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The Guardian
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 review – reality-bending daftness
The haunted house has become a ripe location in which to set weird video games. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, Blue Prince, Botany Manor and Layers of Fear spring to mind. The manor as a site of danger, supernatural peril, untrustworthy architecture – perfect, surely, for an unsettling experience. Or even a silly experience in unsettling surroundings. Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 promises much in its title. It presents initially as a high-concept dinosaur-hunting adventure in spooky house run by a sinister old mogul, then quickly reveals to the player that it knows it is a video game. A broken video game, that is, and it is up to us to patch it as we go. The player explores the mansion through text and puzzle vignettes, pushing the limits on every scenario in the hopes of finding bugs and glitches, ultimately in the hope of defying the wishes of the unseen developers and 'finishing' the game themself. This is a big concept, but the game seems to be interested in telling us its ideas rather than showing them to us – or demonstrating them within the play itself. The combat system through which our butch, confused protagonist operates is a clever little game of match three, the rules of which bend and flex depending on what he is fighting. Sometimes it is a dinosaur with a gun. Sometimes it is a tripwire, sometimes it is a legion of clones – sometimes his own clone. Sometimes it is talking vegetables. Sometimes a dinosaur in a wig. The silliness is one note and becomes flat quickly, saved only by the pleasing nature of the puzzles. Still, in order to have an effective game of match three – or, frankly, Candy Crush – you have to use high-contrast colours to make it kinder on the player. There were rounds when I played in which the symbols were really difficult to differentiate, which interrupted the otherwise pleasing flow. This visual issue is not limited to the puzzles: the entire colour palette of this game is muddy. It neither commits to the gothic nor leans full chaos. The same issues applies to the text. The game is text based, but the dialogue and descriptive writing are as muddy as the visuals. The jokes are fine, though they aim to be subversive and shocking (dinosaur romance being a recurring gag). However, the game being about gameplay and game development means that much of the descriptions are couched in jargon. Discussions of files and version history are beyond inside baseball. So if you are a seasoned enough gamer to be up to speed with the meta language, surely you don't need swearwords to be starred out. Surely we were all laughing at dinosaur romance five years ago. The writing is so close to great. It just needed to be sharper. The art style is sketchy, but not in a way that evokes a deliberate aesthetic. There are times in which reality is said, by the text, to be bending and glitching. There are moments in which we disappear into voids and exit the world. There is even a somewhat climactic moment in which we enter the internet. Still, the visuals pull their punches. These strange occurrences can be evoked with drawings and don't require flashy graphics. I recognise the illustrative style is deliberate but the game would have been better served by even a little more playfulness, or even intentionality, in the art style. Two moments did make me laugh – one involving some unexpected clowns, the other, pets – when the visual style actually did move into the meta and demonstrate some of what the game tells us it is about. I wanted to love this game. On paper it is outrageous. Strange Scaffold, the developer, is known for the weird – notably Clickholding, which is sinister, experimental and truly queries what a game is in its execution (there is a lot of clicking, and being watched in the action of clicking). Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 certainly is creepy, and set in a mansion, and does have dinosaurs and some really satisfying puzzles. It also has some great ideas and isn't quite a failed experiment. While it doesn't bend reality in the way that it seems to want to, it aims high, and if the player can manage the places where the aesthetic falls short, they'll have a great time. They might even meet a nice, blond dinosaur they can take home with them. Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 is out now, £15.99
Sky News
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News
BAFTA Games Awards: Full list of winners
The BAFTA Games Awards celebrate gaming excellence and creative achievement in the best games of the last year. Hosted by comedian Phil Wang for the second year running, the biggest names in gaming gathered at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall. With 41 games nominated across 17 categories, here are all the winners - in bold - from the night. Animation Astro Bot Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 LEGO Horizon Adventures Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Thank Goodness You're Here! Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Artistic Achievement Astro Bot Black Myth: Wukong Harold Halibut Neva Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Still Wakes the Deep Audio Achievement ANIMAL WELL Astro Bot Helldivers 2 Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Star Wars Outlaws Still Wakes the Deep Best Game Astro Bot Balatro Black Myth: Wukong Helldivers 2 The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Thank Goodness You're Here! British Game A Highland Song LEGO Horizon Adventures Paper Trail Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Still Wakes the Deep Thank Goodness You're Here! Debut Game ANIMAL WELL Balatro Pacific Drive The Plucky Squire Tales of Kenzera: ZAU Thank Goodness You're Here! Evolving Game Diablo IV FINAL FANTASY XIV ONLINE No Man's Sky Sea of Thieves Vampire Survivors World of Warcraft Family Astro Bot Cat Quest III LEGO Horizon Adventures Little Kitty, Big City The Plucky Squire Super Mario Party Jamboree Game Beyond Entertainment Botany Manor Kind Words 2 (lofi city pop) Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Tales of Kenzera: ZAU Tetris Forever Vampire Therapist Game Design ANIMAL WELL Astro Bot Balatro Helldivers 2 The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Tactical Breach Wizards Multiplayer Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Helldivers 2 LEGO Horizon Adventures Super Mario Party Jamboree TEKKEN 8 Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Music Astro Bot Black Myth: Wukong FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH Helldivers 2 Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Star Wars Outlaws Narrative Black Myth: Wukong Dragon Age: The Veilguard FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH Metaphor: ReFantazio Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Still Wakes the Deep New Intellectual Property ANIMAL WELL Balatro Black Myth: Wukong Metaphor: ReFantazio Still Wakes the Deep Thank Goodness You're Here! Technical Achievement Astro Bot Black Myth: Wukong Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Tiny Glade Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Performer in a Leading Role Alec Newman as Cameron 'Caz' McLeary in Still Wakes the Deep Humberly González as Kay Vess in Star Wars Outlaws Isabella Inchbald as Indika in INDIKA Luke Roberts as James Sunderland in SILENT HILL 2 Melina Juergens as Senua in Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Y'lan Noel as Troy Marshall in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Performer in a Supporting Role Abbi Greenland & Helen Goalen as The Furies in Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Aldís Amah Hamilton as Ástríðr in Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Jon Blyth as Big Ron in Thank Goodness You're Here! Karen Dunbar as Finlay in Still Wakes the Deep Matt Berry as Herbert the Gardner in Thank Goodness You're Here! Michael Abubakar as Brodie in Still Wakes the Deep
