There’s something very peculiar about the popularity of Garfield recently. Not that the famous feline comic strip star shouldn’t be recognized, of course; he’s been a mainstay in popular culture since his debut in 1976. But for many, that recognition has turned into an obsession, melding the orange tabby cat with so many other properties that it’s getting ridiculous — like playing as Garfield in Stray, for instance.
Thanks to a mod developed by Chris Rubino, you can now play as everyone’s favorite cat in the recently-released Stray. Just like Garfield himself, Stray has seen a surge in popularity since it launched last week. It’s charming players with its unique concept and engaging worldbuilding — and, of course, los gatos. This mod, designed for the Steam version, replaces your character cat (and seemingly every cat in the game?) with Garfield.
See the mod in action below, courtesy of IGN of YouTube:
Playing as Garfield in Stray
This is admittedly a very simple mod, just switching out the cat model in Stray with the lasagna-loving, Monday-hating cat. Garfield admittedly looks a little silly here, as that’s just the nature of the character. But there’s a certain odd pleasure in seeing Garfield walk around and interact with the world as an actual cat. It’s not something you often see with the anthropomorphized feline, and if nothing else, that makes the mod worth it.
The modder, Chris Rubino, is no stranger to creating projects through Unreal Engine. He’s released videos on animating and programming within Unreal, with everything from shading to graphics optimization to character model replacements. Recently, he’s also begun releasing tutorials for importing character models into UE4, using this Garfield in Stray mod as an example.
You can download the mod yourself here. Again, it only seems to work with the Steam version for now.
Have you given Stray a chance yet? If so, what do you think of it? Let us know!
Via IGN.
