As promised, it's now possible to buy Pro Cycling Manager 2011 through a special PCM.daily link and support the site at the same time.

We have made a deal similar to last year's which means that when you buy the game through one of the PCM.daily links, a part of your money will go to PCM.daily rather than Focus. So you pay the same, but we get a share of the revenue.

The banners are already up on the frontpage and in the forum, and there's also a link the left menu. This one directs you to the buying page for your country, but as several of you have noticed, it may be a good idea to change the country in the right-hand corner as that may mean a lower price. If you do change it, the PCM.daily referral is removed. For example:

If I open the link, I'm directed to http://eu-focushop.gamesplanet.com/shop/pro-cycling-manager-tour-de-france-2011?affiliate=PCMDAILY.
If I change to US, the address changes to http://us-focushop.gamesplanet.com/shop/pro-cycling-manager-tour-de-france-2011/, which does not have the affliate tag by the end of the address - meaning that you're not supporting PCM.daily. If you remove the last / and add ?affiliate=PCMDAILY to the address, it will work properly, though.

Otherwise, use these links: EU || UK || US || France || Germany || Italy || Spain

All the money go to paying the costs of running the site. We got close to covering 100 % of the costs last year, so to all of those who bought the game through PCM.daily last year: If I haven't already said it - thank you!

And to those buying the game through PCM.daily this year: Thanks a lot in advance.

Thanks to the Italian distributor of PCM11, Halifax, and the Italian fansite Cycling-Manager.eu, we have five new screenshots of PCM11 that may kill at least two minutes of the wait until the official release on the 23rd.

There's not a whole lot to say about the screenshots, but feel free to have a look anyway.

As you are all probably aware of by now, PCM11 comes with a feature that makes it possible for sponsors to withdraw and for new sponsors to step in. This also means that the game has to have a large selection of fantasy shirts.

PCM11 comes with a lot, but these are all with fictional company names. In the PCM.daily DB, we will replace the fictional with real company names - and for that purpose, we need a lot of fantasy shirts. These already exist, but logos and transferts for them do not.

Therefore, we need some graphic artists who are capable of making team logos and transferts for fantasy shirts. If you're interested in helping out, send me a PM, and I'll add you to a special forum where the work is being divided between the graphic artists.

Thanks a lot for your help (once again!).

A week before the official release, JanUllrich06 from the German forum has released the very first real name database for Pro Cycling Manager 2011. The database fixes the names of riders, teams and races, but it's still wrong in a few areas, e.g. the palmares.

It's a great start for those who already have the game, though. And if you do, get the DB from PCM.daily's download section.

If you don't? Well, get it anyway and load it up with the Full Editor, PCM Fast Editor or Lachi's Editor. Complaining about the stats is always a fun thing to do.

German shops don't really care much about release dates. When they have a game in stock, it's sold - it's as simple as that. At least it appears like that. For the 2nd year in row, German shops have sold the game before the official release date, and while that may not please Focus/Cyanide, there's several benefits for those of us still waiting.

One is the screenshots. The official screenshots are all of the 3D race, and even though the management part hasn't changed a lot, it would have been nice to see the new colours in action. Thanks to the Germans, that's now possible. We've uploaded a lot of screenshots showcasing the main changes which can be seen here. We didn't bother uploading all of them (since most screens are of features that have not been changed), but if you like, you can get the complete pack of screens here.

Lastly, a tiny bit of official news: A British cover has appeared in some shops which is quite surprising considering the fact that Britain has never had a copy for itself before. You can see the cover here.