Karack 2009's Database v3. The ”3” stands for three times the absolutely horrible thing that happened here.
Today's review is sponsored by Doddy13 who called me a god and made me very happy. Unlike some of the haters around here, he kept faith in me and this is the result. Go hug Doddy if you see him posting.
Some times in the history of the Cycling Manager games, some clever men have found out to open these .cdb files which contains all sorts of very good stuff. Some of these clever men have made the games better than we could dream off. They have done impossible feats of brilliance and sheer greatness.
The man named Karack is not one of these.
The database im about to review is just plain horrible.
Lets start with the cold hard facts: Its a 2009 DB made in September 2008. Already here we see a clear disconnect between good ideas and good databases made. Im not going to comment on the fact its not been updated since Ivan Basso was suspended, because that would just take focus away from the problem within: The Continental Tour.
It appears that no work at all have been done on giving the teams the correct names. My favourite is Garmin – Chipote: It got some interesting riders such as Martijn Miaskant (Maaskant), Ryder Hosjedal (Hesjedal), Trent Lewe (Lowe) and Steven Cizza (Steve Cozza with the handlebar moustache).
It doesnt stop with the with the americans, the portuguese have been mocked too: both LA MISS and Binfici are here and the poor nation of Austria had its only (good) professional team: the Alk Haus - Semplon team left unlicensed too. But its a good sign though: It shows that Karack took the original Cyanide DB and worked from there instead of the better 2008 DB's out there (The Plus Package). It also shows that he's not too smart: the very non-existant Team Ergomo is in. Whats odd is that he actually did rename some Continental riders and teams, but clearly didnt even bother making the rest work. And oh yeah: I doubt he have changed any stats AT ALL.
Scoring:
Im going to compare it to its twin-brother in stupidity: The Bouri 2008 DB which was a 2008 DB released before it was a good idea.
Stats: Bouri shamelessly ripped off Dankan's stats from the PCM-Spain 2007 pack. Karack just used the stats Cyanide provided him. Advantage Bouri.
Graphics: I dont know. I couldnt be bothered to go any further than the team selection screen in both cases. Still 1-0 for Bouri.
Size of the download: Karack just had a .CDB file. So was Bouri's. But the Bouri one was actually bigger. Advantage Bouri and 2-0.
Amount of life wasted making a review: Bouri's DB took 92 minutes from download to posted. This is going to take longer. Advantage Bouri and 3-0.
Random Number Generator: Best out of 101:
The random number generator at random.org was used to generate 101 random 1s and 2s. The Bouri DB was assigned one and the Karack was assigned two.
Result: 45-56 – Advantage Karack and its now 3-1.
Magic 8-ball:
Question: ”Is Karack's 2009 DB better than Bouri's 2008 DB?”
Answer: It is decidedly so (yes)
Final scores: 3½-2½. The Karack 2009 v3 DB is actually worse than the Bouri 2008 DB. |
