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!

Stellar Blade may have been the jumping off point, but sexiness in games goes far beyond and much further back than the latest entry in skin-tight clad protagonists. On today's show we dive into our likes and dislikes about sex in games, the Helldivers 2 Sony PSN debacle, and take your questions live! Well, not live if you're listening to it now. But it was live. You get it...

SupportOurBromance.com or Kyle will cosplay Quiet from MGS5.

After welcoming his third child into this world, Kyle has returned! Garrett catches up with Kyle and helps Kyle catch up on all of the things that he missed during his paternity leave. The new Fallout show, FFXIV Dawntrail drama, lots of baby sitting and birth stories, and of course… where babies come from? This episode goes places.

Marco returns to talk more than just music! Well of course music is also discussed. But Garrett and Marco talk shop about creating content for streams and Youtube, Honkai: Star Rail, Warframe, Helldiver 2, Final Fantasy 7, and the most underrated game soundtracks of all time.

Dawntrail is on its way! A release date has been announced for the upcoming Final Fantasy darling MMO. Garrett and Kyle give you the scoop to grind through your week. But first, Larian parts ways with the Hasbro juggernaut Dungeons and Dragons, to much celebration. Dragon's Dogma 2 doesn't make the best first impression, but true fans are too busy playing. Will the League of Legends MMO ever release? All this and more.

Garrett returns from the Mountains of Wrestling. Kyle was here but survived his venture to buy Warhammer paints. Helldivers Devs lash back at players on Discord causing a comment drama. Garrett and Kyle discuss the huge influence Toriyama had on the anime medium as a whole and their exposure to Dragon Ball Z growing up. Are crossovers going too far?! Your emails and more.

Beau Schwartz returns to the Podcast. Now having long completed his Diablo 4 quest for statue fandom, we play a little game we like to call Hot TAKES with the help of the live chat. We also discuss Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (spoiler free), Helldivers, State of MMOs and streaming life.

Garrett and Kyle both return from a Florida Disney weekend, no relation, with a pile of hot Monday news. After a thorough park review lacking of expert opinion, Garrett feels a great pull towards the water cooler of FF7 Rebirth. Elden Ring DLC is about to plow every release in the summer out of its way. Larian’s good deeds lead to Kyle's paranoia. And why is there a Borderlands movie? All this and more.

The Ministry of Truth has declared, Helldivers 2 is good y'all. You may have heard about the newest internet darling. Garrett and Kyle share the sentiment even if it did rain on their parade. And rain it did all over the renaissance fair. X-Men 97 is coming back in its Fox Kids glory. All the consoles are dead?!

Jesse Cox returns for the final grilling before the end of Endwalker. The test is stacked, the questions are hard and our memories are shit. Better than most? Maybe. Are there dragons in the Crystal Tower? Who has cloud hair? What characters are missing? What happens in patch content given the meta knowledge of the launcher? Jesse leaves no stone unturned, while Garrett and Kyle loose the stones. 

We’re cross-aisle, breaking down barriers, and having a lovely time doing it. On this week’s episode, Taliesin, half of Taliesin and Evitel, joins the show to discuss content creation, Final Fantasy 14 story, and WoW’s pursuits of that story. Taliesin streamed FF14 at the height of the “exodus” and had quite the journey. There’s no stopping this storytime.

2024 is feeling a whole lot like 2023 with layoffs continuing in the games industry. We take some time to talk about how the continuing cascade of lost jobs have now reached Riot and Blizzard, the Pokemon Company looking at getting legal with Palword, a cancelled Final Fantasy XIV live-action television adaptation, and which one of us is the best vocalist.

On this Monday episode of Grinding Gear, the new time btw: Palworld has taken the steam by storm, but is plagiarism afoot? Is Ai the villain in this tale? Is it really hard not to call them Pokemon. We are the judge! Garrett and Kyle also tell the tales of their many watchings and playings over the holiday break. Garrett is smitten by Freiren. Kyle’s friends conspire to get him a Tyranid army ready to paint.

Kyle and Garrett are in the house! Together! Join us for our first post-move podcast from Garrett’s redesigned studio space. Hear all about what happened during our break as Kyle moved and Garrett moved things out and into his studio. Also, is Indiana Jones shaping up to be an exciting game? The Xbox Developer Showcase gave everyone their first peak into it.

The Grindys, The Golden Gears, Best of 2023. This is the final official podcast record for the year 2023, and we have our own LEGALLY DISTINCT accolades to hand out. An absolute banger of a 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. While there may be some bonus shows on your feed, we will see you in 2024. Supportourbromance.com or Garrett will make Kyle watch live-action television next year.

Technically the podcast never left but we're back! Kyle has returned from his Jury Duty exile. The internet has continued to do what it does and Garrett’s got all the goods lined up. Twitch has set new rules regarding what has become known as the “Topless Meta”. The Video Game Awards continue to make dramatic waves as views argue over format and speech timers. In a real shocker, Kojima wants to make a movie. The Day Before is a truly bright burning dumpster fire. And so much more. One could say the subject material in this episode is “mature”, but we certainly aren't.

What a week! The bromance content has been upended due to jury duty. But we’re not going to let that stop us from getting up very early (EXTREMELY early for Kyle) and having a chat about this year’s Game Awards! Later in the show we also get into how jury duty has impacted our end-of-year schedule and how we’ve surpassed every goal we’ve set thanks to the gearbox!

The Holidays are incoming. Garrett and Kyle return from Thanksgiving festivities to bring you all the important happenings from the dinner table! Bungie is messing it up again, but we don’t have time for that. Fallout has a tv show incoming and it’s canonical. See the return of HOT TAKES as we collect your HOTTEST TAKES from the internet, we call it Unpopular Opinions, but we all know what they are.

It’s a Grinding Gear Thanksgiving! The podcast records early this week as we’ll both be out the rest of the week for the holiday! Join us as we give a Bromance Studio update, talk Scott Pilgrim, WoW Classic Hardcore, FFXIV Endwalker, and share our holiday traditions.

We have gathered an ELITE team of current, former, and cautious World of Warcraft content creators for our post-BlizzCon round-table. Previous GG guests Preach, Okaymage and Jesse Cox all make a triumphant return to talk WoW’s announcement for an upcoming and ongoing 5 year story. Blizzard has planted a flag, a beginning, middle, and end. A total rework of their narrative process with evergreen content. The beacon is lit.