Albatross 18 is the best golf game of all time

[fustercluck]

After playing it for a little over a year now (since english version was released) and I feel I can truly say Albatross 18 is the best Golf game ever made. It's fantastic. I've played so many different golf games in the past, from NES golf to Tiger Woods. They're are lots of courses, all of them great, and more new courses added every once in a while. There is a lot skill involved, and neat special shots you can do. I've logged about 185 hours into the game, and am still not tired of it. I take breaks here and there of course, but the game is fun.

It's an Online game if you didn't know. There's always loads of other people on, so you can always find a game or tournament to play in. It's 100% free, you can spend actual money on items, but that's optional, I haven't spent a dime on the game yet, but i'm planning to.

 

[SonicIce]

That looks pretty cool actually. Sort of looks like Mario Golf.
Screenshots: http://albatross18.com/season2/downloads/downloads.asp?sid=30

 

[Patt]

Will check it out at home. Thanks.

 

[fustercluck]

It's coming out for the Wii also, not sure how that will turn out, could be cool with the controller.

If anyone tries it, you should start out on the easy courses first (1 star courses are the easiest, 2 star courses are a little tougher, 3 star courses are challenging, and usually aggravating). There's a single player type mode called 'Family Mode' also, a great way to practice is to add 4 players, and then practice 3 or 6 holes, you get 4x the practice...and it will only take 4x the time... - I guess you could just play with others and watch them play, that would also be good for learning the game. The Albatross 18 community is very nice also, I've rarely come across any jerkasses.

 

[tfinch2]

Marked for later

 

[NeoV]

same

 

[SonicIce]

I tried it. It's sweet! I was expecting it to be alot worse for a free game but it is very polished.

Is there a way to fix the texture crawling on the grass?

 

[Fingolfin269]

nice will have to try this out when i get home.

 

[SViper]

Nice find. Thanks for this. I recently got interested in golf, and this looks like it will be a good game. I'll try it out when I get home.

 

[KeithTalent]

I played this quite a bit around 6 months ago and forgot how fun it is.

Thanks for the reminder!

 

[DanTMWTMP]

wow, looks cool. how does it compare with shot online?

 

[QueBert]

is this online only? I'd be down to play if I could play against AI, I got limited bandwidth and don't wanna go over from playing Golf online

 

[Kev]

cool

 

[fustercluck]

Apparently the people at alba 18 don't do such a great job on advertising =p - Like I said this game has been out over a year (just had it's one year anniversary a couple days ago actually i think) and it's still a relatively unknown game. It is very polished like someone said above. After the first week or so, start learning special shots like Tomahawk (best thing to learn in the game), super backspin (which with Driver will land about 20y short), super topspin, power curve. Special shots are done by quickly tapping (or holding for spin shots) arrows on the keyboard while the power bar is on it's way back, and you have to 'Pangya' (right on the white line) or else they won't work.

If you do topspin and press and hold the up arrow while the bar is coming back, you'll do power topspin, which isn't really too helpful but will get you an extra yard or two on drives. Power backspin is done by doing backspin and holding down the 'down' arrow, this can be very helpful but if you miss Pangya, you'll likely be over the hole. Like I mentioned power backspin will stop short about 20 yards with a driver, different with other clubs, so by missing pangya, you could overshot 20y.

Left/Right spin can be PowerCurve shots, which will slice/hook like crazy but end up near where you were aiming. You guessed it, hold the left or right arrow. Probably won't use these much but you'll need to sooner or later, if you have a large obstruction/mountain in the way of your shot. The Banana shaped Item will also give you the same effect without having to Pangya or hold any arrows, but will have to set the spin to maxium (ctrl+hold direction of spin and the little blue dot on the golf ball icon will change accoringly). Blahblahblah, off on a typing spree again, ah well. Hopefully it'll help someone.

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP
wow, looks cool. how does it compare with shot online?

Albatross 18 is at least a million times better than shot online. Shot online was horrible compared to Alba 18 and it makes me feel bad that I even wasted time on Shot Online, even though I didn't play shot online for too long.

 

[SonicIce]

Man this game is soo good. The courses are richly detailed and full of character. Every one is differant, and there are alot of them and many differant environments, all unique. Cute characters. Graphics are pretty good, looks like a cartoon. You can change resolution and settings on they fly. It runs very smooth. I really like the original music too. So glad I visited this thread.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

Originally posted by: Adaman
Apparently the people at alba 18 don't do such a great job on advertising =p - Like I said this game has been out over a year (just had it's one year anniversary a couple days ago actually i think) and it's still a relatively unknown game. It is very polished like someone said above. After the first week or so, start learning special shots like Tomahawk (best thing to learn in the game), super backspin (which with Driver will land about 20y short), super topspin, power curve. Special shots are done by quickly tapping (or holding for spin shots) arrows on the keyboard while the power bar is on it's way back, and you have to 'Pangya' (right on the white line) or else they won't work.

If you do topspin and press and hold the up arrow while the bar is coming back, you'll do power topspin, which isn't really too helpful but will get you an extra yard or two on drives. Power backspin is done by doing backspin and holding down the 'down' arrow, this can be very helpful but if you miss Pangya, you'll likely be over the hole. Like I mentioned power backspin will stop short about 20 yards with a driver, different with other clubs, so by missing pangya, you could overshot 20y.

Left/Right spin can be PowerCurve shots, which will slice/hook like crazy but end up near where you were aiming. You guessed it, hold the left or right arrow. Probably won't use these much but you'll need to sooner or later, if you have a large obstruction/mountain in the way of your shot. The Banana shaped Item will also give you the same effect without having to Pangya or hold any arrows, but will have to set the spin to maxium (ctrl+hold direction of spin and the little blue dot on the golf ball icon will change accoringly). Blahblahblah, off on a typing spree again, ah well. Hopefully it'll help someone.

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP
wow, looks cool. how does it compare with shot online?

Albatross 18 is at least a million times better than shot online. Shot online was horrible compared to Alba 18 and it makes me feel bad that I even wasted time on Shot Online, even though I didn't play shot online for too long.

sweet!!! time to try this as soon as i get home (goddamn everyone left, ..leaving the new guy to do work, and get stuck in traffic on the commute home ARG!! i can't wait until a newer guy comes)

 

[NTB]

Who wrote it, Squaresoft? that's what it looks like. lol Does look like a cool game though; maybe I'll check it out this weekend. Hit a nice green golfcourse and take my mind off the bitter cold outside my apartment.

Nate

 

[leeland]

marked for later

 

[Ricochet]

Hmm...not much into golf but this looks interesting.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Wondering if this is open source since it is free....

If so anyone know what language it is written in? Probably C/C++ ... but it would be interesting to look at the source code.

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: IHateMyJob2004
Wondering if this is open source since it is free....

If so anyone know what language it is written in? Probably C/C++ ... but it would be interesting to look at the source code.

I've been playing aroudn with it for the last couple days. Its definitely not open source (as far as I can tell) as it IS a commerical product. People apparently pay money to buy items in the game (some you can earn by accumulating points, some you seem to need to pay money for). So they're making money off the game, they just don't charge for the game itself.

 

[Sniper82]

D/ling now.

Odd that its free though. Any Spyware?

 

[DanTMWTMP]

Originally posted by: Sniper82
D/ling now.

Odd that its free though. Any Spyware?

they make their money off of selling in-game items. Those items are optional to buy.

The money making model is very much like shot-online, and silkroad online.

 

[fustercluck]

There's no spyware =p - They make plenty of money via their money system no doubt. Like I said i've been freeloading untill now (200 hours later), but I'm probably going to buy a new giddup tomorrow for $20.

The game is great.

 

[microAmp]

Interesting, know what the PC requirements are? I did a quick look around at the site but didn't see anything and work is getting in the way.

Do you think a 1.0 GHz P3 with 440 MX could handle it? If it could I'll tell my friend about this, I'm sure he would be interested.