New versions of official Tour de France video games out in June

Updated versions of the two official Tour de France video games are to be released in June. Le Tour de France 2016 will be available for PS4 and Xbox One, while Pro Cycling Manager 2016 will be available on PC.

Starting out life as Cycling Manager in 2001, strategy game Pro Cycling Manager is updated annually to coincide with the Tour de France. More recently, it has been joined by Le Tour de France, a more action focused game which is available on consoles.

While the former has been honed over the years and is generally well regarded, the latter still seems to be something of a work in progress. Reviews for last year’s edition were mixed. Pure Xbox gave a broadly positive write-up, while Official Xbox Magazine could spare only six words for it: “Your presence doesn't seem to matter.”

Understandably, games released annually favour evolution over revolution, so if you’ve played a previous version of either, you’ll doubtless have a fair idea what to expect.

Changes to Pro Cycling Manager centre on the calendar with the 2016 season recreated via 200 races which together comprise 550 stages. Last year’s ‘pro cyclist mode’ has also been refined. This was a version of the game where rather than managing an entire team and operating as sports director during races, you instead took on the guise of just one rider. The developers say they have added a new objective and sponsor system, as well as improving the artificial intelligence of the computer-controlled riders.

The console game has had a graphical update and a few other refinements and they’ve also added a multiplayer option to the ‘challenge mode’ in which you put your descending skills to the test. That sounds rather promising and certainly promises more fun than another development mentioned – the ability to throw your bike for the line in sprint finishes.