Pro Cycling Manager - anyone played it

[craig1985]

I thinking about getting this game, and I'm wondering which team I should play as. I'm thinking Euskaltel, since they have some good riders, but it will still be a challenge, compared to say playing as Garmin or HTC.

 

[Havetts]

Its a good game, I think Season / Campaign is odd to understand at the start. But its nice to play, though sometimes it isnt really wanted to manually race everything, especially sprint stages cause they take so much time without anything exciting even happening..

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

the problem with not racing sprint stages is that often in simulation i see a break holding on or my leader falling. So especially in important races I don't dare simulate sprint stages

 

[Astana1]

The game really shines in campaign mode. If you are a real Type A you can be totally immersed with signing, training and scouting your own riders.

I simulate the TTs, if I have good TTers who are in good form in a given race then they always tend to get what they deserve.

Midway through my second campaign season the team was so dominant that I lost interest in the game altogether.

 

[Astana1]

Its a good game, I think Season / Campaign is odd to understand at the start. But its nice to play, though sometimes it isnt really wanted to manually race everything, especially sprint stages cause they take so much time without anything exciting even happening..

Agreed. The sprint stages are so numerous as well. The last 25 km are always pretty fun though.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

the problem with not racing sprint stages is that often in simulation i see a break holding on or my leader falling. So especially in important races I don't dare simulate sprint stages

ye i once simulated paris, and menchov or gesink (I forget) broke his collarbone and retired in yellow

@Craig if you get the game, I suggest staying clear of the training function.
It is a joke, It made LTD win the giro for me once. Seriously a couple of training sessions can turn a rider from like 73mnt to 80+.. so unrealistic.

Also if you have a quad core you may have trouble. I have had heaps off issues, and as a result am waiting for 11'- it better be programed a little better

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

The game really shines in campaign mode. If you are a real Type A you can be totally immersed with signing, training and scouting your own riders.

I simulate the TTs, if I have good TTers who are in good form in a given race then they always tend to get what they deserve.

Midway through my second campaign season the team was so dominant that I lost interest in the game altogether.

this is another issue, the game seems to easy to dominate. Only difficult aspect can be keeping the team on budget, this is because the game is poorly written with budget aspects tho-very buggy?

I like starting a custom team with youngsters tho.

 

[Astana1]

this is another issue, the game seems to easy to dominate. Only difficult aspect can be keeping the team on budget, this is because the game is poorly written with budget aspects tho-very buggy?

I like starting a custom team with youngsters tho.

I figure that a game pays for itself in enjoyment if you can get 15 or so hours out of it in terms of entertainment. I have absolutely no idea how many hours I played/wasted in this game so I guess it did the job

But you're right, after a certain point the game just isn't dynamic enough to keep going with it.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Well PCM 2010, though nice graphics, has not been worked out well.

I played way more in PCM 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 then in 2010. Here's hoping 2011 will be better

 

[Astana1]

Glad to hear I wasn't the only who had issues with 2010.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Heh, I had tons.

The reason I finally got to play the game is to simply buy a new graphic card.
Even though my other graphic card should have been more than capable of running PCM. But appearently my HD 5770 and PCM didn't match. So I had to buy a geforce GTX 560 instead

 

[Cobblestoned]

Playing 2010 for few weeks now in combination with PCMdaily2011 db.

I must say that I am impressed by the huge step forward in graphics stagedesign. It is even snowing in the mountains - rain turns into snow.

Of course, if you had a few beers you shouldn't play in 3D, or otherwise you puke on table because of all that curves and turns. Perhaps little bit too dynamic some cameras.

Still looking for flaws in gameplay, but regarding that and managerpart, I didn't notice any significant changes.

For careers I mostly start with smaller teams, this time Cofidis, annoying the big teams, and getting invites for the GT. Then in July most interesting part starts with transfers an building the team for 2012.

 

[Cobblestoned]

the problem with not racing sprint stages is that often in simulation i see a break holding on or my leader falling. So especially in important races I don't dare simulate sprint stages

I will never forget the day when Tony Martin took away my yellow jersey in breakaway on one of the last flatstages of TdF (of course the only flatstage I simulated )

Breakaway had 15 minutes with Martin in it.

 

[Tuarts]

The biggest team I've ever played with is Barloworld '07

Much prefer taking a smaller team and trying to challenge with them. Must day though, first thing you should after installing + patching is get a decent database. Vanilla '09 was shocking.

 

[Parrulo]

only thing i dislike about this game is that the distance goes way to fast and the attacking and pace setting options should be better.

for example i think that for the last 10k of a stage the scale of the distance should go back to real scale so you could place yourself and have a leadout and all that at real time. also all mountains should be real scale as well. if its an easy mountain or you don't care about the sprint you can just fast foward.

i also think that there should be more precise orders like for example. when setting up a pace. you should be to select a few domestiques and choose like. "keep brake away at distance", "set a pace that doesn't tires the leader", and stuff like that. a bit more accurate. would go well with the the real scale thing.

you should also be able to auto line up your domestiques from weaker to stronger in a certain field like on a climb organize them from weaker to stronger in mountain skill/form and then the first sets a high pace for a while until he can't keep it and drops and the next guy who is better sets his pace and so on

 

[Havetts]

D_T did you have the option that the AI is passive turned off? If LtD won you the giro thats sick.

But I always have the feeling the AI is somewhat cheating with the red and yellow bars, I've been riding with the Dot mode all day with my 'own created' rider with 80 climbing and the computer has been attacking 3 times already with A Schleck and Evans, and I catch them everytime without wasting much yellow and red yet when I attack they somehow still have 3 times my energy and counter me four times. So I've stopped attacking, I've just rode tempo up to climbs and thats waaaaay better cause no one goes high tempo at the start of the climb and you can create a gap pretty quickly.

Cobble, tell me the 'secret' what is gesinks climbing in 2011 DB ;p?

 

[Armchair cyclist]

My dislike on the more recent version is that each protected rider can only be allocated one domestique. In practice it might not make much difference, but ...

 

[maltiv]

If LtD won you the giro thats sick.

You can win pretty much everything with anyone if you use enough training camps. I managed to win L-B-L, Giro, Vuelta and Worlds TT+ RR in the same season with EBH on extreme, who originally has 72 mountain and 76 hill...

 

[hrotha]

Seriously, exploiting a completely broken feature and then claiming the game is too easy... I mean, I abused training camps in one game with SpiderTech because I thought it was hilarious to simulate a Savio team, but you shouldn't use them if you want a serious game.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

i never use training camps and managed to win the Tour de France on hard with Stijn Devolder (against an in top form contador mind you)..

So, really, the game IS too easy.

 

[Havetts]

Are you sure you've turned Passive AI off? Cause that option would allow me to get 20 minutes with Menchov attacking on the stage to Morzine Avoriaz.. :S

 

[kurtinsc]

With regards to the game being easy to dominate... this is very true. Given 2-3 seasons you will usually end up with an unbeatable team, regardless of how bad your team is to start with.

I generally do custom teams and place some sort of limit on the nationalities of my signings. At times I've done the English language only team (only sign from US, Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada). Other times I do teams limited to only the Americas or just slavic countries. My current team (sponsored by ING) only signs riders from the US and the Netherlands.

 

[sherer]

what I used to hate about it is how it is to attack and get in a break. I used to attack but the other riders who went with me just seemed to be able to attack for twice as long as me and never started to relay and work with me hence I got too tired and dropped back.

Also agree Parrulo about how the team works. Do I really have to work out which on is the strongest and then put him on 82 dot then the next strongest on 80 all down the line. Why not just issue a team order, chase down the break, etc

 

[Havetts]

what I used to hate about it is how it is to attack and get in a break. I used to attack but the other riders who went with me just seemed to be able to attack for twice as long as me and never started to relay and work with me hence I got too tired and dropped back.

I've been wondering about that aswell, it seems either they recuperate alot faster eventhough they have 10 rec. less or they just have a 'bigger / slower emptying' bar.

Also agree Parrulo about how the team works. Do I really have to work out which on is the strongest and then put him on 82 dot then the next strongest on 80 all down the line. Why not just issue a team order, chase down the break, etc

Yep its annoying that you have to get them in order all the time from weakest to strongest, also when sprint teams start chasing, eventhough you are going 85+, the gap drops about 2 minutes its not even normal :S.

 

[kurtinsc]

what I used to hate about it is how it is to attack and get in a break. I used to attack but the other riders who went with me just seemed to be able to attack for twice as long as me and never started to relay and work with me hence I got too tired and dropped back.

Also agree Parrulo about how the team works. Do I really have to work out which on is the strongest and then put him on 82 dot then the next strongest on 80 all down the line. Why not just issue a team order, chase down the break, etc

Not sure what you mean about attacking.

If you are the first to attack... you'll tire out quicker. Those countering your attack will go longer. You don't run into situations very often where you counter another attacker and they keep going while you tire out.

As for working with you... if you are attacking with a marked rider they won't... pretty much like in real life. If at the beginning of a Tour stage Contador or Schleck attacked... those who went with him would never help. Favorites are rarely allowed in the "break of the day".

One interesting thing is finding stages where the peloton lets the break go. I won the Giro with Uran once when on a multiple mountain stage I realized the break was at 15 minutes with 100km left. It was clear the peloton weren't chasing (or maybe they expected my team to... I think my main GC guy was in 5th or 6th). So I attacked with Uran who was 4-5 minutes down on the GC in 10th-13th... and won by 9 minutes. Held on to win with him by 30 seconds or so.... losing bit by bit each stage. Kind of reminded me of last year's Giro in some ways.