Diablo 3 PS3: Blizzard "didn't want to emulate a PC game"

Blizzard really seems to have taken the first console port of Diablo 3 seriously, making significant changes to interface and controls, as well as gameplay itself.

"What we didn’t want to do was emulate a PC game on the console," Blizzard's Matthew Burger told OPM.

"So, for instance, you can’t plug in a USB keyboard and mouse and play Diablo 3 on PS3. It was really built for the controller. We put a lot work into how we laid out the abilities and the camera. It wouldn’t feel right."

Elsewhere in the interview, Burger - who is the senior designer on the RPG's first console port - explained how the game's inventory management had been streamlined, allowing users to go in and fool around with specific stats if they like, or just one-click equip new equipment without even opening a menu. It's also been divided by body part, meaning you can scroll through your gear by tpe, rather than managing it ona grid, as in the PC version. Perhaps the most interesting change is the addition of an evade button, though.

"In the PC version you don’t have evade, on the console version if use your right stick you can evade left, right, back and forward. In this type of game having a dodge roll is fairly traditional on the console so we wanted to make sure we had that. It also helped solve some of the differences between PC and console," the designer said.

"On the PC if you click somewhere you’re character automatically goes there, on the console version, direct control, you have to actually manually go there. If you’re surrounded by enemies that might be a little more difficult, a little bit more tricky, so evade actually allows you to balance that out.

"Something we’ve done a little bit of work on is our boss fights – the presentation, some of the mechanics [have been changed] to bring them more in line with console boss fights which have a lot of tradition. So we’ve obviously kept an eye on how console games are and we mirrored that," he added, somewhat mysteriously.

Diablo 3 is headed to PlayStation 3 and later on PlayStation 4 - but neither version has been dated.