Into The Nexus: The Heroes Of The Storm Podcast

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.

A packed week means a packed show. A Zelda Movie? Grand Theft Auto 6? Transparent MMO Design? What do all these things have in common? They all happened this week. Garrett is back in the World of Warcraft and for Retail no less with the Season of Discovery around the corner. If there is a fence, Kyle is behind it, maybe even still purchasing the wood. Remakes, remasters, 2024 incoming, and more.

Immediately following the BlizzCon Opening ceremony live watch, Garrett and Kyle take a seat to talk about the hits, misfires and mysteries. It should be no secret that you won't be hearing much about the Overwatch news. Diablo was also limited. The biggest hitter was the Warcraft section which features a Co-op Hearthstone Battlegrounds Mode, and a three expansion plan for the games narrative going forward. The comparisons to Final Fantasy 14 are not lost on us. News will continue to develop over the weekend, so enjoy this hot-off-the-press coverage.

We may be cross-country again, but we are ever so close to our goals! This is the Grinding Gear Podcast. Travel meant movie time for Kyle and he was delighted by a certain reference in Mutant Mayhem. Garrett turns back the clock to talk about the ABK Acquisition. Speaking of that clock, Heroes of the Storm received a sizable PTR patch. Mostly bug fixes, but many will absolutely affect balance. Is Microsoft taking Heroes to Game Pass? Spiderman 2 and Lies of P are on the menu. The new FF14 job got announced at Fanfest and frankly were stoked for different reasons. All this and more.

What a week! We have announced The Bromance Studio. The big drive is underway. Podcast will soon be recorded TOGETHER and oh so much more. In this episode you will learn all about the Studio plans, how long we’ve had to keep this secret and so much more. Kyle had trouble picking a publicly played plane game. Garrett has continued his Cyberpunk journey. You might learn something. You might learn more than you need to. Supportourbromance.com and we’ll build a studio. Now that’s a threat you can count on.

Okaymage, WoW caster and FF14 streamer, joins the episode! Okaymage has been on quite the content creation trajectory and is here to tell her story. With no RPG experience, coming straight from League of Legend to World of Warcraft, and making Frost Mage guides, she has developed a massive following due to her MSQ streams. Join in for the takes, the licks and the minty fresh podcast.

A guest filled episode of Halloween gaming and Hot Takes! Grinding Gears own moderator, Dirty 30’s Reviewer (more incoming) and CEO of the House Kristen Ashton joins the episode, along side the MSQurator Jon Jagger. After hearing the previous Unpopular Opinions game, both were eager to take the stage and face their own pile of HOT TAKES!

Endy_D20, FFXIV streamer, previous WoW player, forever Dungeon Master and surprise Heroes of the Storm fan, joins the podcast today! A much requested guest who just wrapped his playthrough of the MSQ, Endy is the perfect guest for a thoughtful week in the MMO sphere. Chris Metzen returns to the WoW team, sparking a whirlwind of conversation across the internet. MMOs have tight competition in such a packed year. Endy shares a delightful journey, including tips for starting your own streams.

The bountiful riches of video games and adjacent content as we GRIND through the end of your week. Cyberpunk 2.0 is out and they want you to start a new game. Onimusha is getting a Netflix adaptation, with mixed reactions. Lies of P has a special sauce, and we’ve got a review from the Fromsoft expert in these parts. Lastly, Final Fantasy 14 is putting out a Tabletop RPG, with an unknown system.