I’ve been participating in for the Tour de France games for the better part of 10 years. I am a huge enthusiast of both games and cycling It’s an annual event that is able to get your legs moving and then come to a stop, then not removing the clip and being thrown into the dirt.
Look, for all the promises of a brand-new Tour de France game brings it is, in most cases, an e-mail-type job is delivered in the manner that the community of gamers with little or nothing changed or added to.
It’s the same with regard to Tour de France 2022. In actual fact, if have played any TDF game in the past eight years, especially the past two you’ll be unable to locate anything new in this game.
The most recent route of the most awaited of French cycling events is now in place. In addition, the 21 stage of Tour de France 2022 are available for you to play. Each stage appears well-designed and takes participants through real-world places that were selected for this year’s course. It’s a bit odd that the general distance calculations are a bit wrong, with every stage that is part of the Virtual Tour not always being able to match the exact distances that those Pro Tour riders will cover. It’s an oddity that has been plaguing those who play the Tour de France games for quite a while and I’m not certain what the reason is. Nacon as well as Cyanide Studios can’t get this fundamental aspect correct. I’m all for reducing things to give you the most enjoyable gaming experience however, when you’re taking only a few kilometres off a race of 200km it doesn’t make sense.
Apart from that there are also some setup videos that show the building up of each stage. They’re great for the short time in which they’re played. The format is similar to the director sportif briefings as well as addition of some information from the commentary, but despite the thorough information being spoken out at the start of a race you’ll be unable to discern one stage from another.
The most recent riders and teams are also in place or at the very least, small thumbnails of the riders that are likely to be included. With the complete team lineups not being finalized until about a week prior to the Tour being announced the day before, it’s a difficult task for the teams in development and they’ve managed to do an excellent job of including the top names this time around. You’ll see Roglic, Pogacar, Yates and Quintana each leading their teams. If you’re so concerned about missing names, adjusting the lineups to suit your it is possible. It’s possible to even add Cav into the mix with the hope of salvaging TDF 22.
The point is that it doesn’t really matter even a tiny bit because again, when you’re participating in a race, you can seem to appear somewhat of a disappointment. The controls are similar to before it’s a simple hold of the trigger for pedaling, then a click of buttons to sprint, and then a squeeze of another button to drink an energy drink or two in case you’re exhausted. The most effective strategies for gaming will have you switching to the race menus, shifting through the group, selecting the top athlete at any given point while speeding up the remaining stages until the last sprint. This is something that TDF games have encouraged athletes to follow for quite a while now and there’s no difference in this case.
The repetition is evident in the visuals , and especially in the ones used for model bikes and riders These are all cookie cuts from games like Tour de France 2021 and feature the same lycra-like, generic lovelines that are seen on the start lines and podiums. I understand that cycling is a special in terms of video games – however, would it be difficult to design a few different types of riders or at minimum, a few different facial expressions or a change in size of the rider. It would be very well.
There’s a similar problem with the bikes the riders ride. And they’re all males since not one female is able to compete with them in the Tour de France 2022. For the casual observer it’s possible that one bike will appear like another however to a cyclist enthusiast, it’s like saying that the Ford Focus looks like a BMW and, in turn, is like an Rolls Royce or Lamborghini. The people who have created Tour de France 2022 have evidently slapped a variety of colors and words onto the frame of a standard bike and crossed their fingers to see if no one will take notice. However, we do and, again, it disrupts the excitement.
The absence of immersion is is the norm all over TDF 22 in reality. Audio is quite limited, but underscored by the same old menu music, and the basic “Allez” calls from the cookie cutters, and these menus have been taken, nearly identically from games of the past. I suppose that navigating just a couple of square boxes isn’t a problem but is it too overly demanding to have some joy to the flagbearer of this cycle?
What is something really new?
There’s the highly talked about Race of the Moment, that promises to take players into some of the most memorable moments of cycling by taking part in a series of limited-time competitions. The issue is that it’s very restricted to certain times and days which means it’s likely that you’ll skip it. It can take days to come back to be able to play the game in a particular mode is not something we should be forced to do.
Additionally, there is the possibility of injuries, falls and illnesses that are part of Tour de France 2022, and lastly, the rider actually has the capability of crashing his bike and gaining some friction burns. At least, that’s the way we thought it would be feasible, but it’s slightly flimsy. Switch on the possibility of falls, injuries, and other such things prior to stepping into the race of your choice and you’d expect them to appear frequently, particularly since you can set the frequency at which they occur. We’ve had a difficult time finding any significant difference in the way races run and the crashes that we’d like to see aren’t happening. It’s true that, time and time (and I’m sure I’m always going back repeatedly here however, it’s the way Cyanide as well as Nacon did, and I’ll follow suit also) But your rider is able to transform into other riders and not fall off, or navigating the crowd and not have to avoid an ‘Allez’ or Opi-Omi’ warning, and through barriers with no care of a thing. The most likely thing that’s going to happen is they stop for a moment of a halt, then lose several places, start again. That’s the way it’s happened during our time with Tour de France 2022.
It’s safe for me to say that for the eighth year running, I’ve not satisfied with what’s been offered in the Tour de France 2022. It’s definitely great to be able to recreate the real-world Tour however, apart from that it’s not uncommon to find yourself not racing in super-fast times which has been praised by experts and the developers – then going back to actual racing when the last few kilometers of a race that is 300km long are set to unfold by pressing the button to sprint in the hope of getting through to the finish. Perhaps it’s a problem with cycling since even the most committed cycling fan might struggle to endure the lengths of races that we’re used to, but it can seem a little unprofessional in terms of gaming when you press the fast forward button.
Of course, those looking to go further into the world of racing with these Pro Team and Pro Rider options with the game, however just a few clicks of CTRL C and CTRL V will give you an idea of what to expect from these managing teams to victory through Pro Team or take a rider from season to season with Pro Leader. It’s fun, but nothing exceptional about this.
Personally, on a personal level, it’s the Race options that are the attractive, and just as a side dish for an overall Tour. We’ll never tire of riding the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix and Liege-Bastogne-Liege is certainly worth a trip. We’re also fan of this multi-stage Criterium du Dauphine, and to the well-traveled route of Paris-Nice. When you add in several other one-dayers such as the ones from Giro di Como, Imola, Dusseldorf and the Primavera Classic, along with those of the Euro Tour, an Open Tour and the Breizh Cup, you’ll find plenty of races taking the area. It’s unfortunate that you’ll probably never be able to see or appreciate the distinctions between the races.
There’s certainly a demand for a quality bicycle racing game, especially one that concentrates all efforts on the most prestigious of Grand Tours. However, as we’ve seen before, Tour de France – The Video Game isn’t that kind of game. Unfortunately, until the present low level of competition attempts to increase the bar and challenge the current standard, we’ll only be looking at another year’s release that has been consistently low in terms of changes.
Let’s hope for Tour de France 2023 then.
It could be the year we finally get an entire cycling race which will allow us to fulfill our lycra-clad desires and give full respect to the most famous bike race of all. One thing is the certainty that Tour de France 2022 will be a whirlwind of the most difficult climb, as excitement and energy quickly disappears.
