Pro Cycling Manager 2018

its v good

This game is difficult enough to enjoy but not infuriate.

I've played a few previous versions of this game, and it seems this one is just way more complicated to navigate around. Maybe you think I'm just dumb, but I really don't have the patience to sit here trying to figure out all the ridiculous training and scheduling features for a game that is basically dull. I just learned it is possible to get to a race, and not have any riders registered, how did it happen? IDK....

Bought this game out of curiosity, there are two new versions by now. But I went for the cheapest option to get a feel for the game.

I really dig the management aspects and the progression you can make as a young pro rider.

But the race engine well ... To be honest so far (after 20+ races) it's been disappointing. It's always the same, small group sprints away from the start. But the breakaway NEVER lasts, the peleton always catches up and the best placed riders with some energy left eventually win the race. It gets worse in the mountain stages, where there is no form of cooperation, team AI does not care , does not help each other. It's basically survival of the fittest.

So as a management game it probably is OK, but the races are not very realistic imo. I will eventually check out the 2020 version of this game(but not at full price) because maybe it's more of the same....

Gonna be a neutral for me.

A very enjoyable game for me. Has kept me occupied for hours. My only criticism is that it freezes during 3-D race mode, often within 10kms of the finish line. I find this somewhat frustrating. All in all however, it's my favourite game in my library.

Last version i played was 2015. 3 years later there have only been a few improvements.
The UI is definitly better, but i still wouldn't call it good. It's still difficult to find certain things. During the race it would be interesting to have option to zoom on the terrain map as you get further into the race or find info about riders who are not part of your team easier.
The most annoying however is definitly the crashes and injuries.
I understand that there is amount of bad luck you can have, just like in the real world. If i however see my Pro Rider's season be ruined by injury 2 seasons in a row, each time it being his first fall of the season, each time i was riding in the very front of the peleton trying to avoid crashing!! then something is wrong with the game. Especially since i allready had put the "crashing frequency on x0.5 before i started the game. So can't imagine what happens when you put it on x1 how it's supposed to be. You can change it, so i put it on x0,0 now off course, but i feel the whole experience of making my young rider progress is now ruined in my first time of trying it. Definitly not a good experience. Whole squad crash or whole peleton crash, and only you are injured.
Then there are also the bugs like not being able to release staff because the game thinks they are always in a race. The strategy screen sometimes stays blank before a race so you cannot see or change the tactic. Not buying PCM for another 3 years.

The game could really be fun, but in my case it is hardly playable (the only game ever my computer had problems with). The game regularly freezes a few kilometers before the finishing line, sometimes reproducable, so that I have to choose "quick simulation" to be able to proceed. It's a shame and I won't spend my money on a Cyanide-product again.

I am fan of series since CyM 3 - year 2003. I was hoping that these negative comments are exaggerated. But they are not. PCM 2018 is still buggy as games 10 years ago was.

Played this for a few hours now and had a blast so far. Totally immersive if you love cycling and some great mods available. It’s the first version of the game I’ve played so can’t really advise either way if you already have 17. But anyone who likes cycling should be getting this. Only slight issue so far is it seems a little easy, especially the levelling up in pro cyclist mode. It’s tough to win races at the start at least and it was a real buzz when I got that first win. Few graphical bugs here and there but no crashes thus far. Strong recommend from me.

I only paid € 11,99 and still requested a refund:
- exact same game
- exact same bugs
- My leader goes to collect water bottles in a mountaing stage

ridiculously low effort from the devs, even by their already non-existing standards. Shame

Ok, long story short, I have played the PCM games since 2005...
13 years, and this will be the last one I buy...

1: they have used the same glitchy and quite dull commentary for 12 editions of this game only piling more glitchy commentary on top a couple of times as certain races got layout changes, not even fixing it's glitches or bugs along the way is unacceptable.
I learned to ignore it along the way, but it has actually gotten worse because they added more on top which didn't make it better at all, just worse and now it has reached a level so low it is no longer acceptable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaw2j6JSB0M

this video shows the 2005 version - at around 3min in the stage starts, listen to the commentary and then recognize he is saying the exact same thing as in every iteration after, but since 2009 it has been the guy we have now, a high strung and quite annoying voice compared to the 2005 version, why oh why did they ever change.

the worst thing about 2014-2018 is that they added a second guy to the big tours and monuments who has some pretty informational lines about the particular race such as Paris- Rubaix... but most often he is mashed together with the high strung annoying standard commentary speaking on top of each other...


2: the game engine is just as old as the commentary so you will relive the same decade old bugs such as

Roads floating over the side off a cliff with spectators floating midair.

Spectators halfway sunk into the ground.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1609852263

Barricades blocking the road - riders going through them as if they were hallucinations.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1609851871

Buildings on the road. - also ghostly
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1729789048

Vehicles on the road - ghostly.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1609849912

Terrain going through the road - also ghostly
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1614739297

the director car is a physics object so riders have to go around it, but on races that have laps, the directors car just stops midlap and stays there so the peleton has an obstacle to go around each lap.

sometimes the riders decide to do a split second u-turn and go through the pack, out the other end, do another U-turn and go back, and it is everyone doing this so you almost have an epileptic shock from the camera and graphics involved.

Now for the bugs introduced in the latest iteration, yeah all that we went through so far has been known for a decade and not fixed!!! ::

When you ask a teammate to go back for a drink you can be sure he will be dropped by the pack and you can try again, I learned from this till I quit from my final grief, you will love it...
I sent 2 riders after water, one 20 seconds after the first one... that usually got the team supplied...

now the last one sounds insane, incredible but I took a screenshot to prove it!

I had spent days on riding my team through a great season, saved up around 240'000 € to start a 10 rider youth development team for a predicted 120'000€ yearly salary and 8000€ hiring costs... I figured having enough money saved up for an extra season would be good in case this season would not be as successful.

broke my game...
Every talent ended up getting a starting salary of 196'000€ per month, yup... all my young talents not even on the first team, earn more than Chris Froome...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1602118325

Buy the 2013 version, it is the last one within the acceptable limits of quality...

Ever since EuroTour, (Pro) Cycling Manager has been the only management simulation game for cycling fans. Graphically the game can compete with games from 2012 at best, gameplay wise it is one of the saddest excuses for a game you can find. Certainly when considering the price Cyanide charges. Every year around May, Cyanide runs out of wine from previously years profits. Hastily an intern is hired to update the team rosters and if they can be bothered, they change the season planning part. This year, Cyanide went so lazy, they simply reverted season planning back to the way it worked in 2016 and left everything the rest of the game pretty much the same. Yeah, they tried to change something in the way cyclists are signed but since that, after 4 months, still is nothing more than a game breaking bug, I'm not counting that until it actually works. Minor bugs that have been in the game for years and years are still there, gameplay hasn't improved at all. It is just shy of being being a criminal offense to ask 40 euro's for a game that is unplayable out-of-the-box. Only after months of patches for game-breaking bugs and the incredible amount of work of a small group of loyal modders, the game becomes somewhat playable just before the release of a 'new' version. Use Google to look for any information from Cyanide about a new release and you'll see they only start some weeks before a release.

In short, the game is only worth playing by reason of being the only game out there for cycling fans. Just don't get the most recent (full priced) version. Since nothing of value is new in this version and bugs haven't been fixed since last year, do yourself a big favour and just get the PCM2017 version for a few bucks. Maybe Cyanide doesn't care and uses its loyal gamers as a cashcow, maybe this game actually is the best they can do. Either way, this game isn't worth more than a tenner, at best. You could even use some of the money you saved to donate to the good people at PCM daily, Worlddb or any of the other modders who have spend way more time on this game than Cyanide does.

If you like cycling, this game is a great simulation. You are the manager and/or can control the riders by yourself if you like. Also you can simulate or just spectate the ai taking over control ( like pure managing).
The ai is pretty good in terms of racing competition, except you are the best team with the strongest riders ofc.

PCM18 cut, copy and paste game is "kind of a joke". And not the good kind either.
The amount of glitches & crashes that are everpresent is astounding.
The game feels clearly rushed and unfinished. Don't buy it ...

I have played PCM 2003 / 2006/2007/2013 and now 2018. I'm very pleased with the game. I wouldn't buy this game every year, due to the small changes, but with some years in between you can clearly see the progession they make. Good job

As much as I wanted to give this game a good review, I have to say there are some things that I consider unacceptable for a game title that has been around for as long as this one.

I only own 2015 in the series before this one and Ive read other reviews of games saying its the exact same game but this one literally is barely different from 2015 if at all, including the things Im about to bring up.

I can deal with a few bushes and tree being in the roadway. Im even ok with being able to see a gap between the road surface and the ground its suppose to be laying on. But come on guys after this long you cant make the game where you ride without running through people, barriers, cars half sunk in the road, gates, building, and half a village of houses? Even road back though a road after a U turn drop.

Really dissappointed to see a copy and paste for apparently alot of years with little graphics improvments and "some" bug fixes. This still isnt the game everyone should got when the first years was released. If your gonna take everyones money every year atleast fix the stuff mentioned above. I doubt it would be that hard to get free beta testers to play the game and find all the crap you guys left in the roads. None of this would be so bad but it seems as though theres not much work put in from the developers in these games once released.

With that being said the game runs smooth for me and seems to be less buggy then 2015, I have yet to get stuck loading a stage or have any type of crash on my 2nd season Pro Cyclist mode. But if you own the game from 2015 (maybe earlier or later) and its working I definetly would not spend you money on this one. The game has improved but I wont say Im happy for the money I spent. If developers run back though the game and fix it up some Ill return to update my review.

A much improved AI in 2018 adds significantly to the realism provided by the game. If you enjoy sports management games you'll probably take a liking to the realistic simulation that plays well with the management side. Two strong modes, career (full team management) and pro cyclist (career path of an individual rider) outshine the other options and offer many hours of playability. Real riders available on the Steam Workshop will make any pro cycling enthusiast want to purchase this game year after year (seven straight for myself). The price point isn't great but worth it for a true fan and well worth it to pick up on a sale for those unsure of the franchise. Has a few bugs, but getting better each year, and the graphics are pretty nice.

I have a lot of trouble understanding the massive amount of negative reviews the game has received so far.

Let's make it clear immediately: there are still bugs, including some glaring issues that you notice in your first hour of gameplay, and some others that have been reported countless times over the last version but are still present. This is nowhere near the quality of some other sports games, right. But we can't decently expect more with the budget, and we can't expect more budget for a cycling game and PCM is an unique and amazing game given the limited tools the developpers have. There are (imo) understandable bad things, and a lot of surprising and very enjoyable good things.

People who say it's identical to the 17 with a 2018 DB are either blind or intentionally misleading others. There are improvements. Numerous ones. The menus are better looking, clearer, the UI has been improved, and there is the welcome return of the calendr for each rider. Promotions/Relegations and transfers have been completely remade to make them more realistic, which should make long carreers a lot better. You can now have 2 specialties and improve your potential with your Pro Cyclist, which gives you a lot more flexibility.
In game, riders are no longer attacking for mountain points 3 kilometers before the sprint, they will now attack a lot later so getting mountain points is now a real challenge (I managed to get the best climber jersey with a pro cyclist with 66 mountain last year, this will hopefully now be impossible). You can no longer attack preemptively to a mid-race sprint, now people would follow you (attacking 3 kilometers before it meant you always won it). Those are two major AI flaws you could easily abuse when you were experienced, I'm glad to see them gone.
The game is also a lot more realistic, with a lot more breakaways consisting of several riders of the same team, which never happened previously.

I barely played (and I watched gameplay videos), and I could already spot all those amazing improvements. This alone convinces me that I made the right decision in supporting a small company that tries its best to give us the best possible game.

Is it massively better than PCM 17 with a 2018 DB? Probably not. If you just want to play the Tour de France, skip it. But it is definitely worth buying if you invested more than 100 hours in the 17, plan to invest several hundreds this year too and enjoy cyclism.

Its basically identical except that there is a change in AI. How much? Who knows. But its enough that it is noticeable. Its basically in how breakaways (harder to get into) and sprints (ai sprints smarter). Is that worth 40 bucks. I suppose to my dim behind it was............................................

Just 40 € update for 2017 PCM? Yes...
I played PCM 2015 and 2017.
But after last year almost nothing changed. Nothing new. Nothing interesting.
I´ve played around 7 hours and the game becomes more and more boring and repetive.
And here are still some ridicolous mistakes like: Tour de Croatia has 6 SAME stages, some idiot still don´t know that the lowest climb category is number 4 and not 1 (becouse some less then 1 kilometers long hills have the first category of mountains sprints, riding through the cars and motorbikes, some stages are still the same (EVEN AFTER THREE YEARS.... SO BORING RIDING ON SAME STAGES FOR MORE THAN THREE YEARS), also the comment is exactly the same...
For me this game is a big disappointment... I could spend my money better...

I can't even get to the main menu because it wont let me create a profile which is apparently a must to even access the main menu. Don't buy this, buy the 2017 version and update it with the database mods. This coming from someone who bought and played the last 5 PCM games...

Not able to launch the game, again a first day fail for cyanide, I guess it's the last one. I'm done with the same problems every year.

Pas possible de jouer, encore une fois cyanide ne sais pas gérer un lancement, chaque année c'est la même chose, ça devient lassant.