 Last year, PCM.daily announced on its birthday that we'd be making a 2008 database for Pro Cycling Manager 2007. It later went on and became one of the most downloaded databases (for PCM07). Since then, the project hasn't been followed up by any other released PCM.daily projects despite several being in the making with PCMFusion being the most remarkable one.
But that's going to change with this announcement. PCM.daily will release a 2009 database for Pro Cycling Manager 2008 and follow up on its predecessor's success. But unlike last year's DB, this has another focus.
Previously, PCM.daily and PCM.daily-involved projects have been released in May. But not this one. Several versions are planned, and the first one will be released in about one or two weeks. The first beta was released one week ago, and the 2nd and final beta will be released at some point this week (tomorrow or Sunday). When it's been tested properly, we're going to release the first version to the public.
How? Yes, we do realise that several shirts haven't been revealed yet, not all transfers have been done, etc., etc. But we also realise that there's lots of people out there who can't wait with getting started on their 2009 careers with 2009 teams, riders, etc. Therefore, several shirt makers have contributed with fantasy shirts which will be "place takers" in the DB until the real shirts are revealed. Once the official ones have been made available, we'll put out instructions how to change it in-game, so you can play with the real shirt without having to restart your career.
And as said, the first version is due for 1-2 weeks' time. Until then, we'll be more open towards information than we've previously been. We also have 2 further versions planned: one for January (correct team shirts, more teams, more races, ....) and one for March (the usual known quality of PCM.daily releases).
But since the 1st version is 'near', let's talk about that. The DB currently contains
70 teams which is also the amount that we expect to release it with. However, one or two teams may be added depending on the amount of time we've left. Along with this, we've added several new races (including more new national championships), 2009 race dates for all races, several corrected profiles (e.g. some races having profiles that were 3 years old being replaced with 2008 profiles), 400 new secondary sponsors, new equipment, the CQ Ranking instead of the Superprestige, fixed Pro Tour / Continental point scale and, more importantly, revised stats for all riders (no exceptions). There's probably more, but the point is that we've done very much to 'higher' the playing experience.
I've made the very first screenshots available in a new photo gallery which you can view by clicking here. But if you're interested, you can actually get to play this 'thing' before everyone else. As I mentioned previously, the 2nd and final beta will be released this week, and since we'd like to release a polished and as-good-as-bugfree DB, we're searching for more beta testers than just the crew members. If you're interested, send me a PM, and I'll get back to you once reviewed.
I'll make sure to release the exact team list and other details throughout today on PCM.daily's birthday, but I can say as much as it has the usual PCM.daily focus when it comes to teams. You'll find Bissell, Team Type 1, Rapha Condor, CandiTV - Pinarello, OUCH and other British and American teams along with a mix of some of the "best of the rest" Continental teams such as Differdange, the new Vacansoleil and more.
Lastly, I'd also like to say to everyone else doing 2009 databases that we're always open to working together. Our aim is to create the best possible databases, and we believe that this can best be done by working together with other communities. So if you're making a DB and is interested in a joint effort, feel free to contact me. If not, that's fine too ;)
Happy birthday from the crew at PCM.daily! |
