14 DAY TRIAL // 
Pro Cycling Manager 2015 is the kind of video game where a young Pro Continental rider can stun the entire peloton by taking a stage in the Le Tour de France from a breakaway.
The title, developed by Cyanide and published by Focus Home Interactive, also manages to mostly deliver results that are entirely within the bounds of possibility given the current state of real-world cycling.
Pro Cycling Manager 2015, like many other sports simulations, is mostly a wish delivery machine, a video game that allows fans to replay the races they love enough times to get the kinds of victories that their idols have not actually achieved.
Story
Pro Cycling Manager 2015 allows gamers to take control of the teams that are part of the professional cycling peloton, three divisions worth of them, and then try to guide them towards victory by controlling everything from funding and training to the way cyclists actually perform during each race.
Cycling is seen as a boring sport by a lot of people who are not acquainted with the core rules and traditions, but Le Tour de France remains one of the most watched yearly sporting events on the planet.
Pro Cycling Manager 2015 is a solid simulation, but it fails to replicate the drama associated with it, mostly because its approach is designed to appeal to those who are already fans rather than the general public.
One major problem for the series is that it cannot get the rights to cyclist names (this can be solved with a community-made database, but mostly fans will do that) and that it features so many races and activities that it's hard to pick out the most exciting ones to experience the kind of emotion and drama the sport can deliver.
For the first time, in this year's release, Cyanide is also adding a Pro Cyclist mode, which is designed to deliver a more focused experience where players only have direct control of one custom rider, who is guided through his entire career.
The shift from being in charge of an entire team to just one cyclist is interesting and offers a more engaging set of narratives, with plenty of gamers already creating long careers for their characters and sharing them with their friends.
Gameplay
Pro Cycling Manager 2015 is a game where careful preparation, especially in the Career mode, is just as important as solid execution, and one big tweak made by Cyanide has made the entire race experience even more tactical than it was.
Gamers will select their team (or create a custom one) and will then have to set up a season by choosing aims for the entire outfit and for the individual riders, while also deciding which races are best suited for each one of them.
The staff system has been changed, with less importance for trainers and the potential for young riders very hard to accurately evaluate, and it's much easier to create and share fitness programs.
“But the major tweak for Pro Cycling Manager 2015 is visible after getting through a few races: the threshold for effort has been lowered and riders tend to lose yellow energy at a heart rate of 140 beats per minute now.”
This means gamers will need to find ways to ride smartly, even if they control the likes of Contador, Froome or Quintana, because long-range attacks are no longer a good way to aim for a win.
Pro Cycling Manager 2015 encourages gamers to watch their rivals, determine how the race can be controlled and only give their leaders the green light to make a move when they have the best chance to stay away and win a stage or an entire tour.
Sprinting is also improved, with the ability to choose trajectories added (even if the impact is relatively limited), and with better integration of the train mechanic.
PCM 2015 also places a bigger focus on the riders' daily form and on the schedules they use for their fitness preparation, which have the biggest impact in Career mode.
The new Pro Cyclist mode seems simpler to understand and enjoy, but after I created my Romanian-born young hope and signed for a Pro Continental team, I was unable to stop playing it, mainly because I felt a connection with my virtual alter-ego.
During races, players can only control one cyclist and they need to pay attention to the targets that their team aims to accomplish, while also targeting milestones that will open up new and more prestigious races, including Le Tour.
Training, fatigue, freshness and rhythm are also important, and riders will evolve over time although the process cannot be entirely controlled by the player.
The AI-controlled race director sometimes does irrational things and gamers will have to take matters into their own hands when they really want a win, but the Pro Cyclist experience is a good addition to the series and has a lot of space to evolve in the coming years.
Gamers should also know that PCM 2015 tends to behave weirdly when it loads stages, with moments when it seems to have stopped working, but most of the time a bit of patience will allow the process to progress and to actually launch the next race.
Graphics and audio
Pro Cycling Manager 2015 delivers no fundamental changes to the core engine, but the simulation continues to offer some impressive sights and manages to replicate the kind of spectacle that real-world cycling can deliver.
There are moments when the tech powering the series shows its age, especially when it comes to the faces of riders and some of their movements.
On the other hand, the studio has carefully re-created stages and other core elements of the sport, and the peloton always looks good when viewed from above.
The weird end-of-stage slow motion for the sprint is still present and will certainly annoy a number of gamers, and the interface has once again been tweaked and is ready to offer a little more info to gamers, but it is lacking some of the elegance offered by the previous installment.
Pro Cycling Manager 2015 has a relatively solid soundtrack, but the commentary continues to be very disappointing and the best way to enjoy the experience is to dig up the classic Tour de France album from Kraftwerk and run it over and over again.
Multiplayer
Pro Cycling Manager 2015 continues to offer the Armada mode for those who like to play against other human players.
The experience is built around packs of cyclists and equipment that gamers can obtain using real-world or in-game currency, and they can then assemble a team that can race against others either in ranked or in friendly events.
Armada has a solid community of players engaged, and gamers who find it interesting should join one of the major fan sites to take part in their scheduled competitions and events.
The Good
- Pro Cyclist mode
- Tweaks to energy levels and use
The Bad
- Changes to scouting and young riders
- Sprints are still under-explained
Conclusion
The core team-focused gameplay will be instantly familiar and feels more solid than in 2014 or 2013, with more realistic attacks from AI-controlled cyclists and a greater need to rely on a team and solid strategy to win the big races.
Pro Cyclist is a little limited at the moment but has a lot of space to evolve and to create an experience for players who want a more personal story and a clearer sense of evolution from year to year.
The passionate community built around Pro Cycling Manager has already launched several databases for the game, mostly focused on real names and on real sponsors, and it will continue to work throughout the year to improve the game and make it more realistic.
PCM 2015 is not a perfect sports sim and Cyanide lacks the resources to make it one, but it does deliver solid mechanics and impressive race moments and all cycling lovers should give it a shot and try and change history with their favorite teams and riders.
