Kinect Impressions

[greggsand]

My EASA 2 shipped today. I'll try and give some impressions tomorrow night.

Re GOW. With all duck & cover in that game, it'd basically be a serious 'power squat' workout.

[Rodster]

You can add Alan Wake 2 to the list. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010- ... compatible

[sportdan30]

I do wonder who is going to want to stand and play these hard core style games. I think there will be initial excitement but after 20 minutes you're going to want to sit down and relax. I just can't see playing an 8 to 10 hour game while standing. That's where I see the Move adapting better to the hard core gamers.

[greggsand]

I do wonder who is going to want to stand and play these hard core style games. I think there will be initial excitement but after 20 minutes you're going to want to sit down and relax. I just can't see playing an 8 to 10 hour game while standing. That's where I see the Move adapting better to the hard core gamers.

Last night it was navigating kinect while sitting on the couch. It was recognizing my hands & such. I think a game could be created based on sheer hand gestures, but it prob still wouldn't a true "hardcore" game(maybe a hardcore puzzler).

[Diablo25]

I received my copy of EA Sports Active 2 today and after a short time with it I am VERY pleased. I only had time to create my character, set some options and do a quick 15 minute cardio workout. I created an online account with EA and all my data was uploaded right after the workout...very cool. There are specific programs to choose from (3 weeks and 9 weeks). There are also Trainer generated workouts, Custom created workouts.

I just went with a 15 minute, Cardio, Trainer generated workout (medium intensity) and it was great. Burned 100+ calories and had my heart rate up to 160. It was a typical workout...starts with some quick warmup and stretches and then on to some running, squats with the bands, dodgeball activity, some boxing and then a cooldown. I really enjoyed it.

The entire game is set it a desert type environment. The running I did was a circuit training regiment on a soccer type field. My "Trainer" ran with me and he pushes you to try and beat him. I had to run back up to school for parent/teacher conferences so I did get as much time as I wanted to fiddle around with it. I'll do that when I get home. Overall I am loving it so far.

[sportdan30]

Thanks for the early impressions. I have the space, but I'm wondering if I have a height issue. My ceilings in the basement are only 8 feet hight. I myself am 6'4. Do you think I'll have a lot of issues with the requirements such as shoulder exercises, basketball shooting, etc.?

[Diablo25]

Thanks for the early impressions. I have the space, but I'm wondering if I have a height issue. My ceilings in the basement are only 8 feet hight. I myself am 6'4. Do you think I'll have a lot of issues with the requirements such as shoulder exercises, basketball shooting, etc.?

My ceilings are 8 feet also but I'm 6'1". There were some jump squat exercises in the workout I did and I didn't have any issues. You might have some issues being 6'4" but it would probably only be with certain things. Each workout has the option to choose what you want. The workout I did was generated by the "Trainer". Before you workout there is a checklist that has every exercise checked by default. You can uncheck whatever you want and that will be removed from the workout. Remember, I only did a 15 minute workout so I only scratched the surface.

One thing I found very cool was the visual of running on a path with your trainer (3rd person view). The faster you run in place the faster you run in the game. Your heart rate and calories burned are on screen the entire time and the game shows you a graph of your calories burned/heart rate at the end. As I stated above, I am very impressed so far. I plan on setting up a 30 minute workout to do before work tomorrow. I might also try the 3 week cardio program once I get more familiar with things. Eventually the 9 week plan will get its shot. I am guessing some user created workouts might be available eventually. From what I can tell you can create any workout using any of the exercises in the game. I didn't do anything with weights (dumbells) but they are in there. EA has a winner here and the Kinect makes it sweet.

[Diablo25]

Piggy, you gotta check this one out for your Phys. Ed. classes

[sportdan30]

Do you think I can do these exercises without shoes?

[Danimal]

I also picked up EASA2 for the Kinnect and I was impressed as well. I did a hard intensity workout to see if it would give me enough cardio as a filler app with my P90X workouts. I also hooked up my regular Heart rate monitor to the one EA gives you.

First things first I consider myself in really good shape now and I was sweating up a storm, Dan i did the workout with no shoes btw. I noticed the EA Monitor was very close to my chest strap monitor in terms of my heart rate. I actually didn't like their monitor it is way to bulky and I have big forearms and it hurt wearing it. As far as monitoring calories the EA reported calorie burn was way lower then my monitor. I can't really say which is right, my monitor I would hope is more accurate.

While I had several times where the sensor failed to recognize my actions while starting a running workout the rest of the time I was impressed with how accurate it was. I tried to fool the thing by just pumping my arms on a run, or not bending on squats and my on screen persona monitored my movements.

I didn't mess around with custom workouts, the online stuff or any of that at this point I just wanted to see how accurate the sensor was and it was good.

[Diablo25]

Do you think I can do these exercises without shoes?

I did my cardIo workout in socks but I'm not sure I'd recommend gong without shoes.

[greggsand]

Do you think I can do these exercises without shoes?

Not most them anyway. Dare I ask why?

Anyway, I got mine today as well. I completed p90x in Sept & have been doing Insanity since (for perspective). When u choose one of the programs (3 or 9 week), it makes a bit of an assumption that u haven't worked out much as the first "heavy intensity" workout was a total 20 mins. Take out warm & cool down, that's about 14 mins of "workout". I did it anyway, and it was fine. I got some sweat going, some heart rate, but it wasn't a real ass-kicker. After I finished, I created my own workout with heavy running/jumping & squat stuff for a total of another 20mins. By the end of that, I was pretty worn out. After I was done, I noticed their are 18 custom workouts created by trainers. Some of those go into the 50+ minute range. I'll try one of those tomorrow. Bottom line, if u don't workout much at all, the base-programs will prob be perfect. If you're already used to doing 40+ mins a day, you'll need to do some tweaking/customizing (which thankfully u can). I imagine in a number of days, people will start posting custom workouts to resemble an Insanity or (select) p90x workouts.

As far as the "kinect" part, it was pretty good. For some reason, it was having trouble picking up my running pace at times. I'd be running at a good clip & my guy was kind of in quicksand - then suddenly, he'd take off. not a big deal, but a little weird. My big complaint, is they put this "show me how" icon in the lower left & my hand (or leg maybe?) kept 'touching' it. So in the middle of boxing, all of sudden, it would bring up the tutorial. I'd then have to stop, & select continue, etc... Boxing was def the worst when it can to this, but it happen in others as well. Your results may vary.

Also, it doesn't offer much negative feedback like Your Shape does. No buzzers or anything if your movement is off & such. That may be a plus or minus for some people. I'd give it a B with potential of an A once I tweak it to what I want from it.

[sportdan30]

Thanks for the early impressions guys. I picked it up at Target along with a $20 gift card. I had sold Wii Fit Plus along with the balance board this past weekend, so essentially this game cost me around 45 dollars. I've yet to open it as I'm still a bit apprehensive. I've read from one other person that they too are having issues with the sensor for whatever reason. So, I wonder if it's a problem with the hardware as some of you are having some problems as well. Hopefully that's easily correctable. I'm going to wait another day or two and read some more impressions before deciding whether to keep it. I'm torn because I wonder if I can get the same kind of workout with Your Shape at half the price.

I know for a fact that I wouldn't consider this game for the Wii or the PS3 because you have to wear two other bands while the Xbox 360 only requires one.

[sportdan30]

Here's Extremegamer's impressions from OS:

"I've played both for Kinect now, EA Active 2.0 and Your Shape: Fitness Evolved.

There's just something off with EA Active, it's not nearly as concise a workout as Your Shape IMO. The controls are also sketchy. Several times they'd tell me to squat, but I already was.

Mountain Biking and Dodgeball were easily the most annoying two with this. Moutain Biking was one I just gave up on, it was frustrating and annoying. You have to run to pedal the bike up hills. I would run and run and the bike just sat there. Dodgeball, it never registered a single jump I made. Very disappointing.

Also, it lost me 4 times in one workout, meaning I had to re-calibrate. That was annoying. Also the "iPod" would come up interrupting my workout, where I had to grab a controller and press X to remove it, that happened 5 times. Couldn't find any option to turn the ipod off except turning music completely off. Very annoying.

The web intergration is outstanding and better than Your Shape, but that's not what draws me to a fitness "game".

If I had to score both, I'd give Your Shape an 8, and EA Active a 6.5. The Wii version was better IMO."

Are you guys seeing the same issues?

[pigpen81]

Piggy, you gotta check this one out for your Phys. Ed. classes

Thanks Doby....I may check it out but our next purchase may be "Zumba Fitness".

My classes did a 15 minute workout today with the "sleeve busting workout" from Your Shape today and we really liked it.

I was using 5 lb dumbbells and my arms were burning.

I still need to figure out how to get to the different levels of the "personal trainer" workouts as it is not allowing us to progress after we finish with the training sessions.

[Diablo25]

Here's Extremegamer's impressions from OS:

"I've played both for Kinect now, EA Active 2.0 and Your Shape: Fitness Evolved.

There's just something off with EA Active, it's not nearly as concise a workout as Your Shape IMO. The controls are also sketchy. Several times they'd tell me to squat, but I already was.

Mountain Biking and Dodgeball were easily the most annoying two with this. Moutain Biking was one I just gave up on, it was frustrating and annoying. You have to run to pedal the bike up hills. I would run and run and the bike just sat there. Dodgeball, it never registered a single jump I made. Very disappointing.

Also, it lost me 4 times in one workout, meaning I had to re-calibrate. That was annoying. Also the "iPod" would come up interrupting my workout, where I had to grab a controller and press X to remove it, that happened 5 times. Couldn't find any option to turn the ipod off except turning music completely off. Very annoying.

The web intergration is outstanding and better than Your Shape, but that's not what draws me to a fitness "game".

If I had to score both, I'd give Your Shape an 8, and EA Active a 6.5. The Wii version was better IMO."

Are you guys seeing the same issues?

I didn't experience any of those issues. Sounds like an issue with you Kinect sensor. Of course I've only had it for a day. I haven't used the Your Shape game yet so I can't compare the two. I do like what I see so far with EASA2. If the problems you mentioned start showing up I might change my tune.

[Diablo25]

I just finished my second EASA2 workout and I did run into the "iPod" problem mentioned above. It happened twice. Not too much of an issue. As far as the issue of the game not registering jumps etc. I think that has something to do with starting the drill properly. For example, I was doing the split squats. I squatted down like the trainer told me to, waited...waited...waited...and nothing...it would not start. I switched legs (left leg back instead of right leg back) and it recognized it. I think you must start the exercise exactly as they instruct. I looked for an option to turn off the iPod thing but didn't see it. Definitely something EA should look into.

As far as the workout, I did a Trainer generated 30 minute cardio workout at high intensity and it was challenging. I didn't destroy me but I was definitely feeling it at the end. I burned 280 calories and averaged 140 bpm. Contrary to Dan, I really enjoyed the mountain biking exercise...found it very fun. I'm going to continue doing various exercises to feel out the whole thing. Eventually I may go into the 9 week program. Game continues to impress.

[Rodster]

I almost picked one up today. Radio Shack sent me a $25 gift card towards gaming hardware. If they sell Kinect I may pick one up.

[sportdan30]

Black Friday deal at Old Navy. Spend $25 and get Dance Central for free. Gotta be there at midnight. Supplies are limited.

[greggsand]

Did one of the trainer Cardio workouts tonight with sports active. It was much more of a ass kicker than the "program" workout the day before. They def need more of those. Also, my wife & I worked out together. It was a success overall. There was the occasional wonkiness with recognizing 2 people at once, but much better than I would have guessed (and got a bunch of achievements afterwards).

[Rodster]

Is Kinect the future of boardrooms? http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010- ... boardrooms

Soon the motion-sensing camera will help Microsoft deliver "probably the most important thing to happen to the office worker since the PC came along".

It's called Lync, and it's a cross between MSN Messenger, Skype and, err, something with video, according to ZDNet via VG247.

It's been in development for nearly six years and arrives next month, primarily as a business communication application, but with the future potential to involve Kinect, which could help add features like voice and face recognition.

Microsoft bigwig Gurdeep Singh Pall described the new motion-sensing Xbox 360 camera, which will be made compatible with Lync courtesy of a software update soon after launch, as a bridge between "the boardroom and the living room".

Lync aims to work with mobile phones next year.

[10spro]

Video conference has been available for awhile, if anything the Kinnect may singularly focus on the speaker.

However I don't see what motion sensing or depth-mapping would really add to a video conference.

It would work for 'bored rooms' though.

[fsquid]

Sounds like this Kinect is a winner. Tempting to sell the Wii (or trade it in if Gamestop has promos) towards one.

[sportdan30]

Sounds like this Kinect is a winner. Tempting to sell the Wii (or trade it in if Gamestop has promos) towards one.

I've been tempted to sell mine as well, however I know my son would have a blast playing Sonic Colors and the new Donky Kong game. I rented Kirby's Epic Yarn a couple weeks ago, and he really seemed to enjoy that as well. The one thing the Kinect doesn't doesn't seem to cater to is the side scrolling platform style games, and I wouldn't expect them to. You still need that "chill" time to sit down with controller and play some fun arcade style games. That's why I'm hesitant, not to mention the wife isn't in favor of me selling it!

[fsquid]

I agree, however, my 4 year old has more fun watching me play the new mario brothers right now than playing herself.