Technological World for November 16, games: Pentiment is fascinating, going back in time with Atari

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Gaming gets medieval with Pentiment and nostalgic with Atari 50.

Curious Pentiment is the year’s cleverest game

Pentiment is a most curious game. Animated in the style of medieval illuminated manuscripts, the objective seems simple enough – solve a murder. But how this game unfurls for us is quite unlike anything I’ve seen before.

You play Andreas, an artist, in 16th century Bavaria (contemporary Germany), who gets caught up in the murder mystery, as well as the troubles of the time.

Obsidian has a great history of developing narrative games, from Star wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout New Vegas, and South Park: The Stick of Truth.

Since being acquired by Microsoft, the studio has delivered a standard action RPG called The Outer Worlds and a more playful game in Grounded. Pentiment is completely different to those.

While there are a few mini-games designed to convey a sense of what the 16th-century world was like, mechanically, Pentiment is a point-and-click adventure. Which means you’ll get as much out of the game as you’re willing to invest exploring the world and talking to its inhabitants.

There’s no voice acting here. Dialogue is presented instead as type appearing on the screen as if it was being drawn by a scribe. Every image, every animation, is an echo of the art that was being created in Europe at the time.

That’s the filagree in Pentiment, this deep commitment to historical accuracy, delivered to us in a completely modern way.

Pentiment is available on Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S and is part of Xbox Game Pass. Rated mature.

Go back in time with Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration

A must for every nostalgic gamer, Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection is an encyclopedia of fifty years of game development seen through the lens of Atari.

In this collection you get more than 80 games that were developed for six Atari platforms, including the 2600, the 5200, and the Lynx.

Digital Eclipse, who assembled the emulation, also created five games based on some of those classics, such as Haunted House and Yars Revenge Reimagined.

That’s in addition to the original games, like Asteroids, Centipede, Cload & Dgger, Lunar Lander, and Missile Command.

There’s also more than an hour of documentary footage featuring interviews with people from the industry about the Atari brand.

Available for Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Rated teen.

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