My first PCM was 2013. Since then I have become a big cycling fan. I am really looking forward to starting a career but I understand that from release the game needed patching both by Cyanide and by the fans. Now that recent patches have come out I have some questions:
The Big question
1) Is the game ready to play a career?
PCMFocus db
2.1) Is this likely to be updated any further? If so should I wait further?
2.2)Do the stat changes improve or ruin the game?
2.3) Does the patch include variants for GTs?
My Career
I am looking to to start up a brand new GB team with disgruntled British cyclists. The riders I am going to include are: Bradley Wiggins, David Millar, Alex Dowsett
3.1) Are there anymore disgruntled British riders that you think I should add to my squad
3.2) I was thinking of having an only British team. Do you think this would be too difficult?
Gameplay
4.1) Some stages take ages to load. I have quite a good pc with 4GB RAM and an SSD Hard drive. Is there any of the setting that I can reduce that will speed up loading times?
4.2) Any tips with camera angles? I just use the default one. But would like other opinions
4.3) Is there any way to see the list of favourites once the race has started (not just in the loading screen)
4.4) Which options in the graphics settings effects the framerate the most
Ok im going to help a bit with this one.
From my experience it is ok to start a career now even though you can get the occasional crash.
Pcmfocus db is fine but if you are not familiar to their stat matrix then u will find it weird. The stats are significantly higher than the pcmdaily db from previous dbs. You can change the stats yourself if you arent happy.
There is an official file you can download which contains multiple variants for your career.
The British team is fine.
Changing your settings wont affect loading times significantly so i would keep the settings as the recommended settings for your pc. I'm not 100% sure but i think your cpu and gpu performances affect the loading times more than just ram.
The only way i know seeing favourites inrace in past pcms were they had a yellow icon when in a group (A1, P, E1).
I would say water reflections can sometimes push your pc to the limit but it does look alot better.
The day when bike gears turn automatic. = Why not now? They did it with cars.
2.1) Ask the focus guys
2.2) I personally don't like them
2.3) I don't think so
3.1) Not that I can think of
3.2) Should be all fine
4.1) Turn down graphics settings
4.2) Default is the best, but if you want some nice screenshots hold down the mousewheel and move the mouse around for good angles
4.3) Doubt it
4.4) You can just turn down the general graphics. One texture per rider and rider faces you probably won't know the difference. The terrain stuff takes up the biggest framerate
