TOUR DE FRANCE 2018

The Tour de France 2018 is the only console game of its kind (since the sister Pro Cycling Manager 2018 is a PC-only title), and therefore, regardless of the extraordinarily important license, it is practically the only cycling simulator. So, it has no competition, it's not much to compare it with, and it's not even possible to skip it to some other similar major video game, if it's not a good man for Tour de France.

The impossibility of choosing a double but triangular weapon at the Tour de France. On the one hand, it is rude that the game is the only choice if someone wants to play "real" video game bikes on the consoles, on the other hand it is even worse that the Tour de France fans will end up in the game even though they are watching the real race , they like them and like them, but they do not like the video games anymore, and the third one, the players who like less traditional games can turn out to play, but they are not totally oriented in the world of road cycling. As Sagan can handle it, he records him as everyone in these lands, but they do not know what the green jersey is like. And rainbow and yellow and so on.

The Tour de France 2018 is a game that is supposed to serve three gentlemen. Players who are at the same time fans of the real Tour de France, which is probably the most crowded group, the Tour de France fan who wants to play the "old lady" to get even closer, and the players who, while touring them, more demanding, more specific, less conventional video games.

And if the first and third group really can come to theirs, since the Tour de France is a great cycling game, the second group may find itself in the position of having an official video game of its favorite sport and its favorite racing at home, but not enjoying it too much, if he does not really spend enough time. Because the Tour de France is a game that can not be set for just half an hour and immediately blown away in an occasional arcade fashion designed for the widest possible mass.

The start-up screen offers exactly the same ten choices as last year. The first is Race (last Tour), the second as well as last year's Pro Team, the third Pro Leader, a new mode that does not meet the upcoming My Tour, and seven more screens. Training, Challenge, Editor, Options, Manual, Credits and What's New? remains without formal change.

And just like last year, this year, it really makes sense to start training, that is, when teaching a basic new mechanism for the new players. At the elementary level, they are extremely simple and primitive, focusing on just one thing - the optimal hold of the "pedaling" button so that the racer you play at will maintain a constant rhythm of pedaling that holds it in the peloton while at the same time exhausting the acurate . In the short term, the button can be pushed harder, the frequency increases or weakens, in the "hinge" behind another peloton member, not necessarily a team mate. The absolute essentials of the game are the tactical distribution of forces over the whole stage - the exhaustion indicator must therefore be monitored. The other buttons serve to control short-term activities - changing the position, sprinting, hitching, direction control and mastering is the basic charm of the Tour de France. Cycling is primarily a tactic, and this series of Tour de France has been very convincing for several years.

It's a hardly believable thing, but the Tour de France is an incredibly addictive matter that raises the stereotype of the basic element of building tension in the game. The atmosphere of the race can pull the player so hard that he simply does not stubble, the helmets that the cyclist takes away from them and can use them for a short term performance, too soon, but when he goes, he stays in the way of his abilities, thus ending deep in the poached field, or because of exhaustion, simply does not reach the target within the time limit.

And that's another pit stop. Tour de France is an incredibly long game in the sense that one video game stage takes almost as much real time as the real stage. During the stages, of course, you can move forward, but as the player in those passages does not have his racer in control, it is not the happiest solution to "shorten" the game.

The Tour de France 2018 is a title built on an extraordinarily strong concept and, unfortunately, this is a major disaster. There is not much to change in the Tour de France gaming machines, they can be optimized, and this is exactly the year of the year when a new game is released, but dramatic changes are not expected. And developers like they were conscious, so they do not even try to improve the game, let's say graphically. Well, that's nice, pasture for the eyes, but it could be nicer. Similarly, with the multiplayer game supported by TDF, cooperative gaming is excellent, but we have already seen it in previous years of the Tour de France. The most remarkable novelty of the current year is Team Leader, a career mode that allows the player to create and play for their own competitor.

Tour de France is in some sense an absurd "simulator" of the most famous cycling races. Traditionally, it is not limited to them and allows players to play other races, but the focus remains on the title race. But back to that absurdity. It is basically a bit overturned to pretend that holding one button means doing bicycle-like activity, there is no similarity here. Holding the button is not and can not be pedaling. Even if it was only necessary to rhythmically compress, not to hold, it would be even more related, yet it is true that the Tour de France can swing the player around as much as another game. I can not do it regularly, and even, I admit, it may be quite rare, but if it happens, the Tour de France can become a video game experience that can not be said otherwise than in superlatives, although it is clear to me that someone else would The Tour de France could have been bored.

In the game, after all, it really holds one button, the lever moves slightly to the right and left, and occasionally presses some more to bring other fingers to it. And yet it is in a sense a genius concept that changes the boredom to incredible tension. And the final spurs, god, my legs usually hurt, even if only hours and hours, dozens of hours, and in those years maybe hundreds of sitting and moving up to a maximum of four fingers. And this is the real Tour de France on TV at all, but I really do not even have a bit of fun, I'm bored even in the evenings in the news.

So, in the mainstream, Tour de France does not have too much potential, despite the extremely strong brand. However, as a game the player chooses, because it attracts and attracts him, he offers a video-based experience that can not be described, it only needs to be experienced. Is it also a real Tour?

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