Casual Yelling

Do you have strong food opinions? For some reason, I do! "No ketchup on hot dogs" is a well-known cultural staple of Chicagoland. But why? Is it because Chicago just wants some form of identity because everyone won't stop talking about LA and NYC? Maybe... Is it a new thing Chicagoans started doing the past 20 years? NOPE. Is it annoying? Probably, to outsiders. However, I think there is actual reasoning behind no ketchup on hot dogs, and it goes back more than 150 years ago, and it's more than just one event that made this ingrained in Chicagoan culture.

Anyway, I yell about hot dogs for almost half an hour and completely forget to cite any of my sources from my research.

Casual Yelling is back, with an official third season--after one episode of Season 2. I'm returning to the world of stand-up comedy in the Chicago suburbs, which I was a part of for a little over a decade. Why not kick things off with a bang? I'm talking about the first--and only--time I headlined a comedy show, and the ridiculously weird moment that happened halfway through my set.

Continuing the annual tradition of torturing Bryan Williams from Visual Concepts, he is forced back into talking with Mat about some of WWE 2K26's gameplay improvements from last year's edition to 2K26. Do you love talks about wrestler fatigue, ragdoll physics, and why Mat is always mentioning Charles Wright? Then this episode is for you!

The second part of this interview is a video component available on Patreon, as I pitch Mat Elfring Showcase Mode for WWE 2K27, where you fight my create-a-wrestlers. You can find that right here! Also, here's URL form because some podcast feeds hate links: https://www.patreon.com/posts/wwe-2k26-i-pitch-154323564

The Wrestle Buddies are back bay-bay! Chris Hayner comes on this week, and they discuss about the monetization of WWE 2K26 and the whole Ringside Pass situation. Overall, the gameplay aspect and most modes are great, but it's hard to overlook the new implementation and monetization of this year's installment.

Patreon subscribers can get a video version of this episode, which contains 12 extra minutes of Mat and Chris goofing off and being off-topic.

Haynerland Substack

Haynerland Bluesky

Continuing to dive into WWE 2K26, we're going into story mode... also called MyRise. In order to unlock everything, you have to play through four times. There are essentially two different stories, and I give all my fine opinions about this mode and the best way to play it (with a controller).

If you know me, then you know I greatly enjoy playing the WWE 2K games. This year, I'm breaking down every single game mode as separate episodes. First up, we're talking about the first thing I play with this series: Showcase Mode. CM Punk is this year's focus, and we're going through the matches, the unlockables, and what worked and didn't work for the mode.

It's time for Season 2 of Casual Yelling, which will focus entirely on interviews with indie game developers. First up is friend of the show Xalavier Nelson Jr. from Strange Scaffold. In Part 1, we're discussing Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown, and the development of video games in general.

Note: This interview took place in early March 2025. Some of the games Nelson Jr. mentions are available for purchase.

Enjoy these fine links for Nelson Jr., and Strange Scaffold below

• Strange Scaffold on Bluesky
• Strange Scaffold on YouTube
• Strange Scaffold on Steam
• Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 on Steam
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown on Steam
• Nelson Jr. on Bluesky

Season 2 of Casual Yelling will be made up entirely of interviews with indie game devs. We'll be talking about their games, the development of the games, and creativity, in general.

Casual Yelling: Season 2 debuts in May 2025.

We're wrapping up Season 1 of Casual Yelling with a bang: Discussing a line of mediocre-to-bad movies, living in the same shared universe, where nothing makes a lick of sense. I have watched all of Sony's recent crop of live-action superhero movies, and I discuss what they are, my likes and dislikes, and then at the end, I rate them all.

I like TTRPGs. I've been playing D&D and other "yes and" fantasy games for over 20 years, with roughly the same four people in our core group. Over the years, I've DM'd a few times, and I've found that, in certain situations, the core book or DM guide for rules does not work for me, so I made tweaks: homebrewing. So, I talk about these rules, including one that everyone in my group thought was a fake system called "pegs." Yes, pegs is real, and I explain the heck out of that, and other homebrewed rules like death saves, "random hell," fudging dice rolls, non-linear storytelling, improvising based on what characters do, and allowing them to kill themselves because they stole a fantasy submarine and crashed it into a merfolk city, and everyone died.