Recent reviews by bgyuk

If one were to take the most engaging elements of Pro Cycling Manager and Tour de France, we’d have a cycling game that could finally do justice to both the tactical and visceral sides of the sport. Unfortunately, what we have are two games that, frankly, feel like half-hearted attempts at giving fans a complete experience, forcing players to settle for a disjointed rendition of what should be one immersive cycling journey.

With Pro Cycling Manager, you get the deep, spreadsheet-like tactics that emphasise the back-end management and strategic decision-making required to build and sustain a successful cycling team. You manage everything from training schedules to sponsorship and race-day tactics, focusing on long-term success. However, the graphics, user interface, and actual game-play mechanics feel trapped in the past. It’s a strategy game bogged down by outdated visuals and a clunky interface that has seen minimal evolution over the years. The tactical depth is there, but the game's execution feels stuck, with minimal updates between iterations and little done to address player feedback.

On the other hand, Tour de France captures the on-road experience better, allowing players to feel the adrenaline of navigating tight pelotons, managing breakaways, and dealing with the high-stakes moments of the sport. Yet, it suffers from its own setbacks: the graphics, while a slight improvement, still feel below par for modern sports games, and the gameplay mechanics feel more repetitive than rewarding. There’s excitement to be had in controlling a cyclist, but the repetitiveness of button-mashing and the lack of immersive tactics make it feel more like a racing game reskinned for cycling than an authentic simulation. It tries to capture the thrill of racing but loses the broader scope and strategy that define the Tour.

The worst part of this is that Pro Cycling Manager and Tour de France essentially ask players to pay twice for what should be a single, cohesive experience. By splitting up the strategic depth and in-race action across two games, it almost seems as though the developers are intentionally segmenting the experience to milk cycling fans for all they’re worth. Rather than building a robust, all-encompassing title that gives players both the thrill of racing and the satisfaction of strategic team management, the studio has chosen to slice the core of the sport in half, delivering two outdated, incomplete products that fail to elevate the genre or respect the fanbase.

Imagine a game that lets you both manage and race—a game where your meticulously prepared training plans and tactical decisions are put to the test as you control your riders in real-time. A game where you can plan a breakaway and then jump in to experience the tension and exhilaration of leading it. Instead, we’re stuck in a repetitive cycle (pun intended) of half-experiences that only further highlight how much potential is going to waste. With the technology and innovation available today, there’s no reason to settle for these compromises.

What we really should have is Tour de France as the cyclist career mode within Pro Cycling Manager. Instead of locking players into a season that doesn’t include the Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a España, or any real progression, an integrated career mode would give us the experience of a full pro cycling career. In this combined game, Tour de France wouldn’t just be a standalone racing game but would serve as the ultimate athlete career experience within Pro Cycling Manager. Players could start as rookies, working up through the ranks to face the world’s best cyclists in iconic races. They’d have the chance to participate in all the major tours and Spring Classics, with every season offering new goals and growth opportunities in a continuous career arc.

This integration would bring real synergy, allowing players to build a strategic, multi-year training schedule and then jump into specific races to test their skills. Each victory or defeat would feel meaningful, adding depth to the long-term career journey rather than isolated moments of achievement. Every decision, from training plans to contract negotiations, would impact the road ahead, making it a true simulation of a pro cyclist’s life where sacrifices, strategy, and hard work shape every season.

In summary, cycling fans deserve a single, unified game that combines both the depth of Pro Cycling Manager with the immediacy of Tour de France, delivering a title that is finally worthy of the sport’s complexity and excitement. Until the developers realise that, fans are left with two half-games that feel more like cash grabs than genuine passion projects. And in the end, cycling fans deserve better.

If you need to get one, get this. It is worse to play than Tour but at least there is actually a long term game to play.

If one were to take the most engaging elements of Pro Cycling Manager and Tour de France, we’d have a cycling game that could finally do justice to both the tactical and visceral sides of the sport. Unfortunately, what we have are two games that, frankly, feel like half-hearted attempts at giving fans a complete experience, forcing players to settle for a disjointed rendition of what should be one immersive cycling journey.

With Pro Cycling Manager, you get the deep, spreadsheet-like tactics that emphasise the back-end management and strategic decision-making required to build and sustain a successful cycling team. You manage everything from training schedules to sponsorship and race-day tactics, focusing on long-term success. However, the graphics, user interface, and actual game-play mechanics feel trapped in the past. It’s a strategy game bogged down by outdated visuals and a clunky interface that has seen minimal evolution over the years. The tactical depth is there, but the game's execution feels stuck, with minimal updates between iterations and little done to address player feedback.

On the other hand, Tour de France captures the on-road experience better, allowing players to feel the adrenaline of navigating tight pelotons, managing breakaways, and dealing with the high-stakes moments of the sport. Yet, it suffers from its own setbacks: the graphics, while a slight improvement, still feel below par for modern sports games, and the gameplay mechanics feel more repetitive than rewarding. There’s excitement to be had in controlling a cyclist, but the repetitiveness of button-mashing and the lack of immersive tactics make it feel more like a racing game reskinned for cycling than an authentic simulation. It tries to capture the thrill of racing but loses the broader scope and strategy that define the Tour.

The worst part of this is that Pro Cycling Manager and Tour de France essentially ask players to pay twice for what should be a single, cohesive experience. By splitting up the strategic depth and in-race action across two games, it almost seems as though the developers are intentionally segmenting the experience to milk cycling fans for all they’re worth. Rather than building a robust, all-encompassing title that gives players both the thrill of racing and the satisfaction of strategic team management, the studio has chosen to slice the core of the sport in half, delivering two outdated, incomplete products that fail to elevate the genre or respect the fanbase.

Imagine a game that lets you both manage and race—a game where your meticulously prepared training plans and tactical decisions are put to the test as you control your riders in real-time. A game where you can plan a breakaway and then jump in to experience the tension and exhilaration of leading it. Instead, we’re stuck in a repetitive cycle (pun intended) of half-experiences that only further highlight how much potential is going to waste. With the technology and innovation available today, there’s no reason to settle for these compromises.

What we really should have is Tour de France as the cyclist career mode within Pro Cycling Manager. Instead of locking players into a season that doesn’t include the Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a España, or any real progression, an integrated career mode would give us the experience of a full pro cycling career. In this combined game, Tour de France wouldn’t just be a standalone racing game but would serve as the ultimate athlete career experience within Pro Cycling Manager. Players could start as rookies, working up through the ranks to face the world’s best cyclists in iconic races. They’d have the chance to participate in all the major tours and Spring Classics, with every season offering new goals and growth opportunities in a continuous career arc.

This integration would bring real synergy, allowing players to build a strategic, multi-year training schedule and then jump into specific races to test their skills. Each victory or defeat would feel meaningful, adding depth to the long-term career journey rather than isolated moments of achievement. Every decision, from training plans to contract negotiations, would impact the road ahead, making it a true simulation of a pro cyclist’s life where sacrifices, strategy, and hard work shape every season.

In summary, cycling fans deserve a single, unified game that combines both the depth of Pro Cycling Manager with the immediacy of Tour de France, delivering a title that is finally worthy of the sport’s complexity and excitement. Until the developers realise that, fans are left with two half-games that feel more like cash grabs than genuine passion projects. And in the end, cycling fans deserve better.

This game certainly has potential, but it suffers from trying to do too many things at once, and most of them are executed only averagely at best. The core focus of the game, the Battle of the Atlantic, is disappointingly lacklustre. To make matters worse, the game is cluttered with what are essentially mini side games—building farms, managing factories, controlling intelligence, and building and commanding an air force—all of which are poorly executed and ultimately unenjoyable.

The reason for these side games is clear: the Battle of the Atlantic segment is weak and quickly becomes monotonous, so these additional elements are there to keep you entertained. Unfortunately, they fail to do so effectively.

When it comes to the Atlantic part, there is a glaring disconnect between the world map and the actual battles. If this were fixed, the world map would be far more engaging, as your strategic decisions there would directly influence the outcomes of the battles. Imagine a scenario like the hunt for the Bismarck—deploying your fleet, covering escape channels, and controlling the timing and angle of engagement. None of that is effectively implemented in this game. No matter how meticulously you prepare on the world map, all that effort is lost when you enter the battle. For instance, even if you tactically set up an encounter to have the enemy crossing your T, you still start the battle facing each other from a static position, which is utterly nonsensical.

The battles themselves are plagued by absurd accuracy and range mechanics, meaning that if you have even a slightly longer range, the battles become trivial. The game is so easy that even on the hardest difficulty, the AI is so incompetent that you can win with ease, even on your first playthrough.

Then there are the tech trees, which are about as historically accurate as "Braveheart," and an intelligence service that seems as sharp as Forrest Gump, but without the charm or entertainment value.

Honestly, I could go on and on, but none of it would be positive. The bottom line is that the developers have tried to cram far too much into this game because the core aspect, the Battle of the Atlantic, is not handled effectively. The game should be about the Battle of the Atlantic—just as you wouldn’t buy DCS to build farms and factories, you shouldn’t have to deal with these distractions here. This game should be about ships, plain and simple.


**** EDIT, is seems some of these issues are fixed in the update, like the starting positions for fleets. I will give the game a play after a couple more updates and update my review accordingly.

This is a beta at best. For now it is far better to update and use one of the previous versions. When things make no sense, for example, the green (stamina) bar drops like a brick. There is no manual, still "under construction" (I JUST PAID £35 for this FFS!!!) so there is no explanation why it is dropping. It must of course be their "new system", as I have played other versions extensively without such issues. Anyway, as you all know, no green bar mean no chance in stage races.

So, I did a wee test, I used PCM to edit the database, I am now all 80s with a fitness of 94% up against riders in high 70s with fitnesses of 86%. I start the stage with a higher green, by the end of the stage the green has dropped off and they are dropping me! I didn't attack once, I stayed at the back of my team chain, defended the whole way... yet dropped. What was even crazier is the rider who dropped me attacked, blew up, then REGAINED his energy and attacked again lol. If this is not a bug, it is the WORST ILLOGICAL system ever, and the new system SUCKS!

Excellent. Captures everything about the movies and a loads of fun to play. I just wish it had more long term play options. Hopefully more campaigns will be in future DLC.

I keep waiting for a game to reach the heights of the classic Gangster’s Organised Crime (GOC). While this game isn't terrible, sadly it also isn't game to take us back to the heights of GOC. This has potential but it’s basically just a trading game. Other than the fact you collect protection money, and can see the area you control, you may as well be playing shop manager.

With GOC, you feel like you are playing the boss of an outfit, with this you not only feel like you are running a shop, but you have to the day to day chores of running the bloody thing. I don’t mind the running about hustling at the start but once you have a crew the system for automating this away is dreadful, as ultimately you still have to micromanage the whole thing. WTF is the point in having hoods who have developed great organisation skills if you still have to micromanage everything. It should be a case of… Here is 5k, now bugger of and get this all running for me.

I don’t want to be pissing about with picking up apples because someone messed up their delivery and doesn’t have the gumption to go back and buy more. I don’t want to have to overcome the challenge of having to source stupid crap like bottles, it’s a bloody bottle FFS, not a nuke.

In GOC you told your hood what to do for the week, and they went away and did it. You could see it all play out and real time; and intervene if need be. They followed orders and acted on their own, sometimes things went well, other times they didn’t, and then you dealt with things. The shootouts were amazing, in this is a 2D screen-over. Yep, one of the most exciting things about these games, reduced to a 2D screen, Jesus.

Of course, the cynic in me thinks he knows exactly why this is. It’s an engine developed game (looks like Unity to me) and no one on the team knows how to programme AI, which seems evident through out the game, hence the need to micromanage everything. Maybe I am wrong, and the next update will transform the game into more than just shop manager, but until this time it’s a no for me, and back to GOC.

10/10