Former Burnout devs announce Dangerous Golf

Our 2016 “Most Anticipated” lists are out, and already there’s something on the horizon I wish we could’ve added: Dangerous Golf.

This unique take on the sport is being developed by Three Fields Entertainment, the new developer founded by Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry – the original founders of Criterion Games, best known for the Burnout series. That alone should should give you pause even if golf games – even ones that have the word ‘dangerous’ in the title – sound like a snooze.

Dangerous Golf knocks out one of the game’s big pillars, the idea of par, and replaces it with out and out destruction. Much like with Burnout‘s Crash mode, players are aiming for the most damage they can rack up, measured in dollars, rather than trying to get to the hole at the end of the course. The courses themselves, which contain 100 holes in total, are non-traditional, as well: a hotel kitchen, a glittering palace ballroom, a rural gas station and a stately medieval castle make up the locations, says the developer.

Also like Burnout before it, Dangerous Golf makes heavy use of the available physics options for modern game development. Unreal Engine 4 and Nvidia’s PhysX, Apex, and Flex tech will let us smash and destroy tons of objects into countless pieces, some of those objects filled with liquid or ready to collapse.

As you progress through the game, you’ll be able to build up a SmashBreaker bonus to turn your golf ball into a bomb. Remind anyone of Burnout‘s CrashBreaker?

In short, despite being a golf game, it sounds like Dangerous Golf has more in common with Three Fields’ history than it does the history of its own sport. It’ll also sport both local and online multiplayer.

The best part is that the game is heading to PC (via Steam), PlayStation 4, and Xbox One this year, in May.