This is probably the most revealing screenshot related to how gameplay will function. Along the bottom left of the screen are six circles, five of which are locked. The sixth circle shows the Witch Doctor’s Poison Dart ability with a small X icon next to it. This layout mirrors the PC version’s where each character can have six active skills at any time which need to be unlocked by leveling up. It seems if you’re playing Diablo III on PlayStation 3 or 4, at least four of the face buttons will be assigned to four active skills.
That makes sense, but what about button assignments for skills five and six? Diablo III’s combat moves at a very fast pace and the location and severity of threats can change rapidly, so all six skills should ideally be mapped to easy-to-use buttons (not L3 or R3). With potions tied to L1, it seems likely skills five and six will be assigned to L2 and R2. Across the rest of the screen you’ll find a health globe, mana bar for skill use and what appears to be an XP bar wrapped around the health globe. It’s a little odd Blizzard decided to move away from the series’ standard double globe interface, but perhaps Blizzard found in testing that it was better to have the map at the screen’s bottom instead of a resource globe.What isn’t obvious here is how the camera system will work. While the PC version features an overhead perspective, a press release from Blizzard indicates that a “new dynamic camera perspective” will be implemented in the PlayStation version. Though the screenshot above is positioned at the traditional camera angle, it’s very possible that when outside of towns you’ll be able to use the thumbsticks or D-pad to tweak your view of the action.
This screenshot shows an adjusted interface for your inventory and equip menus. It seems like all your character’s equipment slots are set up as a radial menu so you can use a thumbstick to quickly flip to gloves, rings, helmets or whatever else you want to equip or modify. While that may be a sensible move for gear management, the inventory management seems like it could be irritating. Notice how there are only four items visible on the right column in the screenshot. With a full inventory, scrolling through only four at a time could prove cumbersome when deciding what to equip, toss into your stash or sell to a vendor. If there’s an option to condense the item displays so it’s text only, this issue could be bypassed. And because we don’t have much concrete information yet, it’s very possible that this interface setup could change between now and whenever Diablo III launches on PS3 and PS4.
It's also possible that the PS4's DualShock 4 touch pad will be used to navigate menus in Diablo III as well as to swiftly scoop up loot on the battlefield. This functionality could negate a lot of hassle related to fiddling with the interface with thumbsticks and face buttons.While Blizzard has confirmed the game will largely be the same on Sony’s consoles and even include features like adjustable Monster Power and Paragon levels that have been patched into the PC version since it originally launched last May, it’s not clear yet whether the controversial real money auction house will be included. The real money auction house may be removed if Activision Blizzard and Sony cannot reach some kind of an agreement over revenue splitting on the sale of virtual items for real dollars. If the real money option isn't included, it’s still likely that Blizzard would include a virtual currency auction house, unless Blizzard plans to adjust item drop rates to reduce the need to rely on the Auction House to grab items to hack and slash through Diablo III’s higher difficulties.
Blizzard will soon reveal how this all works, as the developer plans on showing the PS3 version of Diablo III at PAX East, which will take place in Boston, Massachusetts from March 22 through 24. What’ll be particularly interesting to see is how Blizzard handles movement and targeting. Proper use of certain skills like the Barbarian’s Leap and Weapon Throw requires a degree of precision that’s easily achieved with a mouse but could be problematic with thumbsticks. In situations where your character is surrounded by packs of monsters dropping arcane orbs and releasing explosive molten blasts when they die, you need to combine agile movement with quick ability targeting and activation to avoid death. Blizzard’s been working on this version for a while now, so hopefully they’ve come up with some good solutions. Expect more detailed reports after PAX East.
Did you already play Diablo III on PC or did you pass on it? Are you still interested in checking out a console version?
