Hasta La Gadget!

After what seemed like a mountain of rumors and speculation, Blizzard revealed last year that Diablo 3 would be arriving on consoles like the Sony PlayStation 3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360. That’s good news for gamers but also bad news if they were thinking about purchasing next-gen consoles like the PS4 and the Xbox One. This is mainly because Blizzard has stated that availability for next-gen consoles, like the PS4, could take a while, but we guess better late than never, right? Now we know about the game’s availability for the PS4 but what about the Xbox One? After all Diablo 3 was released for the Xbox 360, so presumably they would release it for the Xbox One as well, right?

Well according to listings by some retailers, they seem to think so as well as a listing on Argos’ website has revealed Diablo 3 for the Xbox One where customers could even pre-order the game and where the retailer has speculated for a 2014 release. It is possible that Diablo 3 could be an exclusive to the PlayStation console for a period of time, which might explain why Blizzard made the announcement during Sony’s PS4 event as opposed to a separate event of their own. Blizzard has since released a statement to the folks at Eurogamer stating, “One of our goals is to bring Diablo 3 to as many players as possible, but we don’t have any other platform announcements to share at this time.”  It definitely does not sound like Blizzard is denying it so hopefully we will learn more about Diablo 3 for the Xbox One in the near future.

Diablo 3 For Xbox One Listing Spotted On Retailer’s Website original content from Ubergizmo.

Good news gamers, if you’ve been meaning to get your hands on the Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls beta, here’s your chance. Blizzard has announced that the closed beta of the Diablo 3 expansion has begun. Earlier Blizzard had launched a beta in which only selected friends and family could participate, but with the closed beta being launched, this means that you, as a regular gamer, will be able to participate as well. Blizzard has highlighted how you can do so by opting into the beta test in your Battle.net Profile Settings page, although we should note that this hardly means that you will be guaranteed a spot, but at the very least you will be considered and notified by email once you have been chosen.

This is the closed beta meaning that the game could be buggy, versus an open beta which would suggest that Blizzard is a bit more confident about the game’s state. There could also be changes made during the course of the beta and might not necessarily reflect the final game’s release, which at the moment has been pegged for a 2014 release. No word on when exactly will that be, but we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for more info. The Reaper of Souls expansion will introduce a host of new features for players to explore, such as a new Crusader character class, new areas, new monsters, new skills, and a new artisan, just to name a few. For gamers who managed to get into the closed beta, do let us know below how the game is treating you so far!

Diablo 3: Reaper Of Souls’ Next Wave Of Beta Invites Are Going Out original content from Ubergizmo.

While Blizzard has pretty much introduced Battle.net to most of its games, they never really made it a requirement for gamers to stay connected, at least until StarCraft 2 where it became a requirement. The feature then made its way onto Diablo 3 which was pretty controversial since prior to Diablo 3, gamers would be able to play offline in Diablo 2, or play with friends via TCP/IP instead of Battle.net, meaning that their experience would not be at the mercy of Blizzard’s servers. Unfortunately if you were hoping that Blizzard would eventually listen and give in to the demands of their players for an offline mode, you’d be out of luck.

This is according the game’s lead designer, Kevin Martens and art director, Christian Lichtner during an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun. According to Martens, one of the reasons they made the game have an always-on requirement was so that gamers could play with each other. He cited an example in Diablo 2 where offline characters and multiplayer characters were separate, so if a gamer wanted to hop into a game with friends, he/she would have to start all over. “The game is most fun when you can play with other people. To be ghetto-ed off to the side and not part of the real game, we didn’t want that to happen.” What do you guys think? Is this a legit reason?

Blizzard Explains Why There Will Be No Offline Mode For Diablo 3 original content from Ubergizmo.

When Diablo 3 was announced for consoles, many weren’t too surprised especially after seeing the user interface where the action bar for the player’s character had been mapped out to a controller’s buttons. In a way this made a lot of sense and it felt right, leading PC gamers to wonder if they were ever going to see gamepad support for Diablo 3 on the PC in the future. Unfortunately this will not be happening anytime soon, if at all. This was confirmed by Matthew Berger, the senior level designer of the console version who stated that due to the different nature of the game for either platform, it does not make much sense.

“The rhythm on PC is tactactactactactac – you’re clicking the mouse, you’re telling your character where to go,” Berger said. “On console, the rhythm is very different. It flows more, because you’re constantly repositioning your character with the thumbstick; you’re really never stationary on console, whereas on PC you’re a lot more stationary… When you’re playing on the PC, you’re not really looking at your character as much, you’re kind of focusing on the cursor. Whereas on console it’s the exact opposite, you’re drawn in.” While Berger’s statements do make sense, shouldn’t the player decide if they would rather use a gamepad or the keyboard/mouse combo? What do you guys think?

Gamepad Support For Diablo 3 On PC Will Not Be Happening original content from Ubergizmo.

At the moment Blizzard’s Diablo 3 is playable, as far as consoles are concerned, on both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, but is expected to make its way onto next-gen consoles like the PlayStation 4 come 2014. Not only is this great news for PS4 gamers, but given the fact that the Sony PlayStation 4 console will support remote streaming onto devices like the PS Vita, essentially allowing gamers to take the game mobile, wouldn’t this be a pretty awesome feature for Diablo 3? Unfortunately that will not be happening, at least according to the game’s senior level designer, Matthew Berger.

According to Berger, “The Vita is an amazing piece of kit, but the screen is still smaller,” he said. “And when you look at–and also it has its own aspect ratio–and when you look at Diablo III, there’s a lot happening on-screen already. You get surrounded by your enemies, lots of effects flying off in every direction. The inventory can be pretty complicated to navigate sometimes when you have lots of items.” While it seems like a “no” for now, Berger did state that Remote Play is something that the company is still thinking about, but until Blizzard says otherwise, try not to get your hopes up just yet. What do you guys think? Any would-be PS4 gamers love the idea of being able to stream Diablo 3 on their PS Vita consoles

PS4 Remote Play For Diablo 3 Unlikely Due To PS Vita’s Screen Size original content from Ubergizmo.