As we mentioned a couple of days ago, Cyanide was (and still is) working on their free-to-play game Cycling Manager Online. Today, the beta opened, and unlike Cycling Manager Online: Tour de France, everyone are free to register. First come, first serve, though.
With a completely new graphic engine in PCM10, Cyanide has apparently felt the need to optimisize their Stage Editor which has pretty much remained unchanged for several years.
In a post on on the Cyanide forum, Cyanide presents some of the new features of the editor. I'm not much of a stage maker, so I'm not fully aware of what's huge changes and what's not. But based on the reactions so far, the new stage editor is a step forward.
Anyway, in short, the new features seem to be a higher grade of control. If you want to move the finish line, move it. If you want to move a specific house, you can do so. If you want to make your very own turn design, that's possible too.
And for the non stage makers? Well, there's a couple of screenshots of the stage editor in action - and although they aren't all that interesting, they are, after all, screenshots of PCM10 ;)
PCM.daily's 2009 DB + 2010 Transfer Update released
As announced yesterday, it's about time to release the final version of our 2009 DB. For those who didn't try out the beta version, it's worth mentioning the main features again: It contains 101 teams, a completely new list of free agents, 93 new races, even more equipment, and more.
We've also been working on a couple of new things compared to the Expansion Pack. E.g., you'll find 10 new scouting zones, a new time gap system, a few new variants, including some for national championships (meaning that you don't get the same 'kind' of champion each year), and a doping injury that are used for convicted dopers. This means that riders who've been banned for doping return to racing in PCM whenever their doping ban runs out - just like in real life.
But more importantly, we also promised you a surprise. We are aware of the fact that many of you can't wait to try out the new Pro Tour teams of 2010, Team RadioShack and Team Sky. So, we've included a very early version of our 2010 DB, including those two teams. We've updated the national and world champions to 2009, deleted the disbanding teams and removed the retired riders - other than that, it's identical to the 2009 DB (which is also why you can call it a "very early" version). So, even though it's highly unrealistic, I'm sure some of you will find it fun to play with.
As some of you may also have noticed, it's impossible to play track mode using our DB. So, we've included a seperate Track DB including 100 track riders with differentiated stats. This means that you get 3 databases with this pack.
And now, it's time to enjoy them. Below, you'll find a few useful links. Enjoy!
A week ago, we released a Public Beta of our 2009 DB. During yesterday and today, we've been working on correcting the bugs that you've pointed out. Luckily for us, pretty much everything that have been reported have been rather minor. For the same reason, we feel that it's about time to release the Final DB.
The Final DB won't contain much new (except for bug fixes, of course). We've added some missing rider photos, updated a few helmets and added Miya's great looking Champs Elysees with the tunnel, Eiffel Tower, etc. But in addition to this, we have a surprise coming up too.
Anyway, the file has actually been packed and is ready for uploading. We'll save that for tomorrow (= later today, my time), though ;) Expect the DB to be released around noon.
During the Tour de France, many of you participated in Tour de France Online, a browser-based management game made by Cyanide. A few of you later participated in the Vuelta - and now, they've presented another game: Cycling Manager Online, a full-season game where you will be able to control a squad of 14 riders during an entire season.
The game is, of course, quite similar (in concept) to the two previous games, but there are a few very notable changes. First of all, the skill tree part of the game has been replaced with a totally new rider progression part. Secondly, fitness has also been implented to the game and looks quite a lot like the fitness system in PCM. And thirdly, a thing that I like a lot, is that the game is no longer league-based. It's everyone vs. everyone in a hard battle for the 1st place.
As with the other games, it will be free to play, although there will probably be several extra features that you can buy.
The game will soon go beta where 2.000 players will be invited to participate. There will be a few prizes for the top players. We'll of course keep you noticed about the beta version.
