Review by Richard Winstone
With yearly release here come Pro Cycling Manager 2019 from Cyanide Studio’s boasting some new updates including new Tour de France stages, a redesigned Pro Cyclist mode, updated UI, improved AI and targeting team system for contracts. With over 600 stages and 200 events what’s not to love.
Well, a lot apparently, looking at the steam reviews for Pro Cycling Manager 2019, it seams again Cyanide Studios have released a game full of bugs, multiple reports of crashing, frame rate drops there list is pretty extensive but overall the review is mixed there are plenty of people who also recommend the game.
I’m a bit of a fan of management games in general, ever since I first played F1 manager back in 2005/6 and fond memories of stealing Ferrari’s wing designs through espionage and the like.
I have even enjoyed a few football manager sims even though I couldn’t find the sport any more boring if possible, (don’t hate me I’m a motorsport fan and I only got time for one great passion in my life).
So with an open mind, I jumped right in and well, I began the career mode and before making a single decision I was greeted with countless tutorial pages, explaining how to micromanage every little detail of my email, yes my email.
This is just the start of the information overload you get bombarded with right from the off, don’t know the difference between a breakaway and the pace, don’t worry this game will break down each individual component in an almost painful level of detail. There is no easy gentile route into Pro Cycling management 2019 your either all in or your not.
So as for accessibility of the game for someone looking for something new, I’m guessing a casual watcher of the sport, you’re going to have to study up and fast if you are ever going to make it.
The UI is very basic in design and the biggest irritation considering your team or if you selected Pro Cyclist mode (you own single rider) you have to sit there and wait for it to simulate all 600 stages regardless if you’re in them or not, not monthly, not even weekly, daily yes Daily on the calendar regardless if you skip forward 3 days or even a month your getting hit with the repeated dulling of the screen as it simulates each event individually. It is infuriating to be quite honest.
And all this before you even get to enter your first event, so you have the usual management options, simulate or take part. If you simulate you appear to be heavily penalized on sponsor objectives ( not once did my pro cyclist or team hit any additional objectives and the finished much further back then when me a complete novice was in control)
Then we get into the 3D Race, you’re not in for a treat the frame rate drop is horrible, random slowing and speeding up of the gameplay as you try and decide to attack, relay and manage your rider/s. (now some might say this is down to my PC I can assure you it’s not my PC spec is significantly higher than the recommended as also seems to be a common complaint in the steam reviews).
To get the most out of the management side you really do need to go through the calendar day by day, looking for updates on injuries, micromanaging your riders’ fitness, looking out for weakness in opposing teams when their rider suffer injuries.
This really is a niche game for true fans of Pro Cycling, it welcomes outsiders with a firm frosty shoulder. The graphics might be pretty but after a few hours of seeing the same badly animated cyclist’s, drift from each side of the road the same dull road surface, the offbeat commentator who seems to be watching a completely different event at times. The lack of mobility for your team to progress from a continental to world championship, yes your frozen and cannot go up any league or division like any other management game (personally I usually accept the challenge of taking the worst team to the top) you just can’t do it here, not sure if this a a sport-specific thing or just a game restriction.
So if you’re a fan read the steam reviews some like the updates, it has some serious bugs (but from my reading that nothing new of the game). If you’re looking for something new, look elsewhere for the fans I would go with the average steam review of 5/10 for the game for everyone else 2/10 because it does kind of work, some of the time.
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