Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor is being planned for a Q3 2001 release. The game, being developed by Stormfront Studios and SSI, and published by Ubi Soft, is based off of one of the early SSI Gold Box D&D games for PC. Set in the Forgotten Realms universe, the game chronicles the adventures of a party out to discover a new source of evil that threatens the lands.

Pool of Radiance will be the first Dungeons and Dragons PC game to fully implement the new 3rd edition ruleset, which adds new character types and monsters, and balances some of the flaws with the widely used 2nd edition. The game also features an entirely new game engine, with adjustable camera angles, gigantic character models, and well animated creatures.

A playable demo was on display at the E3 show, with several different scenarios available to play. The interface was highly transparent, with status bars and menus isolated to small corners of the screen. Interaction with the environment was simple, with a few mouse clicks controlling virtually everything. When more complex interactions were necessary, a simple right-click brought up the appropriate menu.

The graphics were very impressive - the large characters and huge monsters are well animated. The environments and maps are very well done, and spell effects look incredible. There's no lack of eye candy here, which never detracts from a game.

While it's too early to judge the plot and overall feel of the game, it looks like PC RPG fans have quite a lot to look forward to this fall.