Gen Con 2001: Pool of Radiance update

We stopped by Ubi Soft's booth at the Gen Con game convention in Milwaukee today and got a look at a new build of Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. We've been informed that the game is in fact feature-complete--including the game's cinematic cutscenes, its large array of items and weapons, and all its magic spells--and that it's now in rigorous QA testing to iron out any imbalances or bugs. Pool of Radiance's colorful 3D character models have apparently been updated slightly from the build we received some months ago, and they look so good in motion that it's difficult to see that the game's animation is actually hand-drawn, not motion-captured. All the game's spell effects, which use lighting and transparencies liberally, have also been implemented into the new build.

Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor has had a somewhat rocky development cycle. It was originally going to be published by Mattel Interactive, a company that was bought out and converted to Game Studios, then later acquired by French publisher Ubi Soft. But all the publishing issues have finally settled down, and the game seems on track for its projected release in September 2001. For more information on Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor, see our previous coverage of the game.