Codies to unveil Race Driver 2 at X03

Codemasters will be on hand at Microsoft's X03 shindig next week to show off Race Driver 2: The Ultimate Racing Simulator, which should be out next year and is described as "a significant gear-change for the award-winning TOCA Race Driver series".

Sticking it into reverse somewhat, it looks like Codemasters is without its TOCA branding this time, as the game is simply Race Driver 2 (except in Germany/Benelux, where it's DTM Race Driver 2, and Australia/New Zealand, where it's V8 Supercars 2), but the game will apparently feature "the most diverse range of motorsports ever seen in one game," which is something.

Apart from news that it will be announced and shown at X03 though, there isn't much to say. After the improved Xbox and PC versions of TOCA Race Driver though, we have high hopes for this one, and it'll be interesting to see whether the developer adopts the same story-driven approach as before, or, given the setting, whether it's an Xbox exclusive this time around.

Apart from Race Driver 2, anybody with an eye on X03 can look forward to Club Football, LMA Manager 2004 and the on-the-verge-of-release-anyway Colin McRae Rally 04. We'll be bringing you our review of Colin's latest exploits in the very near future, along with detailed impressions of Club Football based on some advanced preview code of the Liverpool edition.

Meanwhile, with X03 dates of September 16th and 17th rapidly approaching, the interweb has sprung into life and started guestimating what might be on display. We're pretty sure we already know, of course, but we'll still be on hand to bring you announcements as soon as they're beamed out of Microsoft's French adventure.