Does This Game Still Hold Up?

Gears of War 3 brings the trilogy home with its best campaign, best horde mode and the most emotionally satisfying ending of the three games, and Lennon and David break down Dom’s long-overdue farewell, the fortification system that made horde mode genuinely addictive, a golden fire-breathing chicken, and why the gunplay in 2026 still feels incredible.

Gears of War 2 takes everything that worked about the original and dials it up to eleven, and Lennon and David revisit Epic Games’ 2008 sequel to find out if the bigger battles, the worm section, the razor hail, Dom’s heartbreaking Maria storyline, and the introduction of horde mode still hold up in 2026. Spoiler: it absolutely does, and it might be the best game in the trilogy.

Gears of War turns twenty this year, and Lennon and David revisit Epic Games’ cover shooter classic to find out if Marcus Fenix and his soul patch still hold up in 2026, covering the cover mechanics that changed an entire genre, the piss filter, brain-dead ally AI, the Berserker that gave David actual nightmares, and why the gameplay carries everything the story doesn’t need to. Next week, Maria goes missing in Gears of War 2.

Dead Rising 2 Off the Record swaps Chuck Greene for Frank West in a what-if retelling of Fortune City's zombie outbreak, and Lennon and David break down whether the fan service holds up, covering the photography mechanic returning, the story's plot holes, an absolutely deranged number of looters, and why the vanilla Dead Rising 2 is still the better experience. Next week, they start a new trilogy with Gears of War 1.

Dead Rising 2 drops Frank West's camera and replaces it with Chuck Greene, a motocross dad racing against the clock to keep his zombie-bitten daughter alive across the neon-soaked casino floors of Fortune City, and Lennon and David break down why Blue Castle Games' 2010 sequel still holds up as one of the best examples of a sequel that expands on its predecessor without losing what made it great. They cover Fortune City, the combo weapons, the psychopaths, the money economy, Case Zero, and why Rebecca Chang deserved better.

Frank West has covered wars you know, and Lennon and David revisit Dead Rising one across both the 2006 original and the Deluxe Remaster to find out if Capcom's shopping mall zombie survival classic still holds up twenty years later. They cover the survivor AI, the psychopaths, the tonal changes in the remaster, Frank's new voice, and why this game's premise still hits differently to almost anything else out there.

Wolfenstein Youngblood has the Wolfenstein name, the Paris setting, Nazi-killing gunplay that feels as good as The New Colossus, and almost nothing else that made the previous two games great. Lennon and David break down the bullet sponge enemies, the aimless hub world backtracking, and the twin protagonists who feel like they wandered in from a different franchise.

Wolfenstein The New Colossus picks up where The New Order left off and improves on it in nearly every way, as Lennon plays it for the first time and David revisits it to find out if Machine Games' 2017 sequel still holds up in 2026.

Wolfenstein The New Order drops BJ Blazkowicz into an alternate 1960 where the Nazis won World War II, and Lennon plays it for the first time while David revisits it to find out if Machine Games' 2014 FPS revival still holds up in 2026. The dual wield machine guns, the brutal pacing and the genuinely interesting alternate history setting all land.

Prototype 2 is bigger, slicker and more fun than the original in pretty much every way, and Lennon plays it for the first time while David revisits it to find out if James Heller's revenge story holds up better than Alex Mercer's edgelord origin in 2026.