Explore every episode of the podcast The Grinding Gear Podcast

We played Deadlock. A lot of Deadlock. The memes are true, it will overwhelm you and you'll be left wanting more. Kyle is happy to report that Slay the Spire 2 is more Slay the Spire, exactly what we wanted. Garrett played World of Warcraft, and its exactly what he wanted. Nintendo sueing America? Everyone wants that. But it seems not everyone wanted FF14 loot? This is GG Podcast. Supportourbromance.com or we'll make Grinding Gear 2, but it will be DIFFERENT! '

Games come and games go, some fast and some slow. This is Grinding Gear podcast where we discuss all the industry happenings, along with our own retro journey. Sony Pulls back from games on PC. Resident Evil 9 sold well, but lacks cultural splash. Highguard announces final update. Crimson Desert hype is building? Pokopia crits player desires. We've been playing Arc Raiders, RE1, Minecraft, FF14 and Deadlock.

Jesse and Preach return to the Podcast to discuss the MSQ that was and the surrounding state of MMOs. Final Fantasy XIV has delivered a tight patch and a glimpse at where the story is heading. We question what will be important later, who are the Winterers, the Squirrel Suit, what was Yoshi P hinting at and much much more. Fan Fest will be here before we know it and the Roundtable shall return. Supportourbromance.com or Alphinaud will just stand there in 8.0.

You’ll take our PCs from our old RAM hands! On the GG podcast this week Kyle is lost in the BG3 sauce again, Garrett gets sold on Blue Mage, Highguard sure has low hype, AI might be on the ropes, and folks want to know about Garrett’s NYC adventures!

The Grindys, The Golden Gears, Return! The Best of 2025. What a year it has been. GG has survived several YouTube-polyspes and played many games. Some retro, but more modern than our normal affair. This is the final official podcast record for the year 2025 and we have our own LEGALLY DISTINCT accolades to hand out. An insane year for video games comes to a close. Who will win “Best I Think It’s an Indie game” and who will walk away with Brightest Dumpster Fire. Our plans are big for 2026, we’ll see you then. Supportourbromance.com for a big new year of GG in 2026! That’s no joke. 

Jesse Cox returns to the show to discuss the Game Awards! The reveals, the trailers, the gossip and the awards. Fathoming Highgaurd and trying to sell us on Ace Combat. What is Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic? How much goo fits in a single Divinity body? These are all classic questions that Garrett and Kyle need answers for. We are also on the eve of a fresh new Final Fantasy XIV MSQ Patch. We all played Dispatch too. Supportourbromance.com and you too can get that WB face. 

Guild Wars 1, Octopath 0, new FFXIV content on the horizon, revisiting our favorite childhood films, talking smack about Tarantino talking smack, and exploring Jujutsu Kaisen! ALL on today’s episode of the GG Podcast!

We touched the grass, ate the turkey and watched the sports ball. Video game discord trudged on. With these perspectives, we return to ai up to its old bull. Banana Fish has been released on Amazon Prime Video with a horrid case of the Computer voice for the english dub. Where Winds Meet’s ai chat bots are being tricked into completing quests early. In other news, Team Cherry wants to make new things, Jeff Keighley has found a terrible portal and Kyle’s voice is going out!

The Game Awards nominees are here! Let’s see how many Expedition 33 racked up and who else broke through! On top of that Yoshi P is out here hyping up the next chapter for FFXIV, WoW housing is bumming us out, and Steam Machines are back and made by Valve!

Expedition 33 special with music YouTube extraordinaire, MarcoMeatball is today’s offering! Marco joins the boys to talk not just about the exceptional music of Clair Obscure. But also it’s story and the hot takes that start flying around chat whenever someone gets to the ending. Enjoy this deep dive in Sandfall’s first game as well as our brains’ as content creators!

Will Pokemon save us from the Ai? Stormgate, you remember Stormgate right? Tim Morten had a rather honest rundown of where he feels the post-Blizzard design team went wrong and brings up the changing landscape of Venture Capital. The episode can’t help but get real on the eve of Pokemon’s release. Love em or hate em, Nintendo is about to drop another massive Poke’drama’pocalypse into the world as reviews come in around 8/10. Xbox continues its cursed run by talking about an upcoming “ad supported” tier of Xbox Game Pass. We’re both playing Megabonk. Emails and more.

The Round Table gathers. 7.3: The Promise of Tomorrow MSQ ends the Dawntrail ark in traditional fashion. Garrett, Kyle and Jesse freshen themselves up on the story happenings, having played it back in August. Preach, recently caught up, shares a fresh viewer's perspective. Is Calyx around for the long haul? What does that mean for the story and Sphene? What lessons have the devs learned from Dawntrail and what will they carry into the future. One thing is clear, FFXIV is a story first game and it’s future rides on its ability to capture it’s fans once again. 7.3 seems a solid start.

A day of many trailers, of many announcements. Kojima Productions, Capcom, Star Wars, Silent Hill and more. The Prince of Sweden is giving awards to Split Fiction. Fornite is trying proximity voice chat. The Expedition 33 continues, Garrett’s playing Hollow Knight and Kyle is READING BOOKS?! 

Nintendo Direct! New HOTS patch! The problem with game music. AND SO MUCH MORE! SupportOurBromance.com or… well we won’t enshittify. So, thanks for the support!

The tubes are on fire. Or maybe they have been for a month. In a massive conspiracy turned reality, YouTubers found that they’re views have dropped by half in the month of August due to YouTube’s new features. Indie games don't know how to price themselves in the wake of Silksong’s release. We got the Yoshi P interview round up covering all the teases and perhaps walkbacks on the upcoming job update. Blizzard continues to C&D classic plus private servers. Hollow Knight, Expedition 33 and more.  Supportourbromance.com if you're a player who likes change, but also for everything to remain the same, with exciting changes on the horizon.

Expedition 33 talk later, news first. Silksong is only $20 but Monster Hunter Wilds certainly wasn't. Blizzard shuts down Turtle wow, or plans to. Yoshi-P asks people to be nicer. Then our thoughts on the first 3 hours of Expedition 33. Emails and More

Video games! More are coming and the ones that are here are under debate. Thats Gamescom 2025 for ya. A few winners grabbed our attention. Kyle is playing Hollow Knight. Crossovers be damned, MTG Airbender is looking real good. World of WarCraft showed off its newest expansion Midnight. Pick your side, because FFXIV mods lovers and haters are at each other this week. We got the full rundown to help you pick your side. Garrett’s watching Evangelion as an adult. All this and more. 

The merch cluster is under attack. Pokemon Worlds took place in Anaheim this week and it was invaded by SCALPERS. While Garrett and Kyle attempt to fathom this, Japanese McDonald’s was also forced to end their Pokemon Happy Meal tie-in early. Gamescom is tomorrow, and World of Warcraft is set to show its newest cinematic for Midnight. Dandadan, Alien: Earth, and so much more.

The World of Warcraft news cycle has begun with the approach of their Midnight expansion Cinematic. WoW plans to get rid of Addons, going the FFXIV route and freeing themselves of their ever escalating arms race. WoW has also claimed massive success with their recent One Button rotation option. Final Fantasy XIV has sales down by 23%, but what does that even mean? We watched Kpop Demon Hunters, Dandadan and more.

We’re back after our collective grass touching. Garrett and Kyle have toured Florida and return to, what ever all this is. Collective Shout is taking down Games with the help of Mastercard? GameStop is getting in to the business of “graded” Pokemon Cards. There was some weird FFXIV drama while we were away, but ultimately the Live Letter did have some surprises, including a key-like-system. Pokemon, Metroid and Castlevania have all been streamed! Let’s see how it went. Supportourbromance.com or he will never stop coming.

It’s that slow summer time for gaming news, and the bad news rings loud and clear. The Microsoft layoffs have rocked the industry, stopping some games while they were deep in production. The company claims everything in the 2025 Showcase is safe, but what about the games we didn't see? In good news, Stop Killing Games finds its footing after a rocky start. Plagued with misunderstood goals and dismissive assumptions, it seems the EU based initiative has finally taken off after finding its villain. FF14 pulled a weird thing in there cash shop. We spent the weekend playing MTG. All this and more. Supportourbromance.com or you’ll be thinking about cheesecake.  

Why would Nintendo stop fun? Is Leon not scared? Can you play Death Stranding 2 without 1? Will Final Fantasy feel the heat of Expedition 33s success? Most of these questions will be answered, but us! With a sizable discussion about our post savage experience. 

When the drama is so juicy it summons a guest! Garrett and Kyle are back to run you through this weeks ongoing gaming happenings, but by the time they got to Final Fantasy 14, a frequent guest had appeared in the live chat. After dropping a few choice opinions, might as well have him on right? So Jesse Cox joins the show, to discuss the FF14 funding conversations going around and what World of Warcraft is bringing to the table. Check the livestream for bonus MTG cards talk.

Not-E3 has concluded. A mad dash through trailers. A dizzying assault of the senses. What stood out? What got lost? Well first, Garrett got a Switch, and we sat down and played a big chunk of Mario Kart World. Sony State of Play, Summer Game Fest and Xbox showcase all tackled in order. Our list might not match yours, but we all walked away with the same conclusions. That’s a lot of games! 

We’ve got a big channel update video out over on the Grinding Gear YouTube channel right now. Go give it a watch to see our new studio setup and hear what’s in store for what might be the next ten+ years of our lives. Nightreign is dominating our minds and while it’s not perfect, that’s also what’s great about it. We have ideas, the internet has ideas, lets see if this games got legs after selling 2 million copies. It’s Switch 2 release week and there is an odd quite in the air. There is a new D&D game coming from the makes of Star Wars Jedi. All this, teases and more. Go watch the video!

Good games are good. And we’ve played some GOOD games. We didn’t know we needed to play Blue Prince but we love it, and must play more. Monster Train 2 is more of the same, which is a very good thing. Final Fantasy XIV unleashed is Field Operation patch and its a solid compliment to the game, though many say they aren’t returning to play it. Elden Ring Nightreign approaches. And more! Supportourbromance.com and your VAC ducts will align. 

Grab your briefcase of your biggest words, gaming is doing the thing again. Bungie has been caught stealing art, but it’s not just art, it’s the whole look of Marathon. Ai Vader is dropping F-bombs in Fortnite. WoW housing is real, though they were a bit secretive about what could be shared. Magic the Gathering is doing great though. All this and more.

Sick hosts, but sick games! GTA 6 has a release date and trailer 2 is out. World of Warcraft is giving players a way to play with a single button. The Final Fantasy Magic the Gathering set is now the fastest selling pre-order ever. Elden Ring Nightreign is looking real good. All this and a big dose of thanks from our sickness addled brains.

The Roundtable assembles once more. All elustrious members have returned: Jesse Cox, Okaymage and Preachgaming. The cloud has lifted and celebrations ring out over the internet as MSQ returns. But who is the real bad of this expansion? Is it the new Calyx or is there a more sinister face in plain view? Will baby king say "I'm in"? Will the crew agree on Arcadion shipping? That last one wont happen, but the rest will!

Switch 2 is switching it up, with more expensive games? The line-up is unconvincing, but has some mysterious gems. Our WoW Hardcore adventure is underway with Jocat, Squidsena and Girl_DM. Lots of details on our dangerous adventures. FF14 got hard. We’ve said that before but the expansion keeps getting harder. All this and more.

Mrhappy joins us for a look at the 7.2 FFXIV Patch and a history lesson! SupportOurBromance.com or we’ll make you job simpler!

Jesse Cox returns to the show and we have a big deep dive on the upcoming 7.2 patch named “Seekers of Eternity”. An intense three months of content are lined up ahead of us, including the Occult Crescent field operation, which Jesse is keen to explore the lore gravatas of. Naturally eyes turn to the MSQ on the horizon, with cooks a’ plenty on a moment to moment breakdown of the trailer. You know there is more, cause Jesse is here. A lot more!

Wilds and Wyoming! Garrett and Kyle return from giving a lecture at the University of Wyoming and tell stories of their journey. Garrett got touched by snow, Kyle praises Steamdeck. Wilds Chapter 3 spoiler warning! We have a passionate chat about the story so far in Wilds and it’s hits and misses. T-rex doesn’t want to be fed, he wants to hunt. Yoshi-P is “stepping down”, “fired” or none of the above. In fact we have some hot FF14 news thats about as scandalous as the sun rising. All this and more.

Long time requested guest Rurikhan joins the episode for a massive Monster Hunter breakdown. New players Garrett and Kyle get a glimpse at the development history and evolution of the franchise as we approach the much anticipated Monster Hunter Wilds release. Pack with tips, tricks and stories for Hunters of every level (in particular for the Worlds players out there). Supportourbromance.com or knights will be dispatched for failed investigations!

Like the monsters hunt, this episode is sneaking up on ya. Garrett and Kyle spend the week diving DEEP into Monster Hunter World, even exploring the beta for Monster Hunter Wilds last night. In short, smitten. After a rough run in with the game 2 years ago, the GG boys forsook the hunt, but have fallen in love with this meety RPG. During a quite time for MMOs, this MMO Lite has been promise, if their 2018 entry is any proof. Emails and more.

Victorious and offline. Garrett and Kyle have completed their savage journey for the moment with the downing of Wicked Thunder last night in FFXIV. Their month long journey comes to a close just in time to catch a wave of Monster Hunter Wilds beta play next week. Weapons shall be selected, monsters shall be hit with them. WoW flexes an upcoming housing update in FFXIVs direction. Dinosaurs and more.

Games approach! Xbox Developer Direct, Switch 2, and games-that-feel-safe-from GTA. Garrett and Kyle also enter the news cycle of FF14 and find it full of assumptions. The odd thing is that all these assumptions are true, but it does make for some odd coverage. We do have some facts though. 7.2 live letter approaches and the next big wave of content prepares to hit the game. Emails and more. 

Garrett never left, Kyle returns! Garrett has been holding down the fort with the JRPG darling, Metaphor ReFantazio, but had his struggles. Kyle reports on his domestic adventure culminating in a Steam Deck review of Rogue Trader. Apparently while we were “gone” the FF14 doomsaying department was in full blast, but numbers can be deceiving.  Supportourbromance.com or we’ll put a big head in the sky.

The Grindys, The Golden Gears, Best of 2024. This is the final official podcast record for the year 2024, and we have our own LEGALLY DISTINCT accolades to hand out. A wild and packed year of video games. Who better to dish out the accolades then two dudes who play too much MMO. 

The MSQ Roundtable has assembled once more. Preach, Okaymage, and Jesse Cox have all returned to discuss the major story content that was released in the semi-recent “Crossroads” 7.1. The Story following Baby King and everyone's new favorite Jafar Ja lizard. The entire roundtable is now living the current life. Divining what will be released in what patch, what story beats will be covered where and what that means of the future of Final Fantasy as a whole. 

Following the swift completion of the recent Futures Rewritten Ultimate Race to World First, we have assembled a crack team of panalists to discuss the raid and the drama that followed. Mr Happy is fresh off his completion of the Ultimate. Llamatodd joins the show for the first time after casting the first clear moments. Okaymage is still in the Echo studio! So add-us-on to your schedule, plugin your headphones and listen to these tools.