Cyanide has posted a Gameplay FAQ for the upcoming PCM 2007 on there forum. It explains more in depth the added functions like form of the day and observation mode like we have heard about before. It also shows some news about the green and blue bars and other things.
After an exciting Open Bar-event and a top Giro 'd Italia-stage to Zoncolan, relax by reading this week's Weekly News.
More covers revealed The German and Scandinavian editions of the PCM 07/8 cover have been revealed. The German one looks quite a lot like the French one (which I find a little sad), but it does have the German language ;) The Scandinavian is very different and focuses on the CSC-rider, Carlos Sastre, during a mountan stage. Oh, and notice Floyd Landis in the background -- is it good to have a doped rider on the front cover of a cycling game? :P
Click the screenshots to view them in full size.
Create the icon for PCM 2007 The betas still use the old PCM 2006 logo, and now you have the opportunity to create an icon which will represent the 2007 game - both the demo and the final version. The original forum thread about this "contest" is in French, so I don't know the exact details. But you can read all about it here: http://www.cyanide-studio.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=52148 . You can also view the icons which have been made until now.
Good luck!
Beta testing continues With under a month to the release, the 6th and 7th beta was released during this week. And a few days ago the Alpha version was released. Weird thing is that a beta is supposed to be released _after_ an Alpha version, but oh well - doesn't matter much. Fact is that this Alpha version really proves that Cyanide has focused a lot on stabilizating the game and adding the last few things which missed - it now seems quite close to the gold version.
All the translation have also been handed in, and the available languages of the game will be: English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Portuguese, Norwegian ... and even Japanese. I haven't tested if those languages are actually available, but you can choose them ;)
New 3D-objects for PCM 2006 Actually, this is pretty old news, but I simply hadn't noticed it before now. Miya, a Japanese member of the Cyanide forum, has worked on changing some of the 3D-models of the game. This has resulted in a director car being changed into a helicopter which follows the peloton, the helmet being changed into a cap (perfekt for historic databases), and more.
More PSP-screenshots InsideGamer, a Dutch website, has released some more screenshots of the PSP-version at their website. For those who are not used to PSP-graphics, the screenshots might not look too good, but personally, I think they are acceptable for a PSP-game.
PPDB delayed? In the special edition of the Mid-Week News, I said that the PPDB was supposed to be released on that particular day or the following day. That hasn't happened, though, and no new date has been given. Some of the problems PPDB has run into is that they don't have any 2007-editions of the Grand Tours, f.e. the Giro, Tour de France, etc..
Open Bar ended with a scandale After having answered questions for about an hour, the entire Open Bar section was suddenly deleted by a not yet known guy. Some of the answers had been saved by Aroda, but the - until then - succesful event edged out after "the attack".
We at PCM.daily are currently considering organizing a similar event.
Banner implented As I "warned you" last week I would implent a advertisement banner at the top. I also mentioned that it could cause some problems while the "surgery" progressed - and it did. For several minutes, you couldn't even access the site - and for even more minutes, the top bar was pretty messed up. The "surgery" was completed without further complications, though ;)
Now, I just hope you will click the banner once a day. If you do that we will eventually reach our goal - to be able to buy fast, reliable web-space. I have also decided to let you guys know what our goal is - and what we have reached so far. Tihis "feature" have been implented in the Donation-panel below the "Users Online"-panel.
I'm sure you are all well aware about the precedings in the Giro over the past couple of weeks, so I see no need in writing much about it. But just in case youve missed the whole of the Giro here's a brief summary:
Di Luca will win by 2 minutes over the surprise of the Giro Luxembourg Andy Schleck. Saunier Duval controlled the mountains with Piepoli, Simoni, Ricco and Mayo all winning stages. Petacchi is one of the few sprinters remaining and should take an easy victory in the Sprints competition.
Now, onto the other events.
In the ProTour event Volta a Catalunya, Spaniard Vladimir Karpets took overall victory ahead of Michael Rogers and Denis Menchov. Caisse D'epargne won the opening TTT before Mark Cavendish and Allan Davis won mass sprints on Stages 2 and 3. Oscar Sevilla won Stage 4, with Denis Menchov winning the Stage 5 Mountain TT. Stage 6 saw a second win for mark Cavendish and the final stage was won by Samuel Sanchez.
In the FBD Insurance Rás German Tony Martin won despite not winning a stage. Nico Graf won one, Brian Kenneally and Mart Ovajee bagged 2, with Canadian champion Dominique Rollin winning 3.
The Tour of Japan was won by Italian Francesco Masciarelli ahead of 3 Kazakh riders who finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
In Germany, the Bayern Rundfahrt is taking place, André Schulze of Wiesenhof took a surprise win in Stage 1 but could not repeat the feat as Stages 2 + 3 were won by Erik Zabel. Stage 4 was an Individual Time Trial won by Stefan Schumacher, while Frank Schleck reminded us that there are 2 Schleck talents in the peleton, by taking 4th, leaving him 4th Overall.
Vladimir Gusev currently leads this year's Tour of Belgium following victory in yesterday's time trial. He has a 39 second lead over last year's winner - Martin Tjalingii. Today's stage was won by Birthday boy, Robert Gesink. There's nothing like taking your first Professional win on your birthday! Earlier in the week, Walter Weylandt had won Stage 1 and Gorik Gardeyn had taken Stage 2.
Over in USA, officials completely messed up on Stage 1 of the Mount Hodod Classic as they awarded a relatively unknown amateur Devon Vigus, the stage victory for the Time Trial. The real winner was infact Aussie Nathan O'Neill, who currently leads the standings ahead of Phil Zajicek after Stage 4.
Finally, in South Africa David George has won the National Time Trial Championships.
Well, let's just call this some kind of "mid-week" news update.
PPDB to be released today or tomorrow According to PPDB's website, the database will be released later today or tomorrow.
Surprise - management screenshots With today's Open Bar we have been allowed to release the very first management screenshots. These are available in our new Screenshots-category, general PCM07 screenshots - access it by clicking here: http://www.pcmdaily.com/photogallery.php?album_id=8
The final teams list for PCM 2007 Previously, a team list for PCM 07 have been published by the beta-tester Sebduth, but either he forgot some teams or maybe ti was the team list at the time he posted it. In any case, the final team list is not the same as the one Sebduth posted. Also, contrary to what have been reported earlier, Cyanide has not gained licenses for all teams.
See the screenshots below, and click them to see them in full size.
As I mentioned in the Weekly News #24, the "Open Bar"-event will be held at the Cyanide-forums tomorrow at 21:00 (GMT +01). Here you will have the opportunity to ask the beta testers and translaters questions about the upcoming game. The questions will be splitted into five categories: Shirts, Stages, Gameplay, Management and Database. The English and French sections will be seperated - so don't worry about that :)
If you show up in good time, we might also have a small surprise for you. See you tomorrow! :)
