In the 1990s and early 2000s, technologists made the world a grand promise: new communications technologies would strengthen democracy, undermine authoritarianism, and lead to a new era of human flourishing. But today, few people would agree that the internet has lived up to that lofty goal. Today, on social media platforms, content tends to be ranked by how much engagement it receives. Over the last two decades politics, the media, and culture have all been reshaped to meet a single, overriding incentive: posts that provoke an emotional response often rise to the top. Efforts to improve the health of online spaces have long focused on content moderation, the practice of detecting and removing bad content.

Feline-focused cyberpunk adventure Stray is officially coming to Mac. The critically-acclaimed title will be available for all Apple silicon models, from the most powerful Mac Studio desktops to standard Macbook Air laptops. This is only for silicon models, however, so older Intel-based Macs need not apply. There's no release date yet but developer BlueTwelve Studio and publisher Annapurna Interactive urge fans to keep an eye on its Twitter accounts for up-to-date information. Stray originally launched last year for PS4, PS5 and PC via Steam.

In Stray, the postapocalyptic adventure game from BlueTwelve Studio, players are cast as an unnamed orange and brown-striped tabby cat. At various points in this cat's journey across a futuristic, neon-drenched city, button prompts will appear, floating over the arms of leather couches or hovering before the metal legs of bipedal humanoid robots. Press the corresponding controller inputs and the cat will rhythmically dig its claws into fabric or rub its head along the limbs of synthetic people. Sometimes it may even jump onto the lap of a reclining robot and curl into a tight ball to catch a quick snooze. This kind of behavior is immediately familiar to anyone who's spent time around cats, and it's believably animated enough that the game appears to perfectly capture the animal's essence.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. The virtual cat hero from the new video game sensation "Stray" doesn't just wind along rusted pipes, leap over unidentified sludge and decode clues in a seemingly abandoned city. The daring orange tabby is helping real world cats as well. Thanks to online fundraising platforms, gamers are playing "Stray" while streaming live for audiences to raise money for animal shelters and other cat-related charities.

When a video game has us playing as an animal, it's usually some psychedelic anthropomorphic cartoon creature such as Crash Bandicoot or Sonic the Hedgehog. Rarely do we actually behave like an animal, although when we do, it can be hilarious: 2019's breakout cult hit Untitled Goose Game stars a nasty goose honking, pecking and chasing its way around a village of peeved humans, for instance. Stray, released last week, has us playing as the internet's favourite animal, a cat, doing cat stuff: pattering across roofs, snoozing on cozy cushions, pushing things off shelves for no discernible reason. Players and critics have lapped Stray up. But it's also been winning over the feline population.

The simplest mods make cosmetic changes, such as changing the texture on a weapon to look nicer. But mods can also be wildly ambitious, sometimes ballooning into entirely new games.

In Stray, you play as a cat. For many, this is a mic drop worthy of an instant purchase, and Blue Twelve Studio, the former Ubisoft employees responsible for the game, clearly know this--from the very beginning, Stray taps in shamelessly to the memeable antics of Felis catus. You press O to meow. You hammer L and R to scratch trees (and furniture). Interludes see you waltzing on a keyboard, prancing on pianos, and terrorizing board games. And while Stray's cat is just a ginger tabby, not as long or genetically mutated or struggling to breathe as more famous internet cats, it will, just as Untitled Goose Game's goose before it, still provide rich fodder for memes.

You can scratch up rugs, furniture and doors with alternating L2 and R2 trigger pulls on a PlayStation controller, and you'll even leaves marks behind. 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.

Despite the fact that it stars a cat, there's no extra fluff in Stray. The game takes place under the dome of an artificial sky, in a futuristic city populated by robots and cut off from the natural world, and mechanically, it's also perfectly contained. Every detail in Stray serves a purpose, whether it's an environmental cue nudging players toward a specific path or the ability to meow at will, which is adorable, but can also distract enemies in combat scenes. Stray is a cyberpunk playground where players are rewarded for trusting their instincts, and it offers a beautiful balance of exploration, puzzle solving and soothing cat activities. And somehow along the way, it manages to tell a heart-wrenching human story without any people at all.

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. This steady trickle of insight meant I never stopped scouring every area I entered for clues, eager to piece together the mystery of the city's past. And I was absolutely okay with that, because "Stray's" world is one you're all too happy to bask in. I don't think I've ever spent so much time in a video game doing absolutely nothing. Whenever the kitty curled up for a nap, I would just sit and vibe, watching the camera slowly zoom back to reveal more of the gorgeous setting as gentle music played, listening to the city breathe while a gentle purr echoed through my controller.