14 DAY TRIAL // 
I love the sport of cycling even though I have not ridden a bike (apart from a short try at age six that quickly led to a traumatizing crash), and I believe that at least some of my love is directly owed to the Pro Cycling Manager series from developer Cyanide and publisher Focus Home Interactive.
I have played the games for at least five years, and they allowed me to win Le Tour de France with my favorite riders, lead my teams to success in the Classics, and top the World Tour point competition.
The biggest problem with the series has been that, without facing any real competition, it has added features at a rather limited pace, and most titles require two patches minimum before all the core mechanics are working as they should.
Pro Cycling Manager 2013 certainly is worth picking up, it's a game that slightly improves visuals and updates some of the main features without introducing any revolutionary new possibilities for veterans.
Story
Like most simulation titles on the market, Pro Cycling Manager 2013 is designed to allow players to handle the strategy of a team and the day-to-day activities, while also becoming an active participant in the races, where the gamer can control all riders in order to reach team objectives.
The Cyanide titles balanced the two elements pretty well, although I often wish to see a little more depth when it comes to finances and day-to-day team affairs.
A gamer can handle trainers, doctors, and scouts, and there are plenty of races to choose from and training programs to impose on riders.
The new installment of the game introduces more options for rider management, including the ability to add or eliminate objectives and a new way of evaluating their form as the season progresses, with a new attribute that evaluates their race rhythm.
There are also minute changes linked to sponsors and the overall management of race participation, but new gamers should note that actual cycling is more important than simply preparing training programs for riders.
Gameplay
Cycling is a complex sport that mixes team-based tactics with an emphasis on individual effort, and Cyanide has managed to capture most of the core elements of the sport in its annual simulation series.
On flat stages, most of the work is done by powerful teammates who are able to lead the peloton for long periods of time before a final acceleration designed to deliver a capable sprinter to the line with as few incidents as possible.
Mountains require different tactics, with team leaders protected until the final ascents before they are unleashed in order to take time out of their rivals.
Rising in a breakaway involves another set of skills altogether.
Rider form seems to be more important this year, and it really makes sense to watch rivals in any race for signs of weakness before launching a decisive attack.
The whole peloton also seems more compact than ever, and I was sometimes caught out before I could navigate between riders fast enough to get to the front at crucial moments.
The A.I. also seems smarter when it comes to launching attacks and counter-attacks, conserving its best cyclists for the make or break moments.
Mountain stages continue to be exhilarating, and gamers need to pay close attention to the energy level of their riders and only put in small attacks when conditions are optimal rather than try and launch the long range raids that cycling featured about ten years ago.
The problem with the sim is that it’s very hard to get into a breakaway, as the computer teams will mostly likely try to shut them down automatically as long as a player-controller rider is involved.
I would like to see more options linked to sprint trains in Pro Cycling Manager 2013 because, at the moment, winning a fast-paced stage end involves quite a bit of luck and knowledge of the final 2 kilometers that are hard to have on the first run through a season.
The biggest problem with the Cyanide sim is that it eats up a lot of computer resources but still takes ages to load up a stage, with a memory leak that seems to get worse after a few hours of playing.
Patches should fix that, but optimization should not be a bonus, but something offered on launch for modern video games.
Graphics and audio
Pro Cycling Manager 2013 is a good looking simulation, especially considering that it’s hard to compare it with any other titles on the market.
Yes, its graphics are less impressive than those of the most modern racing simulations or than last year’s FIFA, but those games do not have to deal with 130 to 190 riders at the same time, each of them with their own physical presence.
They also fail to include thousands of kilometers of roads and the various details of the routes, which are not too realistic, but they are present in order to increase the level of immersion.
The track details also seem rudimentary when compared to the riders themselves and sometimes actually distract from the game’s atmosphere rather than enhance it.
The music is also a disappointment because it rehashes tunes from last year, so my advice would be to get the cycling-themed album from Kraftwerk and just play that on repeat in order to get into the atmosphere.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer cycling leagues are easy to set up as long as the player has the friends with the time and commitment to sustain them.
The gameplay does not change at a fundamental level, but the tactics used by actual humans are more devious than those of the computer, even though they are sometimes disjointed from the real life sport.
Those who want partners for multiplayer should try to participate on one of the fan forums dedicated to Pro Cycling Manager 2013.
The core mechanics can sometimes feel a little bit weird: sprints do not happen like they do in the real world, and mountain top finishes can create differences that are rarely seen nowadays, when EPO has been all but banished from the peloton. At the same time I felt some of the biggest gaming related joys of my life when I managed to take all the Classics in one season using Cancelarra, my favorite rider from the peloton, and some solid tactics, and I almost wept in frustration when my inability to increase the time trial skills of Andy Schleck meant that I was unable to win the Yellow Jersey in Le Tour de France. Pro Cycling Manager 2013 is a good, solid experience for those who already love the sport, and can be the entry level drug for those who only have a casual interest. Those who are interested should also check out fan site PCMDaily in order to get databases and mods that tend to improve balance and gameplay.
The Good
The Bad
Conclusion
