Branthog

Notice that one was a smart-business-style senior citizen (she isn't middle aged - I'd say she was 55+, which is a senior citizen). The other was a "I'm a rock star soccer mom!" in casual clothes. Both equally panderingly calculated gestures.

The XBOX ONE has three operating systems (seriously). They didn't show any real technology. I mean, they didn't go into meaningful details like Sony did (other than bragging about how many servers their server farm has). They literally showed nothing but how you can watch television and listen to music and skype in various ways on the system (because, you know, I just sit around in front of my television all fucking day when I'm not playing video games) and then they showed a ton of sports stuff. Then they showed a very very short live-action teaser for a Remedy game and then a segment about the next Call of Duty.

Seriously, you could not possibly have had less about gaming for this game console at this presentation unless you were presenting a fridge or a toaster, instead of a console. As someone who will own both consoles at launch, I really wanted to see Microsoft come out and hit it out of the park absolutely blowing us away and showing that they're not going to be pushed around in the hard-core gaming space, etc, etc, etc...

But man... man man man... WHAT a let down.

Also, the new console looks like a fucking VCR.

I'm out. 45 minutes into the presentation and we've had nothing but shit about television (hello, it's 2013) and sports . . . and *one* (mostly live-action) trailer for a Remedy game. I don't see much point in wasting the next 15 minutes watching more shit that's only relevant to people who sit around all day on the couch watching broadcast television and ESPN.

It'll be something unoriginal, overused, and pathetic. Fusion, Infinit, etc. Blah.

Yep. You can't go wrong with the Leopold. It's a pretty solid keyboard-enthusiast's pick. If you want to dress it up a bit, buy yourself a key remover from the same site and get some colored keys (I got red keys for WASD/ESC and blacked-out keys to replace the Windows meta keys).

Having spent countless hours reviewing Ducky, Das, Happy Hacker and many other beloved mechanical keyboards, I concluded that the Leopold (designed by the same guy as the more expensive and beloved Filco keyboards, but even better according to his own admission) are the way to go. If you have a preference of tactile feel, pick a different switch color/type, but brown is a solid middle ground if you do a lot of typing and gaming, both. The build quality, feel, and performance is unrivaled, even by far more expensive keyboards (it's only $99).

That isn't to say you won't be happy with other solutions. Just that it is an exception piece of hardware that I have never heard anyone dissatisfied with (and I travel in keyboard-enthusiast circles where there is unending nit-picking).

Pre-crumbling Rapture, absolutely and without the slightest hesitation.

I'm figuring $500 for the Xbox and $600 for the PS4, but I'll spend whatever they are. I've mentally set aside about $3k during the last quarter of the year to acount for the systems, peripherals, games, etc.

Unless they manage to do something that really makes me hate them more than I already do and I finally give up my little bit of time (only about six years or so) with consoles and just stick with PC gaming, exclusively, like I always did before.

Except they're not. Some of those people are drawn to it, but they're also drawn to crap like COD and GoW and everything else. There are also organized, polite, friendly, nice people who play together. My brother and I (mid 20s and mid 30s) both plan to play a lot of ArmA3 when it really starts to roll out and I hope that we'll end up playing with people more like @mordeaniischaos than the kind of guy he describes (who, to be fair, may also just be an immature 19 -- as much of an asshole I am in my mid 30s, I was surely far worse as a teenager).

I hate them in things like Mass Effect, but in an entirely free to play game like DOTA 2 where they aren't even anything that ever impacts gameplay and are absolutely just cosmeteic, I'm totally fine with it. In fact, I have bought a number of things, including keys to crates, in DOTA 2 just because I felt it was worth kicking a few bucks in after all the free fun Valve gave me.

I also often buy the little totems that give you and everyone playing on the map with or against you "bonus battle points". For one thing, it's another way for me to pay for my enjoyment, but it also is a nice little way to get people on your side. I did this almost from the very first game I played of DOTA 2. It is my first MOBA and while I read as much as I could as to how to play, I knew it would take forever for me to become adequate. When the game starts, a big glowy thing pops up over the head of every person on the server and a message that "Branthog grants everyone a 15% battle point bonus this game!", it quickly sways the room to be kinder to you when they see you fumbling or being dumb. :)

I like both the ATH-M50s and the MDR-V6 as they have similar (but different) sound qualities and share a lot of physical design. I think a lot of it has to come down to what you really want them for, expect out of them, and are willing to pay. I use mine for games, music, and podcasts across my iPad, Macbook Pro, and desktop. The sound is everything I could really want, considering the source of almost everything I hear is a compressed audio file (320kbit MP3s, higher quality FLACs, compressed game-audio, 64/128kbit podcasts), so I don't personally feel I'm goign to get much more out of spending a lot more on expensive headsets. As a result, I'd rather get a known-good headset that is really robust and that I'm familiar and comfortable with that is cheap enough that I could replace it with another pair if something ever happens to them -- and still pay less than a competing brand/pair.

 Ideally, you should find a local place that carries them and try them in meatspace. It's the only way to know the what is right for you since every person expects and needs something different in the way of sound and fit, both, that are hard to convey in an online review. That said, here's a pretty good comparison of the M50 to the V6. You can view the specs on their respective sites. you'll notice the M50 has a slightly bigger driver (and heavier lows), while the MDR-V6 has a slightly wider frequency and an overall "brighter" sound.  

Hopefully the prices are comparable, where you are. In the US, Amazon has the M50s for $120 USD (normally $200) and the MDR-V6s are $68 (normally about $110). Either way, you won't be disappointed, if they're priced close to that where you are. Like a lot of things, the only way I think you'd second-guess yourself is if you bought one and then in six months, you try the other in a store. That is, even if you are missing something, you won't know it unless you are directly comparing them in the real world. Otherwise, you'll be happy with either purchase and just enjoy your music and podcasts. Again, I say that as someone who was ready to spend $500-$1,000 on my next set of headphones and eventually just said "you know what, fuck it -- really good is good enough". :) 

Hope that helps, in some way. Sorry I can't be more decisive for you, but other than the price, they're both just too good to dismiss either one straightout.

Who knew an 8bit-style beat-em-up could be the most real game ever? :P