Kinect Fitness Showdown: Your Shape v. Biggest Loser v. EA Sports Active 2

Thanks for those links AzBat.

It's shame that EA did the "lazy" port as on paper it sounded like it could have been the best of the 3. I'm not sure that the bugs are problems that can be fixed via a patch, although the UI sounds like it is something that most likely can't be fixed....maybe next time.

I guess I may be leaning towards Your Shape. The one criticism that I've read about it was the lack of variety on some of the programs. I'm giving it until the end of the weekend before I decide.

BTW, I was at a Black Friday sale today and it looks like Kinect Bundles and stand alone were back in stock. I know that a few people were buying it for Christmas party office raffles. One of our sister units bought 2 4GB Kinect bundles....I wish I was going to that Christmas party.
 
Silent_Buddha said:
Whew, looks like I dodged a 100 USD bullet on this one. It was originally on my Kinect pre-order list of games. But once I noticed it wasn't launching until a few weeks after Kinect, I took it off.

Regards,
SB
Click to expand...

Yep unless they patch the hell out of it, I don't see this as being worthwhile purchase. I'll probably try to drag this back to Gamestop to trade for something else.

I wonder if Dance Central is good for burning some calories, even if it's not an exercise game per se?
 
I've been following these games for a while.

Apparently the random pauses during EA Sports Active 2 are caused by a problem with voice commands. EA are patching i but in the meantime people say you can switch them off. Also, I have read that some of the problems with Kinect picking up your movements are less prevalents if you have a big play space. But certainly the Eurogamer findings have been noted elsewhere by others.

As it stands (certainly in UK) you can buy both Your Shape and The Biggest Loser for the same price as EA Active 2 on its own. There are presumably more exercises in those two to keep most people busy for some time.
 
Harry Ola said:
I've been following these games for a while.
Apparently the random pauses during EA Sports Active 2 are caused by a problem with voice commands. EA are patching i but in the meantime people say you can switch them off.
Click to expand...

Hmm does that mean, that Kinect is picking up the voice of the ingame personal trainer and reacts to his/her words? I do remember my trainer saying "pause" in the middle of an exercise...

I'm going to have to test it a bit more.
 
Dr Evil said:
Hmm does that mean, that Kinect is picking up the voice of the ingame personal trainer and reacts to his/her words? I do remember my trainer saying "pause" in the middle of an exercise...

I'm going to have to test it a bit more.
Click to expand...

The general feedback I am reading is that it is ultra sensitive to any background noises.

The following info is given on the EA forums:

EA-Support said:
Q: I am having issues with the game crashing when booting up the game (Kinect)
A: We are investigating this issue. A workaround at the moment is to disconnect your internet to your Xbox 360 before turning on EA SPORTS Active 2. Your online stats will still be tracked on the console for up to 6 months, and when this issue is resolved a one-time log in to the EA Servers will upload your stats.

Q: I am having issues with the jukebox appearing or the tutorial playing by accident during gameplay (Kinect)
A: It appears that background noise may trigger these commands to activate during gameplay. If you are experiencing this issue, we recommend to turn off Speech Recognition in the game settings.

Q: I am having issues with the game crashing on the loading screen or during an exercise.
A: We are investigating this issue. We recommend turning off the Speech Recognition option before entering gameplay and see if this resolves this issue.

Q: I am having issues with EA SPORTS Active detecting my movements (Kinect)
A: For the best experience, you’ll need an open space (6-8’) with good lighting conditions. Keep the camera not too high off of the ground (3 – 5’) off of the floor. Be sure to calibrate camera so your entire body fits comfortably inside the Kinect window. The camera can be calibrated using the Kinect Tuner option within the game. For ground exercises, make sure you start in a standing position, and wait for the game to prompt you with a message to sit down. When sitting, be sure to keep your face looking at the Kinect sensor.
Click to expand...
 
That latter point goes against recommended Kinect setup, with people placing the camera 6 feet up looking down. And the requirement for good lighting conditions is a disappointment given the depth tracking uses its own lightsource. The point about facing the camera suggests facial tracking, maybe to identify the head? Bizarre experiment for someone to try - if you place a cover over your face, does Kinect still recognise and track you as well?
 
Any facial recognition is done with the standard camera, so covering your face will cause it to fail recognition. You get the same effect playing in the dark, where the skeletal tracking works but the facial recognition fails.

I'm not convinced that putting the camera up that high is ideal. I think something in the 3 - 5 foot range is ideal. At that level it should have a more even view of your body. People were saying that mounting the camera higher would reduce space requirements, but in my experience it really doesn't make that much of a difference.
 
Dr Evil said:
I have similar issues. I only tested it for about 45 minutes, but based on that it feels pretty much broken...

It keeps bringing up the pause menu, the jukebox (where you can change music), and different tutorials totally random during exercises!! Seems to lose track of you easily when doing pushups too.

The heart rate monitor also lost my pulse after 15 minutes and I wasn't able to get it back no matter what, and I'm pretty sure the problem is not my heart. Based on my limited experience I can't recommend this to anybody. I was lucky to get 30 seconds of exercise in a row without some menu popping up... I quess I have to sweat in Sauna tonight :)
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I haven't experienced any issues with the pulse-rate monitor, but I have experienced all of the other issues being reported. I don't think it was a "lazy" port. I DO think it was a rushed port though and I'm really hoping for a patch.

The unfortunate thing is that I don't think the feature sets of the other programs compare with that of Active 2.0. The real-time feedback you get from the pulse monitor is an important differentiator on it's own and the overall design and feature set are markedly superior to the other offerings, IMO.

Ultimately, though, being broken trumps all of that. I would say get one of the other two now and keep an eye out for a patch or a price drop on this.

For me, since I can still use it despite the bugs, I'm going to stick with it. It'll be interesting to see what kind of results I see after getting through the initial 20 day program.
 
Harry Ola said:
The general feedback I am reading is that it is ultra sensitive to any background noises.

The following info is given on the EA forums:
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. I'm going to try turning off the speech recognition. It doesn't work very well anyway. And the last recommendation of waiting to be prompted before moving from a standing position to the floor is something I found out on my own.
 
Hmmm, according to 1UP, the X360 version of EA Active 2 has exercises that the PS3 version does not. I wonder if Joystiq got it confused.
http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3182521

I will wait a bit hoping for a patch and price drop before I make a decision. I feel like a yo-yo going back and forth trying to decide on a good fitness game.
 
It is hard to make a decision due to the lack of info on the titles. e.g. Finding a list of all the exercises is tough to do. I hate reviews that lack vital statistics ...
 
I prefer getting down to a gym with friends and grab some iron (kettlebells), some years ago we also did some sparring (based on our martial arts backgrounds) but unfortunately there's no time left for that.
So I don't think too much of these approaches, neither strength training nor conditioning isn't something that could be done without some intensity and yeah, a little suffering, when you move out of your comfort zone. It takes a lot of sweat and being out of breath and I don't see how I could do that in my living room.

But on the other hand, I know that I'm pretty lazy on my own, I need some kind of outside motivation to push myself and training in a group also allows for some friendly competition. For those who can't or don't want to do that, such a piece of software might still do the trick.

So... has anyone had some good results in any way with these apps? Like, increased number of repetitions for push-ups, or weight loss...

BTW, has anyone seen some of the hacked Kinect stuff, like playing Super Mario with it? :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CTJL5lUjHg

It's still the most impressive piece of consumer electronics that I've ever seen... I wonder if it can overtake Wii's fitness "revolution".
 
BadTB25 said:
Hmmm, according to 1UP, the X360 version of EA Active 2 has exercises that the PS3 version does not. I wonder if Joystiq got it confused.
http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3182521

I will wait a bit hoping for a patch and price drop before I make a decision. I feel like a yo-yo going back and forth trying to decide on a good fitness game.
Click to expand...

Heh, that's why I ended up just buying both of them (Your Shape and Biggest Loser). Unfortunately, with Thanksgiving, I've been away from home more than I've been home so I haven't gotten to use Your Shape as much as I'd like, and Biggest Loser arrives (ordered it online) sometime next week.

EA Sports Active 2.0 is likely going to need patches as well as a price drop before I'll pick it up now.

Laa-Yosh said:
I prefer getting down to a gym with friends and grab some iron (kettlebells), some years ago we also did some sparring (based on our martial arts backgrounds) but unfortunately there's no time left for that.
So I don't think too much of these approaches, neither strength training nor conditioning isn't something that could be done without some intensity and yeah, a little suffering, when you move out of your comfort zone. It takes a lot of sweat and being out of breath and I don't see how I could do that in my living room.

But on the other hand, I know that I'm pretty lazy on my own, I need some kind of outside motivation to push myself and training in a group also allows for some friendly competition. For those who can't or don't want to do that, such a piece of software might still do the trick.

So... has anyone had some good results in any way with these apps? Like, increased number of repetitions for push-ups, or weight loss...
Click to expand...

I haven't used it as much or as consistently as I'd like. But I lost 5 lbs fairly quickly, then weight stabilized a bit as fat was converted to muscle. During that time I lost about 1.5-2.0 inches around my waist. That made my relatively new belt I had purchased in case my weight went up completely useless, as it didn't have notches to compensate. :p That'll teach me to buy a belt only anticipating waist size going up. :D

As well, my muscles are noticeably more firm although still covered with layers of fat. :p And Your Shape actually encourages you to do workouts with handweights (suggestion for me was 5 lb hand weights). I haven't gotten any yet, but once my fitness level is at a comfortable level, I'll probably grab some.

So I'm quite happy with it despite not getting as much time in on it as I'd like due to the Holiday running around that I tend to have to do every year. I'm REALLY looking forward to hitting it HARD once New Years is over and I can setup a regular workout schedule.

Oh, and I especially like the fact that Your Shape doesn't only focus on toning, weight loss, strengthening and cardio. It also focuses on flexibility, which is quite nice.

Regards,
SB
 
For Your Shape, I use some ankle weights (2.5 lb each) around my wrist. I have to use my hands to keep them on as they are too large for the wrist to stay on by themselves. But unlike barbells, they won't hurt or break something if I hit anything around the room with them. Definitely gives a better workout compared to before I started using them.

Btw, I found that Kinect sports can actually give a pretty good workout too. That's because unlike Wiisports, you actually have to move around. A game each of table tennis, beach volleyball, followed by soccer, will give you a decent workout, especially if you make the AI competitive.
 
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