Albatross18

It's one of those nice oddities on the Internet. On the most basic level, it is an addictive multiplayer golf game with easy-to-use controls but extremely hard to master. From a longer-term point of view, it's kind of like a massively multiplayer online game.

The game is free to sign up to and play, but the 280MB client download might put a few people off. We have more bandwidth than ever before though, and even a 1mbit connection can handle that file in less than an hour. Installation and setup is really simple and you can get going within minutes of your download finishing.

It's a little bit on the anime side of things. Coming from the far East, it's got those sickeningly cute characters and some of the caddies are just ridiculous, but as long as you don't let this put you off, it's a solid golf game. Aspects of golf like wind speed, wind direction, ball spin, shot surface and angle are all modelled, although it does get slightly wacky. In particular, a perfect shot is known (for some unknown reason) as 'PANGYA' and grants you power spin or power curve, making the ball do some fairly improbable things.

In traditional far-Eastern gaming style, your character has a bundle of statistics which can be improved over time, and there are a lot of different items you can carry around in your pocket for use in those tricky situations where you need a super-accurate shot or a bit of extra curve. You can also gain experience points from each game you play, and level up gradually. Each new level becomes harder and harder to attain, so it keeps you playing, always wanting to get to the next stage.

Certain things such as extremely long shots, good shots or good scores can give you 'pang', one of the in-game currencies in Albatross18. You can save up a bit of pang and spend it on upgrading your things, whether it's new clothes, a new caddy, new clubs and balls, or even an entirely new character.

How can all this stuff be totally free? This is where the other in-game currency comes in: cookies. These things can be bought with real money, but allow you to buy some extremely powerful items. Some may question this as it immediately points to the possibility of giving the upper hand to the more wealthy, but if this allows everyone to play for free, despite being slightly underpowered, is that such a bad thing? It's a contentious issue.

If you're not convinced, do give it a try. I had my doubts initially, but the game has some substantial depth, a lot of beautifully decorated 18-hole courses, and some stiff challenges in the form of real players. Head over to http://www.albatross18.com and see what you think.