Pro Cycling Manager 2008

This Is a great time to be a fan of cycling, with the Volta a Portugal em Bicicleta (Portugal's Tour de France) in full swing and dopers galore crawling out of the woodwork. Pro Cycling Manager 2008 allows you to take part in the former, but not the latter.

For the first time in the series track cycling is introduced, although the cycling itself isn't that good - again. With poor graphics and animations, watching a pack of riders is like' watching a cloud of gaudily-dressed flies huddle around a high-speed turd. With an unimpressive racing interface, in which you give your team commands, the 3D aspect of the game is lacking.

Look beyond this, and you get a solid management game. While it may not be as polished as the big-hitters like Football Manager, it hangs together. With attention to aspects like sponsors, hiring and firing riders, and control over which events to race in, the management part of the game is worth sinking a few hours into.

If the cycling part of the game was better, or the game cost less, then the score would go up. However, you'd be better waiting for this game to fall to half price, as only half of it is any cop.