Following the warm reception to Icewind Dale, Black Isle Studios has announced a follow-up chapter, to be titled Hearts of Winter. Black Isle, the role-playing division of Interplay Entertainment, plans to expand the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons-based game engine with new spells, monsters, and map areas within the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. "Icewind Dale exceeded all of our expectations, and is another product that Black Isle is proud of," says Feargus rquhart, director of the division. "It truly reminds us of our early days of playing D&D and the expansion pack adds another dimension to this with higher resolution graphics and many new areas to explore."

The expansion set will employ a slightly modified version of the engine used for Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. Experienced players will benefit from the ability to build characters up to the 22nd level and potentially even further. Hearts of Winter will require prior installation of the original Icewind Dale.

PC role-players interested in learning more about Hearts of Winter's play mechanics would do well to check out Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, which Interplay finally released recently. The new sequel continues its predecessor's storyline, picking up along the southern portion of the Sword Coast, in the merchant Kingdom of Amn. Further information on this sequel to one of the most highly acclaimed PC games of all time can be found in RPGamer's Baldur's Gate II preview.