Diablo 3′s game director took questions from the fans yesterday at Blizcon 2011 about their upcoming release. While he would neither confirm nor deny any details pertaining to a console version he did tell us that there is a special team at the company which focuses solely on creating controls for console systems.

He has said that the movement actually feels much better while using a controller, targeting seems to be a bit of a problem though. Their team is currently trying to devise a solution without having to resort to using a targeting reticule, but this is proving to be a bit of a challenge, because this game was first designed to be used with a mouse.

He has also said that the distribution of monsters and their AI feels quite a bit different as compared to the PC version. Reading between the lines we can deduce that actual work has been put into building a console version of the game. It’s possible that he only means that the game just feels different in general while using the controller but the fans of the Diablo franchise have to clasp on to any bone thats thrown their way at this point.

The biggest struggle for blizzard at the moment is trying to figure out if a console version is viable. Blizzard has been hesitant to put out any official announcements about anything because they don’t like to comment on something until they are sure they’re going to do it. Blizzard hopes its console team will be sure as soon as possible.

At the time of this writing the set up for Diablo 3 Arena PVP is a four versus four team death match type of battle. So far there’s no word from blizzard as to whether or not this is going to be the final version of the arena that’s featured in Diablo 3, or if there will be other Arena modes and options available to choose as well, but my instinct tells me that this will be the format used in the retail version of the game. Teams battle it out while whizzing through the adequately sized arena and whichever team has achieved the most kills after the time limit runs out wins the battle.

The first aspect of the arena and you’re bound to notice is just how deadly this version of Diablo’s combat is. If you find yourself in a one-on-one battle you’ll be able to put up a fight for a little while, but if you run into a group of enemies, even just two or three, you’ll be smashed into dust in no time. Teamwork is very important.

Attacks and spells are fast and devastating, taking huge chunks of your life bar with each swing of your sword. Some attacks are very straightforward, like the rapid fire of the demon hunter, and the wizards arcane torrent spell. Both of these attacks put out a huge amount of damage in a specific area. On the other side of the coin there are many attacks that have to be built up. The monk ability the seven sided strike and the barbarian ability the hammer of the ancients, both take a little bit of time in order to build up the powers needed, but once it’s ready to let loose it will inflict a huge amount of instant damage on your opponent. Luckily most classes come with several different options for defense, and intelligent use of these can save your life in a sticky situation. Barbarians can absorb damage when the situation is getting bleak, demon hunters can vanish without leaving a trace, while stealthily moving about the arena. Wizards can cover their skin with a diamond coating blocking damage for a certain amount of time.

Staying light on your toes is also a big part of the Diablo 3 Arena gameplay, finding your way out of a sticky trap is equally as important as setting up little traps yourself. Whether you’re jumping through the shadows, making matter teleport magically in an instant, or flying through the air in classic Diablo two barbarian style, you’re gonna want to keep moving in order to get the battle in your favor.

In Diablo 3 health regenerates very slowly, but a quick and easy way to keep your self going is to utilize the health globes that sometimes spawn in the arena. This is another situation where staying mobile is important, because the team that’s able to secure the health globe location when they’re about to go down will more easily be able to shut down their opponents offense. A great thing about health globes is you don’t need to worry about your teammates stealing your globe because health globes restore the health of everyone on your team.

When you die and believe me you will be dying a lot, you won’t be out of the fight for long. Blizzard has done away with the counterstrike type of round structure and has taken on a more continuous type of the arena style. When you go down in battle it will only take a couple seconds to get back into the heat of the action. You need to stay alert at all times, because you can spawn at any point in the arena, may be directly in your enemies location. It’s a game idea that will keep you sharp and adds even more chaos to the battle.

Arenas are jampacked full of bloody combat, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Your weapon will strike down with devastating force and spells will slam your enemies with satisfying power. The greatest aspect of all though is the wide array of death animations. When a character finally shuffles off the mortal coil, they don’t simply just fall down like a rag doll. Depending on which grizzly method of destruction an enemy meets their end to, you’ll be looking at a wide variety of super awesome death animations! Pieces of body parts flying all over the screen, bodies disintegrated by a blast of fire, or see a frozen corpse shattered into 1 million pieces. This brings a an evil smile to my face as I watch their equipment fly all over the screen.

Based on this early preview it looks like Diablo 3 Arenas are going to be super fun. They are dirty, fast, chaotic, and are the true embodiment of everything that an action-packed RPG should be. Add in battle.net system ranking integration and we’ve really got something to be excited for. Let’s hope that those ears will be in our bags sooner instead of the date.

In his opinion the main factor that will determine if Diablo 3 will be available on consoles is the amount of control blizzard has over their game. The company doesn’t want to have to rush in their production of a ported version of the PC game. Ideally they would want to build Diablo 3 from scratch with their designs being based on the consoles.

The director has been quoted as saying that the movement feels much better on a controller as opposed to a keyboard and mouse.

Blizzard has considered creating ports of their games as far back as 2006, it’s only recently though that blizzard has gone public with their intentions of creating these ports. It’s very possible that we will see a version of Diablo 3 for the Xbox 360 before the next generation of consoles comes out. While blizzard never firmly states their release dates you can always expect that their finished product will be outstanding.

Deckard Cain is the only character to be in all three of the Diablo series. In Diablo 3 his stepdaughter is introduced and she is able to accompany whichever character is chosen to be the hero. She does not go on all of the quest with the hero but she can go on some of them. Cain’s stepdaughter is not one of the five new characters.

The five heroes are a Witch Doctor who is similar to the Necromancer in Diablo 2 and uses voodoo spells when he fights the demons who are trying to take over Sanctuary and New Tristram and other parts of the world all of which are called environments. The Wizard is reminiscent of the Sorceress of Diablo 2 and the Sorcerer of the original Diablo. Wizard is from the island of Xiansai, always seeking to learn the forbidden magics with no concerns of the consequences of learning or using the forbidden magics. A Monk who uses martial arts and various weapons when fighting the demons. The Barbarian who was one of the heroes in Diablo 2 has renewed his skills in the third version. Skills of the Amazon and Assassin from Diablo 2 have been given to the final hero of Diablo 3 the Demon Hunter.

In previous versions of the game the player could not select the gender of the character they chose to be the hero. The new version allows the player to select either male or female for whichever character they choose.

As in Diablo 2 the character will be able to have a companion known as followers in the new version. The followers are the Templar known as Kormac, Lyndon who is the Scoundrel and Eirena who is the Enchantress.

Diablo 3 is due to be released on February 01, 2012 providing everything goes as planned.