Codemasters details 2002 Xbox lineup

Codemasters has announced its lineup of Xbox games for 2002. The company will release Ultimate Blade of Darkness, Pro Race Driver, and the newly announced Mike Tyson Heavyweight Boxing. Ultimate Blade of Darkness, which is a hack-and-slash adventure, is being developed by Rebel Act Studios in Madrid. The game will be released in winter 2002. According to Codemasters, the gameplay in Mike Tyson Heavyweight Boxing will appeal to both hard-core boxing fans and general audiences. It will arrive in April 2002. Pro Race Driver, which has been discussed previously, is the next game in the company's TOCA series. Unlike the previous games in the series, Pro Race Driver will feature a character-based narrative. Pro Race Driver will arrive in Q3 2002.

"With our Xbox titles, we will provide a level of realism significantly higher than on any of the previous platforms," said John Hemingway, development director of Codemasters. "This will be accomplished through the refinement and level of detail in our graphics work, as well as heightened audio, physics, damage modeling, and frame rates. The power of the Xbox enables us to achieve this, and it will make for some of the richest, most exhilarating, and dynamic gaming experiences ever produced by Codemasters."

Of the three games, only Ultimate Blade of Darkness is exclusive to the Xbox console.