'Diablo 3' Monster Power and Inferno Machine features designed to give players more control over difficulty

Two new features in Diablo 3's upcoming patch – Monster Power and Inferno Machine – are designed to give players across all skill and dedication levels more control over their game's difficulty, reports IGN.

Monster Power allows players to set a monster's power level themselves. Although the battle will be more difficult, the higher the monster's level, the greater the bonuses players will receive in loot drops, experience, and magic find. The feature applies to every difficulty level at Normal and above, including Inferno.

The Inferno Machine feature was made with players who have maxed out the game in mind. The idea is to create a "meta game" for people to enjoy while they grind for loot. Players at level 60 and above can assemble a device using various objects that will help them to defeat more powerful hidden bosses. What those objects are or what the device could be is unknown, with director Jay Wilson telling IGN the fun is in "figuring it out."

Monster Power and Inferno Machine were created to make Diablo 3 appeal to players across all levels and maintain the game's overall audience.

"As the game's been out for awhile now, we're finding players are stratifying into different audiences," designer Wyatt Cheng told IGN. "You've got your player who has 1,000 hours played on their character, they have absolutely amazing gear, and they need more of a challenge. And then you have somebody else who just hit 60 last week for the first time because they've been playing for one or two hours a week since it came out and they've been having a blast but they're just rolling into Inferno now."

Diablo 3 was released in May for PC and Mac. The game's player-versus-player scenarios are currently in development.