Rusty frames

And with this there are 14. In the year in which the Tour de France will pay homage again to London with the stage of 7 July, destined to end in front of Buckingham Palace, for Pro Cycling Manager the number of springs (and summers) spent always takes on dimensions. most important: it was in fact 2001 when the cycling manager appeared on the market for the first time, never to abandon it again. Since then, Cyanide's fatigue has remained the only representative of its kind, which we could define as a niche within a niche: if it is notoriously true that managerial players do not enjoy the same popularity as first-person shooters, at the same time dedicating a game of this type to cycling remains a rather courageous choice, especially in times like these where the discipline suffers from the distancing of a part of his less loyal fans. A large hard core, however, resists undeterred in following the exploits of the greatest mountain climbers, remaining glued to the television for the most competitions, such as the aforementioned Tour and our Giro d'Italia. With the usual, perfect timing, Pro Cycling Manager 2014 arrived again this year in the highlight of the cycling season: let's find out together what the developers have prepared for us this time.



Pro Cycling Manager 2014 is what all cycling enthusiasts can want, but ... there is a but

For this year, don't change

The central mode of Pro Cycling Manager remains the Career also in this edition, thanks to which you can step into the shoes of the director of one of the numerous teams that make up the international circuit, divided between CYA World Tour, Continental Pro and Continental in a waltz of licenses that it still continues to have some gaps.



Rusty frames

Also due to the absence in cycling of a union similar to FIFPro, present instead in football. While we may therefore enjoy some names that perfectly match their real counterparts, for other cyclists we are forced to deal with the usual name distortion, such as the one that transforms Bradley Wiggins into Waggons and Chris Froome into Vroome; not bad actually, because thanks to the game editor, which has been enhanced since last year, communities of online fans can easily remedy this by offering their own database updates. Those who know the Cyanide series in depth will find few innovations in the remaining modes offered by the game: it is in fact possible to face a single event, or jump into racing on a closed track, Olympics-style, while the multiplayer mode continues to leverage the so-called Armada, based on a card system similar to FIFA's Ultimate Team. In case this is not of your interest, you can also challenge your friends in the Tour mode, drawing from the official teams loaded in the game database.

A question of accessibility

For years, Pro Cycling Manager's Achilles heel has been the lack of effort in bringing those who don't eat bread and pedals closer to this series: the good news is that Cyanide has finally decided to implement a tutorial in Career mode, but the bad one is that unfortunately we are not there yet. In many cases, the guide proposed by the developers ends up leaving the player paradoxically even more uncertain than before, in taking his first steps between menus and various options. Apart from the introduction, in which we are advised to choose one of the strongest teams for our first game (thank you very much!), The elements of the interface remain in fact rather obscure for those unfamiliar with the Pro Cycling Manager series., not to mention the approach to be adopted at the various stages of the season, practically unknown.



Rusty frames

It is therefore time to learn once again firsthand how to properly prepare cyclists for the races to come, fortunately counting on some improvements, both in the interface and in some aspects such as that of transfers. The latter has been revised by Cyanide to be more interesting in the eyes of the player, also subjected to a greater challenge from the CPU to grab the cyclists. Among the other innovations in terms of management, the possibility of making agreements with suppliers of technical equipment stands out, in order to create a real research and development department, thanks to which to create prototypes that can be used to allow your team to make a difference on the track. More or less similar speech also for the 3D race, in which the tutorial enters the field in the same way as described above: in this case, the main help for the players is constituted by the new options that allow you to outline a strategy for each of the cyclists involved in the race, before it begins. Also useful is the possibility of setting the behavior of a single runner to automatic, to ensure that this is managed by artificial intelligence while we are dedicated to providing crucial information (even with several consecutive actions) to one or more of the other members of the race. our team.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

  • The editorial team uses the ASUS CG8250 Personal Computer
  • Processor: Intel Core i7 860 at 2.8 GHz
  • Memory: 8 GB of RAM
  • Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670
  • Operating system: Windows 7 64-bit

Minimum requirements

  • Processore AMD/Intel Dual Core 2.2 GHz
  • 2 GB of RAM
  • 256 MB video card, DirectX 9 compatible and Shaders 3.0 (ATI Radeon X1600 / Intel HD 3000 / NVIDIA GeForce 7600)
  • Windows XP SP3 operating system
  • 11 GB disk space

Recommended Requirements

  • Processore AMD/Intel Dual Core 3.0 GHz
  • 4 GB of RAM
  • 1 GB video card, DirectX 9 and Shaders 3.0 compatible (ATI Radeon HD 6850 / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460)
  • Windows XP SP3 operating system

Bugs, patches and infinite (?) Joy

The release of Pro Cycling Manager 2014 was accompanied by a number of bugs, which in several cases seriously threatened the gaming experience.



Rusty frames

From problems in transfers to inability to advance in Career mode, up to crashes in the loading phases of the stage and in the race with 3D engine, among other things still afflicted by a certain heaviness, which allows maximum performance only on machines equipped of more powerful hardware. Faced with the complaints of the players through the appropriate forums, Cyanide has just recently published the patch 1.2.0.0, intended to fix the main problems encountered within the game, including those mentioned at the beginning of the paragraph. In the additional time we took to test the patch, it seems that indeed the most pressing fixes have been made, but of course the actual presence (or permanence) of bugs can only be assessed as the next few weeks pass, given the complexity of the game .

Comment

Version tested: Patch 1.2.0.0 Digital Delivery: Steam Price: € 39,99 Resources4Gaming.com

7.0

Readers (6)

7.4

Your vote

Evaluating Pro Cycling Manager 2014 is an extremely difficult undertaking. On the one hand we have a game that fans will love again madly, while on the other hand there is a product that limps in some fundamental aspects, which now drag on from year to year. In view of its fifteenth iteration next year, we would like to say that the series is in need of a decisive renewal, especially as regards what makes up the "contour" of the central experience, far too crude. Otherwise, Cyanide's fatigue will always continue to seem like an unfinished work in the eyes of most people, while fully succeeding in the goal of being appreciated by cycling fans.

PRO

  • Some interesting news
  • Great for fans
  • Finally there is a tutorial ...
AGAINST
  • ... but it is still too little
  • 3D graphics still raw
  • There is a need for renovation
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