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 s…

By Garrett Weinzierl & Kyle Fergusson

By Garrett Weinzierl & Kyle Fergusson

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 rock…

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.By Garrett Weinzierl & Kyle Fergusson

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 fundin…

By Garrett Weinzierl & Kyle Fergusson

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…

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 id…

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 …

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 m…

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.…

By Garrett Weinzierl & Kyle Fergusson

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 agr…

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!By Garrett Weinzierl & Kyle Fergusson

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 mom…

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. Yos…

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 World…

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 ti…

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 hou…

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 conten…

By Garrett Weinzierl, Kyle Fergusson, & llamatodd

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. Support…

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.By Garrett Weinzierl & Kyle Fergusson

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 wha…

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 Ec…

We are approaching the Holiday Season, which means it’s also the Award Season. Garrett has returned and has opinions on the FFXIV Mobile announcement. Can DLCs be game of the year? Will we have a big sweep? Or will all our favorites walk away a winner.By Garrett Weinzierl & Kyle Fergusson

Mr Happy returns to school the boys in Extreme Final Fantasy. After a full week of hardcore progging some midcore content, Garrett and Kyle have questions about boss design, 2 minute windows and more. No better guest for a trip down memory lane than the man who has been here for it all, Mr. Happy.By Garrett Weinzierl, Kyle Fergusson, & MrHappy

Top news of the week, 7.1 is incoming for Final Fantasy 14, but that’s not all! The final Halloween is here. Garrett watched the big movie of the year and Kyle has played Silent Hill 2. There’s a lot of Magic the Gathering on the brain and even some Monster Hunter Wilds viewed from afar. Emails and more!…

As we look forward to 7.1, we also look back at the MSQ that was Dawntrail with our friends Preach, Okaymage, and Jesse Cox.By Garrett Weinzierl, Kyle Fergusson, okaymage, Preach, & Jesse Cox

Can it be? 100 episodes of Grinding Gear! Has experienced 100th episodes makers we know whats best for this kind of event, a normal show. There are some big topics around the gaming space this week. MTG art, after a track record, is under fire for using Ai art. A Final Fantasy 14 article on PC gamer is pointing out the Midcore problems with end gam…

When last we left out intrepid Florida boys, they were hunkering down for Hurricane Milton on its way to Florida. We have come out the otherside safe but with many stories to tell. Two hosts, two different paths. Video games? We’ll get to em next time.By Garrett Weinzierl & Kyle Fergusson

On the eve of Hurricane Milton, we are boarded up and locked in. Florida is bringing out all the stops for Kyle’s first season and Garrett is an experienced storm rider. Even with weather on the horizon, it has been a while since we’ve had an event-free-guest-free episode. Garrett has been getting into Spooky Season and continuing Star Wars Outlaws…

We just had our first IRL GG Meet in Orlando, Florida! The podcast this week is the full live show we put on in front of a live crowd. Thanks again to everyone who came out to the show and all of you supporting us through Patreon and YouTube memberships. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to put on events like these.…

It's a big week here at Grinding Gear! Our first non-conference meetup is this weekend! YouTube metrics are wild. Spooky season begins. And much more!By Garrett Weinzierl & Kyle Fergusson

Endy is back! Space Marine 2 is out! And MMOs are cooking!By Garrett Weinzierl, Kyle Fergusson, & Endy

Final Fantasy 1 has been completed. Discuss.By Garrett Weinzierl & Kyle Fergusson

Okaymage makes her triumphant return to give us the inside scoop on World of Warcrafts newest expansion, The War Within. The perfect guest does indeed exist. Okaymage started playing WoW in Legion, well after the rose-tinted glasses of us olds. Jordan got deep into Mythic plus and raid content before taking their first break at the end of Shadowlan…

We are joined by Huskybythegeek, the video game guitar cover youtube artist, best known for the insanely huge FFXIV medley projects. In this musically focused gaming episode, we break down Husky’s staggering workflow to bring together 200 musicians as well as his history with gaming. For Garrett, there are Punk Rock conversations and Kyle is remind…

Every MMO is having a 2024 release? More on that later. Patreon is up to some biz. Under Apple pressure, they might be getting rid of our weekly-per-content-post format in favor of only supporting monthly posts. For now, do nothing, but we wanted you to hear about it from us. A slightly shaken Garrett and Kyle continue from there. Kyle has been on …

Frosty, host of FF14 esports, World First and the Mogtalk podcast joins the episode. Should we call him a community pillar? Is that still a phrase? The Community Pillar discusses what let down this wild road of content creation. What it was like being embraced by Square Enix for events and how that journey brought him to produce last week's World F…

Our AFK journey has concluded. Garrett and Kyle return from two weeks of touching grass, or more likely sandy beaches. Kyle has been completely Dadding off the grid, while Garrett in classic fashion stayed in tune with on goings. Speaking of ongoings, we got the official War Within Cinematic Trailer? Is this the trailer? Robert Downey Jr is coming …

We may be off on our family vacations, but that won’t stop us from releasing a podcast! Join us as we answer questions about tacos preferences, traveling, where we want to travel, our bucket lists, and much more!By Garrett Weinzierl & Kyle Fergusson

MrHappy visits the podcast. This episode is part history FFXIV lesson, part journey of content creation and part raid therapy. After meeting on the Dawntrail Media Tour, Garrett and Kyle sit down with the prolific guide and video maker for a peek behind the curtain of the FFXIV raid scene and its many innerworkings. A truly joyous and wild chat.…

By Garrett Weinzierl & Kyle Fergusson

Dawntrail approaches. The table assembles.By Garrett Weinzierl, Kyle Fergusson, okaymage, Preach, & Jesse Cox

Games! So many games. Three presentations worth of games to be exact. Sony State of Play, Xbox Showcase and Summer Games Fest have all cruised by and it’s time to review. Stand outs? The dregs? The ups the downs. Listen to find out. Will there be hat eating? Could be.By Garrett Weinzierl & Kyle Fergusson

The classic offline episode, with that classic vibe. We bring you limited stories from our absence, along with a helping of video game and movie news. Is war coming to the republic? Did you read that in a Clone Wars intro voice? Rumors circulate of a Total War Star Wars in production. Value won’t let you inherit a Steam account. Beetlejuice 2 makes…

Our guest today is an actor on stage, screen, and games. You may know him from Doctor Who, Leonardo, the brand new Hades 2, but if you’re watching this stream or listening to this podcast we would bet you know him as Alphinaud from Final Fantasy 14. Today we’re joined by Colin Ryan!By Garrett Weinzierl, Kyle Fergusson, & Colin Ryan