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Benelux dominate World Championship in PCM10
The World Championship in Pro Cycling Manager 2010 ended with a new Road Race World Champion: BubbaDJ (Italy).
In the final, which consisted of three stages (one hilly, one time trial, one mountain), Bubba managed to 9 other players, taking 1st ahead of Daniano (Germany) and Andy_Schleck_Frank (France).
The World Championship was in general dominated by the Benelux countries, especially Belgium. Of the team events, Belgium won four out of six events: the 200 meter time trial, keirin, scratch and omnium - and missed out on the Points Race which was won by Germany and the elimination which was won by France.
In the individual track championship, Job1915 (Netherlands) took the 200 m time trial, Stinos94 (Belgium) won the scratch event, Bobja1915 (Netherlands) managed to win both the Elimination and Omnium while Michiel910715 (Belgium) and Jurgendeheld (Belgium) won the two last events, Points Race and Keirin.
Needless to say, Belgium won the Medals Ranking ahead of Netherlands and France.
Since the first details of PCM11 were revealed in a very, very short Q&A back in January, we've pretty much been left guessing. A few features were revealed by the official screenshots, thanks to our observant members, and Focus has now decided to reveal all the main changes between PCM10 and PCM11.
Graphics-wise, as we've seen on the screenshots, a lot has been changed in the rider model. You can now see the "individual psysique of each rider" (or at least you have the possibility of "enabling" this). Some new 3D-equipment has been made, and - again, as we've seen - it's coloured in the teams' colours. There's also plenty of stuff for the stage makers, including new terrains and landscape elements.
Speaking of stages -- PCM10 came with way too few stages, but PCM11 increases the number with 65 %.
The gameplay, however, is the most important part of PCM11, so obviously, a lot of work has gone into this too. As mentioned, the riders will no longer pass each other (although it can happen, as Clément Pinget said, just not as often as in previous games), the sprint AI has been revamped, and there's also a change when it comes to the Mountain Jersey AI.
Team sponsors can now change (e.g. Saxo Bank withdraws its sponsorship, is replaced by a new sponsor), and for this feature, there's also added some interaction between the manager and the sponsor. For example, the sponsor can have regional or national priorities that you have to pay attention to.
Lastly, it seems that Cyanide has decided to get rid of its GameCenter client. Instead, you connect through the game - like in CyM2, if anyone remembers that.
Well, it seems that we managed to wake up Focus' marketing department.
They have just released five new screenshots of Pro Cycling Manager 2011 (= the PC game, if anyone's in doubt). The main focus seems to be on the new rider model, so ... well, look at it and enjoy.
It took a few years for the Norwegians to get a homeland rider on the front of the Scandinavian cover - and it now appears that they are going to have to wait at least one more year.
Update: We have added a sheet of information about the game to the screenshots section. You can see it right here.
Cyanide's upcoming console game Tour de France 2011 for XBOX and PS3 has not been officially announced by Focus yet, but luckily for them, we're here to help. We've been in contact with a publisher of the game who've kindly provided us with plenty of information about the upcoming titles.
As expected and previously reported, you will be able to play the 21 Tour de France stages - and that's it. The stages are played in a 1:1 scale, but you will only be able to play the most interesting parts of the stages, e.g. mountains, sprints etc. It's being rumoured that some additional content will become available after the release.
You will not be able to make your own rider. Instead, you will take over an existing rider on an existing team - and you will be able to "switch" riders from stage to stage. For example, you may want to control Petacchi on the flat stages and Scarponi in the mountains.
During the stages, you will be able to communicate with your team-mates (like "attack", "help", "get me some water"), and your team director will also make sure to give you information during the race, e.g. time gaps, distance left etc. It's also important to stay friends with the rest of the peloton. It's possible to form alliances, and if you respect your word, you will gain reputation among the rest of the peloton. It's not mentioned how this works out exactly, but I guess we will know later.
Since it's a console game, there will of course also be plenty of achievements to unlock.
The release? We've previously reported the 16th of June as being the release date, but that appears to be the day where the pre-orders begin. PanVision says that they expect the game to be released on the 30th of June in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland).
And lastly -- want to see it in action? We have a video ready for you, but bear in mind that it's an old video with outdated graphics. The game is said to have progressed a lot since then. (Edit: We decided to remove the video on request from Focus/Panvision)
