programming is therefore in order, which players can find around the corner from the bar.

Over 60000 PC users are currently playing the publisher's latest indie hit on its release day…

Like its protagonist it’s a little on the short side, but what’s here will stay with you for a long time. It concludes: “Stray is a masterclass in environmental design, with one of the most engrossingly detailed game worlds we’ve explored. The game is priced at £24.99/$29.99 on the PlayStation Store and at £23.99/$29.99 on Steam.

There are four energy drinks to find in The Slums of Stray and each one is collected by interacting with the vending machines hidden within the maze of ...

Usefully, it’s located next to one of the memories for The Slums. Looking left from this spot, you’ll see a crate and, by jumping atop it, you’ll be able to reach a balcony where the vending machine stands. The vending machine for the third energy drink can be found by going down the alleyway you entered The Slums by and taking the first alleyway you find on the right-hand side.

An animated scene from a game showing a cat sitting at a dystopian bar with two. Credit: Annapurna Interactive. > ...

This clearly adorable reaction is down to Stray's attention to feline detail, how specifically it gets cat things right. Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) And it's the game's appreciation of classic cat behaviour which has gamers finding their screens blocked by unlikely enthusiasts: their real cats.

Stray, the adorable game that sees you take on the role of a lovable cat in a cyberpunk world, has been doing very, ver…

Become a supporter of Eurogamer and you can view the site completely ad-free, as well as gaining exclusive access to articles, podcasts and conversations that will bring you closer to the team, the stories, and the games we all love. "Stray creates a journey filled with such a sense of exploration, on top of the chance to indulge in as much cat-truction as you like. In fact, it has become the biggest PC launch ever for publisher Annapurna Interactive (which I feel should rename itself Anna-purr-na for the occassion).

A Twitter account is capturing adorable moments when house cats are becoming interested in Annapurna Interactive's Stray, which features a cat as a playable ...

Compared to almost everything else happening around the globe, this is so wholesome. Annapurna Interactive’s Stray, the fantastic adventure game where you navigate through a cyberpunk-inspired world as a cat, is winning over more than just players. So, someone smarter than I am made the Twitter account @CatsWatchStray to bundle up all of that joy in one place.

If you want to break into some of the safes in Stray, then you'll need to unravel a few mysteries to get the unlock codes.

Head back to the safe, input the code and the safe will open. If you haven't already, head to see Elliot, the robot you give the poncho to. There are clues for each, though, so here's how to solve them and open the safes.

You'll find a safe in The Slums with nothing but some binary code as a clue... Here's how to crack open the digitised safe.

Start at Grandma, and facing away from her, advance ahead and just past the two robots sat on the floor to your left. His flat is out of the way and very easy to miss, but he's only a short stroll from Grandma. Stray is full of platforms to ascend and cat-sized puzzles to solve, and while it all becomes natural to you in time, life as a cat can be a little confusing initially.

Scattered across the city of Stray are objects and locations which will help restore one of B-12's corrupted memories; each memory will either reveal part of ...

Now all you have to do is take the dumbwaiter back to the club. All you have to do to collect it is interact with the bookcase. By doing so, you’ll be able to jump to a small pipe and, at the end of that, a number of barrels. Once inside, jump atop the counter so you can reach the wall lined with buckets. Once they are, head to the second floor of Antvillage - the one where the robots are playing mahjong. From here, you can use the air vents to reach the painting of a robot. The memory itself is located beneath the yellow poster on this door. You’ll know you’re on the right level when you see a group of Zurk’s trapped in a cage-like area. If there are, you’ll see a number of grey squares in B-12’s memories which will correctly correspond with the amount of memories you can find in this chapter. We recommend taking your time and killing the Zurks to ensure you have safe passage. Don’t worry if you miss a memory - Stray allows you to restart any chapter you’ve already completed whenever you like. Memories you’ve restored are coloured blue, while the ones you receive are yellow.

Also, why am I collecting energy drink cans in this PlayStation Plus hit?

How did a game that was so wonderfully good at giving us a kitty-cat to play as, with such precise and delightful observations of kitten behavior, find itself in this place? Heck, if it desperately needed to go sci-fi, maybe I would stumble on surviving computers and traps, something to evade in a cat-like way. These grow eggs, the eggs spawn Zurks, and you have to murder them up with a purple light. Maybe I’d need to find a drink here and there, and perhaps I–as the player–could piece together something of the history of the place, to the cat’s obvious indifference. Your role is really never more than finding third-person platform routes to a destination, and jumping about the sprawling city areas offers you a great deal of freedom. You’re still—albeit now wearing an enormous robo-saddle—a cat, and while I’ve yet to meet the cat that would willingly help anyone to do anything, it’s still fun to play. Even the ability to roleplay as a cat, which is to say: ignoring your tasks and just finding cool places to sleep. Then, in glimpses at first, you see some rather unpleasant pink-blob creatures that feel like they’d be more at home in Inside. They scurry away, however, so you can carry on your kitty way, jumping and dashing about, looking for safety, and as a player, desperately wondering how you’ll reunite the little guy with his family. After a little sleep, the four cats head off on a journey, crossing the ruins of what was once an enormous structure, jumping from concrete block to massive pipe, trotting down railings, and poking about in a very cat-like fashion. B-12, your robot companion, appears to be able to speak to cats and robots alike, and also possesses the astonishing ability to “digitize” physical objects, then rematerialize them when needed. Without any fussy nonsense, no tiresome cutscenes, the camera gently swoops over four kittens living in the overgrown remains of a dam, before settling behind the ginger critter of the collection, and gives you control. There’s a lot of buzz about Stray right now, by dint of its coming out during a pretty dry patch for new releases, and more importantly, how you get to play as an incredibly cute cat.

Stray is as solid proof as any that being a cat isn't as easy as it looks. The third-person (third-feline?) adventure game, out now for PlayStation and PC, ...

If you’re looking to snap magazine-worthy screenshots—at least while playing the game’s launch version—the best thing you can do is to play with the HUD off. You can see the specific radius of the danger zone, at least, displayed as a meshed circle of lasers. It’s the closest thing the game has to a mission log. You then have to look at the visual cues and see if you know where the location is. Also: It only works on the Zurks, so you can safely aim it at yourself without risk. B12 can show you the general location of a memory by way of a still image covered in choppy static. But the easier method, at least in my mind, is to just…explore every inch of the city. Meowing will summon enemies—a species of mono-eyed robo-rodents called Zurks—toward you, allowing you the opportunity to give them the runaround. The way to “100 percent” Stray is to find all of these memories. If you find an item and are at a loss as to who it should go to, just try giving it to everyone. Scratching at a door, by alternating the left and right triggers, might cause a Companion to open it up. You can deactivate this prompt in the settings, which makes Stray feel a bit more cinematic, while also obfuscating the game’s routes.

The loveable cat game Stray is having some shader stutter issues right now, but here are some tricks you can try to help the game run smoothly.

Just go to the shader cache option under 3D Settings > Manage 3D settings and hit off in the dropdown menu. In the Details tab, find Stray's main process (the one with the biggest number next to it), and right click it. You can check for updates in your GPU software (opens in new tab) and download the most recent one. You first port of call for any game issues, is to check that you have the latest graphics drivers installed. What's really odd though, is that in one scene I was able to recreate the stuttering over and over, but only with the mouse input. That's a significant difference, but only really happened as the game tried to compile shaders while I was whizzing by the scenery on the zipline bucket.

If you'd rather not hunt down every Digicode and safe key in Stray, this guide should help point you in the right direction.

Translate the note that you find on that bed, and the key to the safe will be all yours. That is the code you need to enter into the recently discovered keypad in order to access the hidden area. Inside the shop is a sign that B-12 should be able to translate. There’s a good chance you won’t need to “cheat” (if you’ll excuse the use of that phrase) to find this code. You’ll find this safe in the optional “library” area in The Slums. In order to find the key to that safe, it’s best to put yourself in a position so that you’re staring directly at the front of the safe. While the game is usually pretty good about pointing you in the right direction when it comes time to find those codes, it’s still pretty easy to lose your way and suddenly find yourself desperately searching for that magic combination of numbers.

Stray has a fair few collectables scattered throughout its runtime. These tend to be one-and-done things, like Music Sheets, or Flowers.

You will see a small pipe on the wall that you can jump onto. To your right is the beaten path - the way the game wants you to go. The second Memory is a bit trickier to find because the game actively tries to lure you away from it. Follow this corridor until you get to an offshoot passage to the left that is also filled to the brim with eggs. The Sewers has two available Memories, both are missable in a way that cannot be backtracked too (you only get one shot unless you want to restart), and they are both pretty well hidden. You can tell when there is a Memory on your level by checking your "Memory" screen.

Internet trends come and go, but pet videos are here to stay. And finally, video games have a chance to bask in the light of internet pet virality, ...

The posting trend has the air of those TikTok trends where people play sounds to their pets to see how they react. The pet interest speaks to the high-caliber work being produced by BlueTwelve Studio, if a game can be both about, and of interest to cats. (One dog almost breaks the television screen, it’s so excited.) The premise is oh so cute, and the feline protagonist has demonstrably captured the hearts of a lot of people in its intended human target audience. Cats aren’t the only pets having fun with the game. The videos all follow the same format, more or less, with clips of animals pawing at the screen, or just watching the game intently.

Stray has finally launched and developers are hoping to use the hype to raise money for a cat charity looking to save homeless cats.

To help raise money for kitties in need, enter the Stray giveaway. For those based in the United States, donate $5 to the Nebraska Humane Society shelter. Annapurna Interactive teamed up with Cats Protection to raise money for homeless cats.

You'll need to collect a series of items in Stray. Here's how to get the Poncho, Detergent, and Electric Cable.

Jump up and grab the Super Spirit Detergent bottle next to the Super Spirit box. Slide through the open door and go up the stairs. Scratch on the door and a robot will answer. With your Electric Cable stowed in B12’s backpack, head back to the Guardian and look for a signpost. Talk to them and the game will prompt you to meow. Hit the meow button just before the robot throws and it’ll drop a paint can onto the street.

Starting in Stray chapter four, you can start collecting energy drink cans to use as currency with the local shop owner, Azooz. The merchant has two big ...

Tap the button as usual and grab the Energy Drink Speed 2K can. The third energy drink can in Stray is on the rooftops. Press the button and grab the Energy Drink Speed 2K can that comes out. The fourth and final can is the trickiest to find. The first energy drink can is the easiest to find in Stray. From the Guardian that introduces you to The Slums, turn left and follow the path to Morusque, the guitar player. Follow the alley and take the first left turn you come across.