Focus Interactive Le Tour De France review

Every sport has one event that’s guaranteed to grab your attention; in football it’s the World and European Cups, in tennis it’s Wimbledon and in cycling it’s unquestionably the Tour de France. This year’s three-week epic covered over 2,000 miles in 21 stages, with wheel-to-wheel racing at 50mph and top speeds approaching a terrifying 70mph on the fastest descents.

If, like us, you’re too old, fat or petrified to compete, you’ll probably be glad to know there’s also a game. Le Tour de France is essentially the console-only version of Cyanide Studio’s long-running Pro Cycling Manager franchise. We’ve not looked too kindly on the excessive wheel-selecting and account-balancing drudgery of previous editions in the past, but thankfully there’s none of that for Xbox and PS3 users. The developer has stripped the management controls back to quick and simple squad selection, after which you can get stuck into the racing itself.

Players new to the franchise aren’t given much help from the tutorial, which is a disappointing collection of still images that provide little extra information over the printed manual. Instead, you have to learn as you progress through the main game; it’s possible to play any single stage from the Tour, or to sign up for the full race with a team of your choice. However, despite being the ‘official videogame’ of the event, teams such as Guepard Trik (Leopard Trek) and riders like Andy Shlock (Andy Schleck) suggest the developer struggled to get all the necessary licenses in time for release.

Descents: you’re doing it wrong

Each stage of the race is split between playable sections, where you control one or more of your team’s riders, and simulations where you can only watch the race unfold. Although these help prevent single stages taking hours to complete, they become frustrating because you have almost no control over your team. It seemed that no matter where we left our rider as the playable section ended, we’d return to find him swallowed up in the peloton.

The playable sections aren’t perfect either, mainly due to the dated 3D engine which has plenty of quirks. On flat stages in particular, whole fields of crops magically grow as you approach, swallowing the motorhomes that litter the verges of la Vendée. Riders generally look convincing, but the illusion is shattered in sharp bends where they barely lean into the corner. There’s the minimum of dry, generic commentary, and each rider uses the same, distinctly English voice on the team radio.

Keep climbing and, like the air, the roads just keep getting thinner

Despite these problems, Le Tour is not without its charms. After playing through several stages it began to grow on us in a way that the full Pro Cycling Manager games never managed. Although the playable sections are by no means a convincing recreation of tearing down the open road on a racing bike, there’s a hint of the thrill; it takes skill to apply the right level of effort at the right time, in picking your way through the peloton to mount attacks, and even in steering a racing line and braking judiciously during descents, which on the mountain stages are entertainingly quick.

Nobody who’s watched Belleville Rendezvous – let alone the actual Tour de France – could fail to be moved as the games’ cyclists wheeze their way up the Alps’ harrowing gradients, repeatedly playing chicken with over-enthusiastic spectators, but you’ll probably have more fun watching the event itself than you would playing this game.