Sony snags fourth-person puzzler Pavilion, sci-fi adventure forma.8

This is what a fourth-person game looks like: In Pavilion, it's an overhead view of a man navigating the twisting stone passages of massive temples, but the player is not in control of the man himself. Players must influence the character's movements by manipulating the environment, at times forcing him to explore certain areas, or nudging him in the right direction to "fulfill the purpose of the world," Henrick Flink, co-founder of Visiontrick Media, writes on the PlayStation Blog.

"This method of control has resulted in some interesting reactions," he says. "Some people feel it's just a buzzword, while others are rather intrigued by it. In the end, we're happy to see people giving it a thought and talking about it."

Pavilion is minimalist in the sense that it doesn't provide a tutorial or any background information; the story is told directly through the game itself. To this end, Visiontrick is keeping a tight lid on details about Pavilion. The game is due out this year for PS4 and Vita.

Another PS4 and Vita game scheduled for 2014 is forma.8, a sci-fi action-adventure from Futuridium developer MixedBag (it's also coming to Wii U, iOS, PC, Mac and Linux, with a Steam Greenlight page live now). Players control an exploration drone that's stranded on an alien planet and charged with one mission, to recover an energy source buried deep within this world before it causes ultimate destruction. There's no verbal communication in forma.8, and it begins with no instructions or context.

We're sensing a pattern here. Check out the trailer for forma.8 below, after the galleries.


http://www.joystiq.com/2014/02/28/so...dventure-form/