Product Reviews

It's likely that many Shopper readers know of Lance Armstrong, recent winner of the Tour de France for a record sixth time. Followers of cycling will probably know that he rides for the mighty US Postal team. But how many could name the team manager, or would aspire to be him?

It's little surprise, then, to find that there are no competitors to Cycling Manager 4 from French studio Cyanide. The jacket text of this

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title promises "the most innovative sports video game of recent years". That 'innovation' starts during the installation process with a licence agreement that's displayed only in French and an attempt to install DirectX 8.1 without first checking for more recent versions.

Players can manage a team of cyclists for one stage, a race or an entire season. You can control everything or leave finances to an invisible bean-counter and concentrate on team selection and bike setup. Each stage is enacted in a dated 3D engine with poor graphics: towns are one building deep and competitors pass through each other without incident. You can adjust your rider's strategy and effort level via an interface that doesn't quite fit on the screen but, as the action is faster than real time, it's hard to keep up.

The music is quite good, despite such lyrics as "be ready for the cycling manager". Nothing else in this poor game is likely to hold your interest, even if you are the next top-flight cycling manager.