The Sunday Papers: Brenda Romero, Carcass Clad, and More

The Sunday Papers opens with a familiar ritual: a tentative cycle into the woods to test whether the legs still work after a week of cross-country riding. The climb upstairs has been a daily struggle, muscles reduced to vapours of energy. But once the ride is done and the collapse into bed comes, the real work begins. Heavy reading. Exercise for the old noggin.

Brenda Romero has published a piece of playable literature over on Aftermath, a memoir told through the overlappings of history within a single house. I sat down to glance at Chasing Lilacs and found myself gripped until its end. That's rare. It opens with a door, specifically the front door, a space too small for words like entryway or foyer, and it tells the story of a two-year-old watching her father greet her older sister's date at that same threshold. He hands the young man a lead pipe and says, “Bend this, and you can take my daughter out.” The young man struggles, fails, and hands it back. The father bends it into a U with arms worked hard by a lifetime of labour, then walks back to the living room and sits down in front of the TV. And the sister, mortified, races out the front door trying to explain her father's odd sense of humour. So we're left with that image.

A Lesson in Previews

The Guardian has kicked off its annual Summer Game Previews. These are short, 500-word dives into upcoming games, and honestly, they're a delicious challenge to write. Developers can be so generous with their time that it's easy to overload a piece with their words and completely lose sight of detailing the game itself, which is the whole point of the exercise. James Nouch’s write-up of Mouthwashing developer Wrong Organ’s upcoming game Carcass Clad shows how to do it well. So read that one closely.

When you’re planning a follow-up to something so pitilessly nasty, how do you raise the stakes? You could set the entire game in the stifling crew compartment of a heavily armoured tank, a coffin-like interior you share with two other players as you co-operatively attempt to pilot your beleaguered war machine to safety through the crumbling remains of a city in enemy territory.

While there's some tonal overlap, the roaring engine powering Carcass Clad is gameplay rather than scriptwriting. Tomec, the gameplay lead, puts it plainly: “In Mouthwashing, every single thing we were doing was about trying to make that script come to life in any way possible. Every gameplay sequence, everything you do at every point is just there to make that story hit. And Carcass Clad is fundamentally not that kind of game. This is a gameplay-driven experience.”

The Mid World Problem

Callum fell out of love with Beast of Reincarnation during his review. It's a familiar story. But over at Remap, Patrick Klepek and Rob Zacny explore why its "mid world" can provide pleasure, and they don't frame that exploration as a contradiction of Callum's feelings, instead they argue that not reviewing a game can open it up to be enjoyed in ways that traditional criticism often misses. So that's the twist.

It’s a deeply unambitious action game from Game Freak, the developers of Pokémon, that rarely transcends its influences. A special girl in a corrupted world destined to save it. A fun, if repetitive, combat system that owes a great debt to Devil May Cry and From Software. A world that’s somehow too big and too small, largely devoid of stuff to do. It is, by every definition, mid. 7/10.

But here’s the thing: Rob is enjoying his time with it. It’s not great. It’s mostly good. That enjoyment might come with an expiration date, a joy that empties long before the credits roll. These games tend to be 10 hours too long, and there’s a tendency to pre-emptively exhaust yourself by spending too much plucking around the world.

The No Man’s Sky Story

No Man’s Sky’s August 2016 launch was, of course, a controversial one, but the first signs of a renaissance arrived just a few months later when Hello Games released the Foundation Update, adding base building and more. From the inside, was there ever such an obvious turning point?

Sean Murray doesn’t see it that way. “The nice story is that there’s this redemption arc, this comeback,” he says, “and that there would be some sort of inflection point for the team; like, ‘Oh, we were doing things one way, and then we learned this important lesson, and now we do things a different way.’” But that isn’t really accurate. “That isn’t really the story of No Man’s Sky and the story of the team .. This team is incredible and has always been incredible; I feel super proud of what they released. I feel super proud of what they’re doing now, and they have always been this team that has just cared so much about this game and so much about the community. And I think that shines through.”

Accountability in Horror

The video landed on December 14, 2025. In it, Evelina Zemljic, a former community manager at Critical Reflex, publicly accused CEO Rita Lebedeva and her ex-colleague Ted Hentschke, who now runs Polish horror publisher Black Lantern Collective as its CEO and co-founder, of mistreating her during her time at the company. Shockwaves rippled through the fast-growing indie horror scene. So other developers and industry pros stepped forward with similar claims. It didn't take long for the story to spiral.

• These claims went beyond Critical Reflex, known for publishing horror hits like Mouthwashing.
• Some accused Hentschke of sexually harassing them during his time as head of production at Dread X Collection publisher Dread XP.
• It’s been eight months. None of these companies ever released public statements.

It’s left developers and accusers wondering: did Hentschke or Lebedeva face any accountability for their alleged behavior?

Fire on the Horizon

To round things out on a low note, there's the news of wildfires in Europe. This year seems to mark a knot in the fabric that can't be smoothed out. We've passed the years of warnings. So now we will feel the growing heat year after year, a slow and relentless climb that no summit meeting or policy pledge can reverse, and each summer will arrive with its own fresh terror. Jeremy Harding, writing for the LRB, dives into the many warnings and cancelled fire safety programs in France which exacerbated the recent blazes. It's a grim accounting. But he lays it all bare.

So far this year four firefighters have lost their lives across France. They and their comrades who battle on are rightly praised by politicians and media for their endurance. But there is smouldering anger in the ranks about the bureaucratic reluctance to update their equipment. In 2024 Macron’s fly-by prime minister Gabriel Attal, who lasted nine months in office, cancelled a central government loan that would have allowed the fire department to benefit from new amphibious firefighting aircraft.

Twelve planes sit in France’s fleet today. But when the fires began this summer, only seven or eight were in service. By late July, eleven were mission worthy. These workhorse Canadairs, known in France as pelicans, are put to the test with every sortie and require intensive maintenance, so ground staff and pilots insist that the engines need replacing regularly. In July the interior minister assured the public that a dozen spare engines were fully serviced and ready to go. In fact, nine engines were still in the workshops. That’s the reality. As matters stand, France’s Canadair fleet has two spare engines at its disposal, and it’s backed up by nine DHC Dash aircraft, mostly spraying fire retardant, and this year by Black Hawk helicopters, courtesy of the Czech Republic.

So, how to end, how to end? What music to share? Last weekend I was travelling north, passing through train stations I’ve not visited for years. With that in mind, how about a little Vashti Bunyan? No? What about some Elbow? Still not your speed, I have just the thing: Steve Reich.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the focus keyword for this article?

The focus keyword is 'The Sunday Papers'. It is mentioned as the opening of the article, which describes a ritual of cycling into the woods and then engaging in heavy reading.

Who wrote the playable literature 'Chasing Lilacs' and where was it published?

Brenda Romero wrote 'Chasing Lilacs' and it was published on Aftermath. The article describes it as a memoir told through the overlappings of history within a single house, and the author found it gripping until the end.

How does Carcass Clad differ from Mouthwashing according to the gameplay lead Tomec?

Tomec, the gameplay lead, states that in Mouthwashing, every gameplay sequence was designed to make the script come to life, but Carcass Clad is fundamentally not that kind of game. He says Carcass Clad is a gameplay-driven experience, not scriptwriting-driven.

Why does Rob enjoy playing the game 'Beast of Reincarnation' despite it being described as 'mid'?

Rob is enjoying his time with it even though it's not great and mostly good, with an enjoyment that might expire before the credits roll. The article suggests that not reviewing a game can open it up to be enjoyed in ways that traditional criticism often misses.

What did Sean Murray say about the turning point in No Man's Sky's development?

Sean Murray does not see a clear inflection point or redemption arc; he says that isn't the story of No Man's Sky and the team. He believes the team has always been incredible and has always cared deeply about the game and the community.