The Diablo series has always had inventory issues. I'd say 90% of "Town Portal" scrolls are used to head back to town and offload your inventory with a merchant. Diablo III was initially going to feature an inventory where all items were icons of the same size, but now they've split them off, with a bag for small items, a bag for large items, and a bag for quest items. It really isn't as confusing as it sounds.

Current design right now is to have bags. You'll get bags and they will expand, you know kind of like in WoW, except you're not going to open up separate windows. You'll start off your inventory with say… you know, eight slots, right, and then you'll get a new bag and that has ten, so two more slots will open up within that tab, but you'll never have multiple tabs. Like you won't have two or three "large" tabs.

Nicholson takes a great deal of inspiration from Blizzard's massively multiplayer online game, citing it as the reason behind Diablo III's more colorful skill system as well.

I am unabashedly a fan of WoW, I'll probably catch flak "oh you're making it look like WoW oh no!" but I love them, I love the WoW icons. And y'know what we're trying to do is see, ok what works about the WoW icons? They're illustrative; is there a way to try to maybe bridge the gap. You know what worked about the more symbolic DII icons, and what works with the WoW icons, and trying to find a way to put the two together. And that's really what I'm trying to do is to try to make them more symbolic, so they're not necessarily little murals, but they are painterly. So they are colorful because you're going to have a lot more of them than you would in DII.

So while it will definitely piss off those Diablo fans that have memorized power symbols using stacks of flash cards, the colored skills were necessary to keep track of all the new and different skills being packed into Diablo III.

Blizzcast Episode 8 [Blizzard via Shacknews]

Why bother redesigning the Xbox 360's interface? Shane Kim is here to tell us. Oh and Kim totally gets in Sony's face. No, not really. He does talk a minute amount of smack, but no gang signs were thrown.

With just eight days to go before some 400,000 of us are settling down for a day of next-gen PlayStation gaming, eBay listing, and/or factory fresh electronics box huffing, its time to start studying. If you don't show expert level familiarity with the XMB, which Sony seriously says stands for Xross Media Bar, you're going to be the laughing stock of the neighborhood.

Lucky for you, Sony's got your back. They've finally finished posting the full PlayStation 3 manual online. From Music to Photos to Internet Browser, the full details of the PS3 interface are yours for the perusing.

With so much to read, I know what I'll be doing tonight. (Drinking.)

Thanks for the heads up, Omlette!

PLAYSTATION 3 System Software User's Guide

This briefish video shows you what the controller menu looks like and what you can do with the Playstation button on it. It also lets you see what the loadtime is for NBA 07. Brian Crecente

• User: Save your game data and browser preferences for each individual user.
• Settings: Make using the XMB (Cross Media Bar) convenient with individual settings for sound, BD/DVD, time/date, music, network, chat, display, security, etc.
• Photo: View slideshows in full HD. Download pics as well.
• Music: Listen to CDs or Super Audio CDs on the Multi-Channel. Play music on the HDD.
• Video: Enjoy full HD with Blu-ray Disc. It tops out at 7.1 ch.
• Game: Play PSX/PS2 games on the PS3.
• Network: Connect to your PLAYSTATION Network account, download and hit the PLAYSTATION Store. There's an icon for "Remote Play" as well.
• Friend: Add buddies to your friends' list, check your message box and chat.

Totally reminiscent of the PSP, sure, but not bad. Not bad at all. Brian Ashcraft

PS3 Interface Icons [PlayStation Japan, via Gizmodo Japan]

Aeropause has an interesting article up comparing the Playstation 3's interface to the Xbox 360's interface. The verdict: The PS3's is better because it is simpler

Initially, I wanted to disagree, but after reading through the story I think I'm on the same page. While I like the look of the Xbox 360's blades, it is annoying that you have to wander to and fro to get stuff done. One of my biggest pet peeves is that the various settings for the Microsoft console are spread all over the place. Sure, there's a whole blade dedicated to them, but for some reason there are also settings in plenty of other places. In fact, I believe each blade is home to a few settings, which is very annoying.

Another issue is that there seem to be redundancies in the Microsoft blades, especially Marketplace. I always end up checking two or three places when I'm looking for game downloads.

The main problem I see Sony's sleek PS3 interface facing is that it may be too simple. It might be that the simple PSP-like design for the menu may get overwhelmed with content making it impossible to find anything quickly. Only time will tell.

While interface is important, and I think the Xbox 360's could be better, it still really isn't what will make or break a console. Brian Crecente

Console Interface [Aeropause]

I will always suck at RTS games until someone figures out a way not only for me to play them psychically, but invents a drug that will cause extra brain hemispheres to spore, mycelium-like, within my largely fluid filled skull. Who the hell can control a million units in unison? What the crap do I look like, RTS designers? Cylon Briareus?

Edward Tse's table top interface device probably won't make me suck any less, but it sure is a step in the right direction. Edward leads us through the device's potential in Google Earth and Warcraft 3. Oddly enough, Warcraft 3's demonstration is less impressive than Google Earth's... probably due to lack of API or source code. Still, if anyone could ever design an RTS for such a doohickey, this might lift the bar enough for me to shatter my knees limboing under the bar of abject RTS mediocrity. Florian Eckhardt

Edward Tse's Homepage

I got a chance to check out the Playstation 3's interface at the big show. Unfortunately, they weren't showing me the web or game interface. As suspected, the interface is basically a giant version of what the Playstation Portable uses. I kinda liked it. —Brian Crecente

Yet another sample of the Revolution interface has popped up on the Interweb. This time Nintendogal points to a couple of images showing what appears to be a guy giving a demonstration of the interface on a projection screen.

The menu reads:

Friend Management
Manage Memory
DS Connection
Control Settings
Nintendo Store

My theory is that Nintendo floods the net with fake images so if the real one gets out no one will know which it is.

Revolution Interface [Nintendogal]