Blizzard Entertainment has had a number of games over the years that millions of PC gamers have been clamoring over, but have been relatively unheard of on the console market. Now, having had a chance to play the upcoming Diablo 3 on the PS3 at E3, console gamers have every reason to put down their controllers and start paying attention – PC gaming on the console market is coming, and Blizzard is bringing it.
PC games have always been something of an enigma on home consoles, games that are considered a defining experience for one system can go relatively unnoticed by other demographics. A lot of the time it’s simply because it was forced onto a platform that it was inherently not meant for, causing it to feel awkward or watered down.
Diablo 3, the game that set fire to the PC market a while back which will be coming the PS3 and the PS4, feels like it was built directly for a controller, because it was ‘built to feel native on the PlayStation’. Parts of the game were ‘built from the ground up’, so that console gamers would get more of a direct experience, instead of the indirect control scheme found on the original. Players are no longer pointing and clicking to attack, combat feels exactly like it should with a DualShock and has even been improved with the addition of an incredibly useful roll mechanic. This is a game that has been in development for years, not a quick port.
One the best things about Diablo 3 overall has to be the co-op experience it brings and, thankfully, the console versions of the game seems to handle this flawlessly. With 4 player drop-in/drop-out couch co-op and online play, Blizzard seems to have thought of everything to make the experience as forward thinking as possible. Couch play has a set of limitations that prevents players from moving outside of the viewable area, but, to prevent people from slowing down the pace by being inactive, an auto follow system triggers for players that are unresponsive. Online, these restrictions are not implemented, and gamers will be able to venture out on their own, as well as join a fellow traveler if they want to.
Any PC gamers who are looking to pick up a console version will notice a few differences between the two games, as the optimization for the new market was Blizzard’s highest priority. The biggest difference between the two, visually, has to be the new inventory screen – which was changed to fit the mechanics of a controller without sacrificing the depth of its looting system. Sadly, as many people have been wondering, the in-game market will not be making its way over to the console version, also, drop rates have been decreased, but when something does drop, it has a better chance to be of quality. A new drop called ‘Nephalem Glory orbs’ will now drop, giving the player a stat boost, allowing players to chain them for a better increase by picking up more.
So, if anyone is looking for a top-down Action RPG with randomly generated monsters and a loot system that is incredibly deep with hours and hours of non-stop gameplay, Diablo 3 on consoles will definitely be a game to check out. Finally, if all of that didn’t convince you that we loved what we saw, we also awarded it one of our Best of E3 awards.
