With
Diablo III finally coming to the home consoles (PS3 & Xbox360), I decided to put together some tips when starting out on the console version.
NOTE: My apologies in advance for the fussy screenshots, as I took these with my DSLR while I'm playing the game on my PS3.
Customize your Gameplay Setup First
As someone who jumped right in as soon as I got my copy of the game, I realized that I could've had a better time playing the game by customizing the gameplay settings first before jumping right in. You can access this via the Options tab. Here's how to do it:
By default, these options are actually disabled (prolly to match the PC version's look) but enabling some of these options can actually make playing the console version more accessible and more better. Here's some of my suggested options to enable.
Enable Health Bars on Gameplay
Enabling the following under "Gameplay"
- Display Player Health Bars
- Display Monster Health Bars
- Display Player Names
This actually helps out in sorting the chaos that ensues whenever you're being swamped by tons of enemies on screen (this is particularly helpful when playing co-op multiplayer). Here's how it looks like in-game with and without these options enabled:
As you can see, having health bars enabled certainly has lots of benefits when playing for the first time because:
- It's easier to track where your character is in the game (specially when playing local co-op mutliplayer)
- Players can easily keep track of their HP (the green bar) without looking at the bar on the lower left side of the screen. This is specially handy when the situation gets very hectic on-screen.
- Players can easily see where all monsters are lurking.
- Players can easily see how much HP all monsters in the screen have left.
Enable Show Item Icons
By enabling the option "Show Item Icons on Drop", it becomes easier for you to see where your loots are. Here's a comparison of having it enabled and disabled:
NOTE: The icons DO disappear after awhile, as they will only be there as soon as they drop off a monster. The durable is pretty long enough for you to still see the icons and pick the items up after a fight.
Learn to use the "Evade" mechanic
A feature that's exclusive to the console versions is the ability to evade incoming attacks by moving to the opposite direction using your controllers Right Analog stick (for the PS3 version). This mechanic has no cooldown, no cost, and can practically save you from very tight situations. This move is practically indispensable and very useful (specially for melee characters). Dodging attacks at the right moment means you don't get any damage, and you get to be in an advantageous position to unleash havoc upon your enemies.
Change the game's "Difficulty" to suit your taste
Another feature that's exclusive to the console versions of
Diablo III, is the introduction of "Difficulty" levels.
Aside from the typical
Diablo modes of gameplay (Normal, Nightmare, Hell, Inferno), the console version introduces Difficulty levels. I'll explain more about the differences about the 2 in detail on my next post, but ideally you can switch difficulties on the fly. If you're a first time player to the
Diablo series (or you're a PC gamer who is not used to controlling your character via a PS3 controller), you might want to set the difficulty to "Easy" at first and simply enjoy breezing thru the game and get used to the gameplay before switching to a harder, more challenging difficulty.
Well that's it for now! What are your starting tips in playing
Diablo III for the console? Let us know by sharing it on the comments below. :)
