Prior to my work here at Kotaku Australia, I had made a bit of a reputation for myself with close friends of mine when it came to video game recommendations.
It was a regular occurrence to have a friend come to me and ask if there were any good games I had played recently, as they had either just finished a title and were therefore looking for something new to play.
Another common case was friends coming to me after being in a bit of a ‘gaming slump’ to see if there were any new games or hidden gems that could pull them out of it.
Due to these situations, I often found myself curating lists for friends of mine based on past games they had played, and sometimes this would work. However, I also found that recommending games based on interests outside of gaming happened to be a goldmine too.
Recently, I moved into a new place with two of my best friends in the whole wide world. I also brought all of my consoles with me, which meant that I could introduce my besties to a whole new world of games. I love this.
So when one of my best mates and I started talking about games the other night, she told me how she wants to get back into video games. She talked about how the games she was playing were fun, but they also had a distinct learning curve that made her feel like she was falling behind.
I know from personal experience that while for some this can be an enriching opportunity to try and get better, for others it just feels like getting kicked while you’re already down. Honestly, playing a multiplayer game when you know you’re not at the level of those around you sucks ass!
My bestie also has a cat, which happens to be her whole world. This little cherub cat is an absolute darling, and she loves the baby dearly. As a cat lover, I asked if she had played Stray. She hadn’t, but she really wanted to. Thankfully, I had the game on my PlayStation 5 so I insisted she give it a go.
Let me tell you, folks, there are very few things that feel more rewarding to me than giving a good video game recommendation to somebody and having them come back and say they loved it. However, one thing, in particular, is being in the same room to experience that love being built.
With every step through the world of Stray, there was something new and fantastical that my best friend was enamoured with. The detailed streets, the ability to meow, the fact that meowing at a security camera would make it nod affirmingly at you, the cat. She loved it. It was amazing to see.
Of course, she cried at the beginning when the cat protagonist fell down the big hole. We all cried together. It was hilarious, and it was beautiful. I assured my friends that the cat was alright and that if it weren’t, this would be an incredibly short game.
As my bestie walked and jumped through the Dead City of Stray, she said something that really stuck with me, and something that I felt when I first played the game:
“You know when you watched Spirited Away for the first time, and you looked around at the world that was so beautiful and yet so out of reach? It’s like a sad beauty.”
It’s a quote that makes me smile because it made it clear just how much she was enjoying the world around her. It’s a fantastic feeling when a game hooks you in like that.
In saying all this, I’d actually love to know: Has there been a time when you recommended a game to someone you love, and you got to experience their joy as they played it? What game was it? And on the other end of the spectrum, has a friend ever recommended a game to you that ended up becoming one of your favourite games? Let us know!
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