14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Blizzard currently working on the console bound version of Diablo III says that it has used the arcade experience that many players know from their youth as the core template for the cooperative play mode that will be included in the new release.
Jason Bender, a lead designer at Blizzard Entertainment, tells the official PlayStation Blog that, "Thanks to Gauntlet and other popular arcade hits, gamers fell in love with co-op play. That’s the same kind of fun we’re going for with the console version of Diablo III. Four friends on the same couch, working together to slaughter endless hordes of demons, collecting loot, and having a great time — it doesn’t get any better."
Most cooperative titles on the PlayStation 3 split the screen in order to allow each player to watch his own character and focus on his actions.
But the Blizzard team wants to make sure that it fully utilizes big screens without dividing them up into small pieces so that players could experience the superb graphics of Diablo III and the various combat moves of the selected characters.
Bender adds that his team eliminates the previous movement system to replace it with "direct character control and an Evade command on the right analog stick, putting full tactical positioning into players’ hands. We had to work on this again and again until it just felt right."
Many fans of Diablo III were disappointed when Blizzard announced the PlayStation 3 port, fearing that the team would reduce the complexity level of the title in order to make it appealing to console gamers.
Since then, the team has explained the reasons for its design decisions and has assured all players that Diablo III is suited to a variety of hardware platforms.
The PC version of the game will continue to get balance updates and core mechanics changes.