Pro Cycling Manager 2007

[jenmer1 0]

Presentation:

 

Offering a brilliant combination of sports simulation and management, the Cycling Manager series presents a series of versions that continue to set the standard for sports video games.

 

Pro Cycling Manager/Tour de France 2007 gives you an opportunity to compete in the greatest international cycling competitions. In charge of one of 60 official teams available in the game, you control your team?s tactics and strategies for 180 real-time 3D races. As directeur sportif [DS], you are also be responsible for managing your team, signing contracts, equipment, transfers, scheduling, training, and everything else that makes up a working day for a pro team manager.

 

The accurately represented Tour de France, with its intensity-filled stages, its electric mood in the mountains, its massive sprints, and its breakaways, forms one of the highlights of the game.

 

The Cyanide team outdid itself to offer you an edition that is rich in innovations and enhancements to immerse the player deeper and deeper into the realism.

 

In its management piece, the well-known career mode has been updated with a new, much more intuitive interface, a new transfer system, a new simulation engine, new features for recruiters? as many elements mirroring the actual pro competition organisation so as to put you in the shoes of a real team manager.

In its real-time simulation portion, Pro Cycling Manager 2007?s gameplay becomes even more polished and refined. It offers new racing possibilities and improved Artificial Intelligence to create more diverse behaviour for a realistic gaming experience. Combined with graphical effects and gameplay animations using new shaders, shadowing systems, and new textures, this new edition further intensifies the feeling of being immersed, putting the player into the heart of the action.

 

Strenghts:

 

-> You participate in the true Tour de France 2007 and take part in all of the season?s big competitions.

 

-> An updated and improved database! More than 1500 cyclists, 180 races (Tours or traditional), and 520 stages.

 

-> Realistic management of a cyclist manager?s career. Gain experience throughout years and competitions, manage aspects of human relationships, training, finances, etc.

 

-> Direct the largest professional teams. A total of 61 official teams are available (Rabobank, Quickstep, Discovery Channel, CSC, etc.).

 

-> New gameplay possibilities reinforce the tactical aspect of the races with the introduction of the ?observe? mode, Gruppetto, etc.

 

-> The Artificial Intelligence of competitors is improved so as to offer behaviours that vary by objectives, situations, and needs. Get ready for even more competition this year!

 

-> Includes a race editor to create and modify your own 3D stages.

 

-> Playable in single-player and/or multi-player, up to 20 players over the Internet or a LAN: Simple Race mode, Tour mode, and Season mode.

 

 

Technical section:

Graphically, Pro Cycling Manager improves with each version, a true challenge for Cyanide Studio. This year marks a new, detailed lighting and shadowing system. The routes, vegetation, and mountains have been updated to more closely match the various geographical typologies encountered along the actual races. Add to that the improvements made to the 3D objects (spectators, bikes, cars, etc.), and the result has never been so beautiful and realistic. Although the studio?s constraints are sizable, the playable real-time stages are in fact produced on about a 1/10 scale and present an area of up to 400 km? for some stages, compared to the World of Warcraft world of "only" 200 km?, which uses streaming to load the different areas of the game.

 

Cyanide made the technical decision to allow the player to pass from one racer to another in real time, as on a televised broadcast, no matter how much distance is between them. We then instantaneously go to a group of racers breaking away from the stragglers, who may be located tens of kilometres from there (consequently, with very different landscape, racers, and environment textures). This strengthens the player?s immersion and makes it easier to make strategic decisions during a race. However, this drains the system resources incredibly, particularly for any stage including 200 racers, more than 20 different teams, special jerseys, 40,000 (animated 3D) spectators, and roughly 2 million trees, requiring Cyandide to be truly creative to be able to reconcile this technical challenge with the graphics.

 

Management:

 

Pro Cycling Manager / Tour de France 2007 invites you to direct one of 60 official teams during one season, bursting with more than 180 international competitions. You experience the day-to-day life of a sports manager and thereby participate in developing race tactics and strategies as well as in managing your team (transfers, contracts, training, media, equipment, etc).

 

To optimise your comfort within the management portion of game, the career mode interface has been completely redesigned. The directeurs sportifs will therefore discover a new navigation system that is simpler, more ergonomic, and more instinctive to use.

 

There is also a new transfer system. It was completely re-examined, cutting the season into three phases (3 in total) in order to avoid downtime. The new transfer period now takes place in between seasons and thus creates gameplay even when there is no race.

 

The virtual manager will have to face a much more competitive and aggressive AI (Artificial Intelligence) on the transfer market, which will lead to fierce battles to get the desired cyclist. The player will have to make his choices carefully and behave like a sports management professional, as it will be necessary to manage increasingly more complex human relationships in terms of the racers? motivations, the leaders? requirements, and the new budget system, which covers salaries, transfers, transportation, etc.

 

Finally, you must develop a strategy for each of the races by assigning a position (leader, team-mate, sprinter, etc.) to each of your racers. These positions play a crucial role because they affect the motivation of the racers and allow certain race tactics to play out (breakaway, economisation, working for the leader, etc.). The player is then notified on the results page of the effectiveness of their choices, allowing them to adjust or rethink their race strategy to reach the highest spot on the podium.

 

Simulation:

 

Pro Cycling Manager is not just about its management piece. It allows us to fully experience the intensity of the races through its real-time simulation mode. It is up to you to implement the best strategies through a panel of complete tactics options (managing the efforts of your racers, replenishments, attack phases, leader protection, competitor monitoring, etc.) and involve yourself completely with your racers according to the situation in order to gain the victory.

 

In-race gameplay has also been improved by the introduction of a day-by-day system to allow grace periods for racers, depending upon them and their assigned positions. By the effort each racer puts forth, this in-race information makes it possible to build noticeable suspense, as it could tip the balance for a stage.

 

There is also a new transfer system: ?observe?. This makes it possible to gather necessary information about the quality of a racer?s participation by the level of observation obtained on a scale from 1 to 5. You can?t attack or defend yourself during observation, but the player can always click to react to the observed racer?s attack while launching a counter-attack, but beware? A racer can observe only one opponent at a time, and the others are then able to surprise you. If you consider the many improvements to the racers? AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the tactical richness within races, Pro Cycling Manager / Tour de France 2007 places you at the heart of professional cycling to experience the many highlights and great intensity of the 2007 season.

 

 

 

Does anyone plays it?

[ethergeek 0]

I'm sorry...I've watched the TDF on tv and I was bored out of my mind. I really can't see this game being any fun at all...unless it has that Phil Liggett guy narrating everything...he had his moments.

[trinifawk 0]

Wow. I've never heard of this game before, but it seems like you would have to be a real cycling buff to want to get this. I visited their website at http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ and it seems pretty cool.

One thing that might indicate the success or popularity of this game, is the lack of console platforms for it to be played on. It's available for the Playstation Portable PSP and also for the PC. Their online forums seem pretty cool and you can go there to discuss the game and strategy, etc.

If you go on this location, http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ you can download a playable demo of it. My computer doesn't have the requirements to be able to play it, but since I'm getting into cycling (gonna get my first road bike as soon as I can) I'll definitely check out the game.

I love sports games!

Best,
Trinifawk