The Nostalgia for Burnout's Crash Mode

I miss Criterion's Burnout games so much, and it's not just nostalgic feelings that I'm experiencing. I went back to play Burnout for two minutes and ended up playing it for two hours. It's still a lot of fun, and I especially miss the crash mode, where you're given a car, some traffic, and a simple objective: cause as much destruction as possible by crashing into things, with your success being measured by the monetary value of damage done. It was pure arcade goodness, and it's high time that concept was revisited.

That's exactly what Dangerous Golf is, a game released in June 2016, developed by Three Fields Entertainment. And seeing as the majority of the company is comprised of ex-Criterion developers, it makes sense that Dangerous Golf would follow in its footsteps somewhat. Rather shamelessly, in fact, as Dangerous Golf is practically a reincarnation of Burnout's Crash Mode, except with explosive golf balls instead of explosive cars.

You've even got the same kind of World Tour progression system, where you're given a selection of geographical locations, each containing a multitude of maps, and you compete for medals to unlock more. Sadly, unlike Burnout, which had all sorts of other things in addition to Crash Mode, here there's not much more to it than just that. Let me just go ahead and say it; I wanted to like Dangerous Golf, like, a lot! I mean, dude, what an amazing premise.

Ex-Burnout devs making another game based on wanton destruction, turning the entire goal of golf on its head and using the latest Unreal engine, taking advantage of the latest physics tech. Ah, man, what's not to love? Well, once the novelty wears off, quite a bit it seems. I didn't have much fun with it beyond the first half hour and for a game that costs $20, that's a problem.

The gameplay is mediocre and there's just not enough variety to keep me interested beyond that initial wow factor when looking at the graphics and the physics model. If it had a sandbox mode where you could just break a bunch of stuff endlessly, well that would be pretty awesome, but... it doesn't. And as it is, the World Tour is more frustrating than enjoyable.

Dangerous Golf may be worth checking out for the novelty alone, but it's one of those games where I would say wait for a significant price drop before doing so. If you enjoyed hearing my take on Dangerous Golf, perhaps you would like to check out some of my other videos here. There are new videos every Monday and Friday here on LGR. I do my best to be dependable for you.

So that means if you wanna subscribe, you can, but... otherwise, just check back and see more stuff in the future. As well as support the show on Patreon. Thank you very much for helping keep things going over there. And as always, thanks very much for watching LGR.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enUgh, I miss Criterion's Burnout games so, so much.And not nostalgically. I went back to playit for this video for like two minutesand ended up playing it fortwo hours. It's still a lot of fun.And I especially miss the crash mode,where you're given a car,some traffic and a simple objective:cause as much destruction aspossible by crashing into things,with your success being measured bythe monetary value of damage done.It was pure arcade goodness andit's high time the concept was revisited.Enter Dangerous Golf,a game released in June of 2016,developed by Three Fields Entertainment.And seeing as the majority of the companyis comprised of ex-Criterion developers,it makes sense that Dangerous Golfwould follow in its footsteps somewhat.Rather shamelessly, in fact,as Dangerous Golf is practically areincarnation of Burnout's Crash Mode,except with explosive golf ballsin place of explosive cars.You've even got the same kindof World Tour progression system,where you're given a selectionof geographical locations,each containing a multitude of maps,and you compete for medals to unlock more.And sadly, unlike Burnout, which had all sortsof other things in addition to Crash Mode,here, there's not muchmore to it than just that.Let me just go ahead and say it.I wanted to like Dangerous Golf, like, a lot!I mean, dude, what an amazing premise.Ex-Burnout devs making anothergame based on wanton destruction,turning the entire goal of golf on its headand using the latest Unreal engine,taking advantage of the latest physics tech.Ah, man, what's not to love?Well, once the novelty wears off,quite a bit it seems.I didn't have much fun with itbeyond the first half hour andfor a game that costs $20, that's a problem.Graphically, it looks wonderful.The concept is delightfully straightforwardand smashing stuff up is always fun.But it suffers from a couple big problems.Knowing exactly what to do,and providing the incentive to keepplaying once you figure that out.Right off the bat, I was confused as toexactly what I was supposed to be doing,even when flipping through thetips on the How To Play menu.I thought this was gonna be aboutsmashing things up, first and foremost,using a golf ball and realistic physicsto break as much crap as you could.But then it started tossingmulticolored flags, unwieldy hazards,unexplained power-ups andbizarre movement my way,resulting in a bit too muchtrial and error for me.For starters, you're not selecting clubs orhitting the ball at any speed other than REALLY hard,or really soft.So it's just a one-button affairafter you've lined up your shot.Hit the button, things happen,and it's over before you know it.If you break enough objectson your initial swing,then you're granted a Crashbreaker–er, Smashbreaker.which turns your ball intoan explosive sphere of chaos.You then have the ability to sluggishlycontrol the ball and what it crashes into.After the Smashbreaker timer runs out,you'll have to putt the ball into the hole.If you miss a hole, too bad. That's it.You just lose a ton of moneyand the round is over.And if you hit it in, great! Do it again!And again!And again...and surprisingly, little changes between each map.Once you've seen each of the main areas,which happens pretty quickly,I found very little to convince me to keep going,especially once I figured out that there's barelyany reason to experiment within each map.Unlike Burnout's Crash Mode, where it'sjust, like, one direction that you gotta go,here, you've got pretty much totalfreedom to break things in any direction.Or so you'd think.Sometimes the camera doesn't letyou move around how you want andthe rest of the time you're facing thebest direction anyway at the very start,so you'll only make it worse by screwing around.You'd think the possibilities for racking upan impressive score would be endless,especially with so much randomcrap to smash up in each area.Instead, there's pretty much onlyone optimal way to start each level,and a few key things to break duringa Smashbreaker for a score bonus.And so it's just a matter of getting luckywith sinking the ball into the hole after that.And even that is pretty much done for you,with the ball lined up for a perfectshot if the hole is unobscured.You can go for trick shots andthings like that if you really want to,but there's not much of a reason to do so,other than as a personal challenge.And even then, the requirementto hit the ball into the holeat the end of each round makesyou want to just play it safe.And playing it safe is the exact opposite thingyou should be doing in a game like this.There were also a fewtechnical issues that turned me off,like the requirement to use agamepad when using this on the PC,like I've been doing here for this video.They've since added some mouse andkeyboard support, and props to 'em for that,but other issue remain.The camera! Oh, man, the camera.It goes back and forth betweenbeing sluggish to controland freakishly fast,which is a legit problem forthings like putting challenges.And often it's downright unreliable,either not following your ball or focusingon the wrong thing at the wrong angle,making your objectives tough to see.Now that's just when thingsare going as they should be.And when things go wrong,well they REALLY go wrong.So much for the laws of physics!There are also some majorperformance issues on certain maps,especially irksome seeing as I was playing on a brand new buildwith a 6700K CPUand an overclocked GTX 980 Ti graphics card.Then there's the online aspect of the game,which I was never able to get workingon either PC I tried this on.So I can't even comment on how it works.The local multiplayer works great, though,and playing with a friend wasdefinitely more fun than playing alone.But I'd say that's more due to the otherperson, rather than the game itself.Combine these setbacks withthe fact that Dangerous Golf justdidn't hold up well forme gameplay-wise, and...ah, it's a palpable disappointment on my end.Again, I love the concept.Any game that lets you burst opena bunch of fine china toilet seatsand cheeseburgers with sports equipmentautomatically has my attention.But the gameplay is mediocre and there'sjust not enough variety to keep me interestedbeyond that initial wow factor whenogling the graphics and the physics model.If it had a sandbox mode where you couldjust break a bunch of stuff endlessly,well that would be pretty awesome, but... it doesn't.And as it is, the World Tour ismore frustrating than enjoyable.Dangerous Golf may be worthchecking out for the novelty alone, butit's one of those where I would saywait for a significant price drop before doing so.And if you enjoyed hearingmy take on Dangerous Golf,perhaps you would like to check outsome of my other videos here.There's new videos everyMonday and Friday here on LGR.I do my best to be dependable for you.So that means if youwanna subscribe, you can,but, you know, otherwise, just check backand see more stuff in the future.As well as support the show on Patreon.Thank you very much for helpingkeep things going over there.And as always, thanks very much for watching LGR.\n"