So I haven't played PCM since about 10-11 years ago.
I bought PCM 23 and I kinda like the game and I really want to play it, I put already about 150h into PCM 23, but at the same time it's also sometimes so frustrating that I want to break my computer. So I'll just vent a little.
Unlike in PCM 12 or 13 (I don't remember which one I played before), it's almost impossible to build a sprint train longer than 3 guys, because your last 2 guys will almost certainly get separated and have no chance to even do a good sprint, and your main sprinter will get separated every time, pretty much. I remember having fun building long sprint trains, but now it's more like sadomasochism.
And even though I already played over 150h in PCM I haven't played long Grand Tours yet, maybe it's better there. I just play Continental teams and try to move up, but the game just keeps making me restart the save game in frustration. Because god forbid you're holding GC jersey in a 2-8 stage tour. You just have to hope that there wont be a breakaway with 10-15 people. You will work all your guys to death, except the leader, and obviously the breakaway will still get a big win. And all the other teams without a rider in the breakaway will just sit and watch and do nothing, even if their main guys are only a couple of seconds behind in GC and actually have a good shot to fight for 1st in GC if only they helped to pull the breakaway back in. But no, once human player is leader in GC, it becomes all AI teams vs the player, and then a bunch of some absolutely random guys climb 80 spots in GC for a win. Well congratulations AI, now I only keep the points jersey and some stage wins and podiums, and you made some random guy, that has absolutely no entries in his palmares before or since, a GC winner in a tour.
Inoticed the same issues mainly in grand tour, and mostly during hill/mountain stage! I played mainly in procyclist mode and I must say I'm utterly annoyed with the all AI against player aspect. From the moment your are in the favourites list of the race, the AI will do nothing but just let you do all work on the breakaway, and possibly gang up if your GC guy is in difficutly (crash etc). I've seen randoms (Houle, Gesbert, Champousin) winning queen stages from the breakaway with 10+ min just because no team would ride expect mine. nothing to say they hand up higher in the GC classification then GC rider like Kuss, Bernal etc... It is a STUPID system, and the AI really needs a major rework and i've now quitted the game for good for this reason!
