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Reviews Formulawan
Formulawan
Formulawan is a browser based internet game, that is both engaging and absorbing. It is a formula 1 sports management game. It’s free to play, however if you become an enthusiast, the term “free” is relative.
It is by a random chance that I clicked and entered this addictive world of Formulawan while playing Motion Twin’s, my brute. If you ask the people at CarpeLudem a French based company, the creators of Formulawan I am sure they will not say random, but rather their clever placement of an advertising banner on My Brute hooked on many players. Motion Twin happens to be the team that put together the flash animations for CarpeLudem. Watch a famous race.
This game originally started in French, only recently in May 2009 it was launched in English, and has quite literally taken off, I believe now has overtaken the users in the French version, now it is also available in Spanish, and German versions.
I believe it is a very thought provoking game requiring good management and analytical skills, and here is superb video put together by a fan of Formulawan which gives a glimpse of the games features. Watch the video
The game is cleverly designed, if you like strategy and management you will love this game-warning it is not a typical strategy game you will find in a box. And if you are the impatient type you will either, end up pumping in real money-yes you can buy your way into the game to progress faster, or abandon the game. However, if you have the patience, get ready for a long and interesting journey in managing your racing business.
You will manage your racing drivers, and their cars and whole lot of other specialists from researches, nurses, engineers, mechanics, and trainers to commercial assistants.
You will be given specific daily actions, based on your recruited staff of drivers and specialists. For example when you recruit a driver you will have a daily action either to race or repair your car, a nurse for example you can either use to massage the driver (nothing lewd, it’s only a button click) which will improve driver’s performance or you can heal injuries, which will happen if your driver crashes. You can hire or fire your staff. Certain buttons are misleading, it gives the impression you can try again if the specialist’s action fails, but you can use an action only once in a day of a single staff member.
Fig. 1: Functions and prices of all your staff (the total on the left, that’s just my staff #)
You will make mistakes, and you will get frustrated when progress slows down, but trust me in time it is enjoyable. The only downside being, that if you are an enthusiast you will end up spending real money have no doubt. However, spending money is not a necessity, it is your choice. The currency in the world of Formulawan is Bolts. When you start the game you are given 4,000 Bolts to begin with, which will be just about enough to buy you a race driver-2,000 Bolt, a car of “Small But Tough” Class-1,000 bolts (which is the class which have the most racers, for obvious reasons), and one other purchase either of a part or staff member to start with.
There are shops from which you can buy parts for a car, but remember you will need mechanics to fix them. Another option is to research special bonuses through your researches and then you require an engineer to create the tuning part with bonuses. The research option is best advised to be used as your racing team grows and you start collecting bolts regularly from winning races.
All of this is available in the Game Guide/FAQ . However, the game guide will help you start but will not tell you everything, for additional information the forums are the best place Forum.
The Formulawan forum deserves special mention, as unlike many other game forums it is a great place. It is possible this is due to it being inhabited by quite a few mature members not necessarily in age. It’s also got one of the most balanced Admins I have come across, going by the name of Llyu. It is an enjoyable place to take a break, with quite a few forum members who are even tempered and possessing a great sense of humor to tide over the frustrations of most.
The game is not without bugs, and an occasional mega-bug causing even a temporary shutdown. The good news is that Llyu the admin is very quick and responsive in fixing these issues (and has a sense of humor to boot). She is almost like one of the players, so Llyu has the respect of many members, not to forget there’s an on and off debate of Llyu’s gender. Many have got the feeling it’s a lady, however, Llyu isn’t telling.
Formulawan once in awhile throws in interesting competitions with a chance to earn bolts, the money in Formulawan world. Competitions bring the usual hot debates on these competitions if they are geared to induce players more money, or if it’s accessible to smaller teams etc. What I have to add is the all players cannot obviously excel in all the competitions or its features
All in all it is game that sucks you in, in terms of your time, and it’s addictive as you will have to be at it almost daily to get to the top, which you can with careful planning and managing your resources. I will highly recommend this game to all enthusiasts of strategy and management, and for those who are not give this a try for a week and you too will be hooked.
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Written by Rum-Rah on September 10, 2009.
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