Demon Stone rolls out to stores

After the failure of last year's Dungeons & Dragons Heroes, Atari decided to seek expert help for its next console D&D game. It enlisted Stormfront Studios, the developer of Electronic Arts' best-selling The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The result was Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone, a Two Towers-esque action adventure title. Today, the Teen-rated game shipped for the PlayStation 2, and it will retail for $49.99. Xbox and PC versions of the game are due in mid-November.

Demon Stone will let players lead a party of three characters--fighter, sorcerer, and rogue--through the Dungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms universe (also the scene of the Baldur's Gate games). The game begins with the trio accidentally releasing two hellions from a demon stone where the famed wizard Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun (voiced by Patrick Stewart) had imprisoned them. Thus begins a quest to locate a new demon stone and recapture the hellions before they lay waste to the world. To achieve that end, players will indulge in hours of hack-and-slash action infused with role-playing elements outlined in GameSpot's series of Demon Stone previews.