We’ve already covered the brouhaha over the PC game coming to consoles, and stated that the day Diablo III had stuff like decent controls and four-player local co-op, Kate Upton would ask somebody on the GS crew out for burgers.
I’ve already sent Robo some Drakkar Noir, because… well… Diablo III on PS3 is leaps and bounds better.
Honestly, it’s the control scheme. Blizzard isn’t reinventing the wheel here: It’s a fairly typical isometric RPG control scheme. But the controller makes a world of difference, and yes, I know I’m picking a fight with the keyboard/mouse crowd, but it’s the truth.
What feels dull and unengaging on PC is a lot more dynamic and sensible here. Dodging is mapped to the right stick, motion to the left, attacks to the right triggers and face buttons, potions to the left triggers. Diablo III on the PC left me cold and annoyed. Diablo III on a console makes me kinda excited to buy it and play it again. It’s zippy, it’s fun, it’s… well, it’s what I remember Diablo being. Where the hell was THIS game last year?
And it’s surprisingly, shockingly, old school, too: There’s four player local co-op. The days of yelling at your alleged friends for being d-bags is back, because you can gank loot. The hideous DRM is gone and it took the Real Money Auction House with it.
This feels, very much, like Blizzard knew that Diablo III was a game that sold millions of copies, but was unloved. So it made the game we actually wanted to play.
Will I buy it again? Maybe. But the fact that I’m even thinking about it says a lot about what a good job Blizzard has done.