Hello again - it's been a while since we've last updated you with the Weekly News, but now we're back from holidays - Christmas and New Year-celebration is over - and ready to give you your daily dosis of PCM news! ;)
Happy New Year! Welcome to the year of 2007 - the year which will bring you two Pro Cycling Manager-titles for the first time ever. Both titles, the PSP-version and the PC-version, will probably be released around June/July.
Therefore, we'll also be very busy this year with updating you on the latest Pro Cycling Manager-news. So, again, Happy New Year! :)
New article published First of all, we've published a new article written by crew member Alex134. The guide helps you through the grand tours, and tells you how you end up being a succesful team manager throughout the grand tours - for example by winning stages and the jerseys. The article can be found in the "Guides"-section.
1.1 version of the Save Game Editor released A new version of the popular Save Game Editor by Jape has been released. It's not revolutionary, but it fixes a small problem with editing contracts. If you didn't have any problems, you can spare yourself the download. For those who had the problem, download the new version here: http://www.pcmdaily.com/downloads.php?cat_id=11&download_id=98
PPDB with new ideas PPDB had set "Around Christmas" as the possible release date for their first PCM2 DB release, but since we're now past that date, a new date has been set - 13th of January as the earliest, meaning that it will definately NOT be released before that date - also, it may not be released on the 13th of January. For the fans - us - we can only hope for a release soon.
There's no doubt, though, that it's really worth waiting for. A new, never tried before-idea has just been revealed. PlakkerNL and the rest of the PPDB-team will change the "Super-Prestige"-ranking into a national ranking, meaning that the DB will be released in many different versions, depending on the nation. For example, a Dutch version will be released which - in addition to the Pro Tour rankings - will have the official Dutch ranking, Topcompetitie. The new idea is still only on the drawing board, but it's likely that it'll be implented in the database.
The DB will contain around 120 teams, more than 300 new stages and a countless number of cyclists.
Cyclocross Manager 2006 - new release date As with the PPDB-project, many are awaiting the innovating project Cyclocross Manager 2006 which completely transforms your road biking game, Pro Cycling Manager, into a new Cyclocross Manager-game. Basically, the upcoming Cyclocross-pack contains new road textures which makes the roads look dirty and "cyclocross"-alike. In addition to that, it contains new stages which are true to the real cyclocross stages, a DB with the real riders and teams. It really looks promising, and we will of course update you when it's released. Originally, it was supposed to be released around New Years Eve, but it has now been delayed to this week, the first week of January.
Danish Championships? As we reported in the Weekly News #2, the Danish Championships are currently under way - but the past 1½ week the site which are in charge of the championships has been down. Today, it saw the light again, but without any content at all. Therefore, the Danish Championships are pretty much impossible to report about this week ;)
Stage Creation Contest 2006 On the 5h of December we reported about the yearly Stage Creation Contest which - if you're really good - can end up with a spot in the official stage creation team. Today, it's the last day to send in your best stage creation.
Andy Schleck will have his breakthrough in 2007 According to our user base, CSC-rider Andy Schleck will have his major breakthrough this year. With 32 % of the votes, he won the first place in front of T-Mobile rider Linus Gerdemann who won 26 % of the votes, and Igor Anton (17%) from Euskaltel.
Last year, Andy Schleck's brother, Frank Schleck had his breakthrough, so if Andy has about the same talent as Frank, it's definately possible that he'll once become a great rider. In 2006 he showed his talent by winning the 3rd and 5th stage of Sachsen Tour and by winning the climber's jersey in the Tour of Britain.
Linus Gerdemann has also definately showed his talent by winning the 7th stage of Tour de Suisse in 2005. Last year, 2006, he ended 7th in the overall classification in the same race - so he's definately worth the votes and also a guy we should keep an eye out for in 2007.
Great Manager 4 Usually, so-called forum games don't survive for too long - but "Great Manager" is now in its 4th year on the Cyanide forum, and still with a high level of activity level. You can now subscribe for the 4th season - you can read more about the game here: http://www.cyanide-studio.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=50492
