Junior Member
I've been using Your Shape for about two weeks now. First of all, I love the idea of it. I love the fact you put me in the game so I can see myself. I like the idea of being able to download and have a library of classes to keep things interesting.
Unfortunately my likes stop there.
Your Shape is too punishing. Whoever thought up the "In Rhythm" part needs to be fired. Not being in perfect rhythm should not determine whether your are doing the reps or not.
Not counting a rep simply because I wasn't in perfect synchronization with the trainer makes absolutely no sense at all. I'm doing the reps, I'm doing them correctly, breaking a real sweat. So why doesn't the work count simply because Im not in 100% perfect synchronization with the trainer?
I had to do Cross Skis today. I did them in perfect rhythm with the trainer. After I was finished, I was out of breath and my heart was pumping. Yet, it scored me 0% as if I had been sitting on the couch the entire time. I'm glad I didnt have a brick handy as it would have ended up through the TV screen.
I've NEVER been to a real class where the instructor yells at someone just because they are not putting their foot down at exactly the same time the instructor does. That instructor would probably end up fired if that ever happened.
And yes, I have a lot of light...and yes, I've got tons of space and yes, I've calibrated several times.
Exercise is supposed to help relieve stress. Yourself Fitness just makes exercise more stressful and frustrating...and worst of all, very very discouraging and could potentially turn people off from working out.
So for now, I'm heading over to EA Sports Active 2 to see how it is. Ill probably keep using Yourself Fitness for the classes, but the Personal Training is broken as far as I'm concerned.
Junior Member
Nothing to add or offer except to agree that there are some serious useability issues. Being in software myself I have to wonder how some of this stuff got out the door. I like it overall and find it useful but it needs a serious useability review. I suspect the Kinect layer was thrown together and released to market too quickly.
Member
YSFE has become nothing but a warmup to a real workout that EA SPORTS Active 2.0 provides.
The only thing worth doing is the Cardio Boxing, mainly because there is no rythm penalty. I may do 1 or 2 of the easier workouts where I can keep the rythm because the exercises are so simple.
Thankfully Active counts reps and not rythm. It has some issues with floor exercises but you can CUSTOMIZE your workout and take out what you don't like.
I was high on YS when I first got it and like a rotten apple, the more you peel off the layers the worse you see it gets. No doubt this game was a rush job to get to market for Kinect release. The lack of any follow up support after (going on 3 months soon) and the release of new fitness games in March by UbiSoft tell me they have dropped the ball on this program and the user is left to suffer.
I'll be thinking twice before buying another UBI game after this fiasco. Nice job on making an achievement impossible to obtain too, will there ever be an event? Doubt it.
Member
I'm very curious as to how you find the EASA2 experience as I've wanted to try something else also...I just don't want to drop another $50.
Currently at Amazon, after 68 reviews and a $50 price drop on the game ($49 down from $99) it's only averaging a 3 star review: 13 five star reviews, 14 four star, 6 3 star, 16 two star and 19 1 star.
YSFE on Amazon average is 4 stars after 156 reviews consisting of: 69 five star, 39 4 star, 28 three star, 14 two star and 6 one star.
I'm not sure it really means anything, but clearly each game has it's faults and the poorer average with far less reviews is what has kept me from buying EASA2.
Is it a game that can be rented, with the monitor before we buy??
Member
Alnark, don't go by reviews. Had I rated both in the first week of play, I'd have given YS 4 stars and Active 3. Initial impressions do not make a game. Having played both alot more now I can clearly state that Active is a much better program. But that's me, your mileage may vary.
After a workout on Active I am totally drained and feel I've worked myself out completely. YS can work me up a sweat but I don't get nearly as much out of it as Active. YS may be good for women, those needing low impact work, and for true fitness beginners. Active is more geared towards athletes and improving all areas - cardio, resistance, and core.
I've also heard good things about Biggest Loser and will likely add that to my workout rotation after I've completed Active's 9-week boot camp.
Member
I agree about the reviews...but also wonder why so few people have reviewed EA's version...
Anyway, I like what you're telling me as I want to be drained as you put it after working out. Having done P90x, Insanity and various other workouts, there is nothing like feeling completely spent after working out...and that is what I'm looking for!
Member
I don't understand the "may be good for women" remark (women aren't athletes?), but I do agree that the personal training area of the game has issues.
I think the games and the cardio boxing are fun, but the Zen class and some of the personal training exercises need a good deal of improvement.
With all the pausing and resting and fiddling with menus, the game is too easy in a lot of ways. I think the biggest physical challenge I've had so far is to get those green dots to appear for some of the exercises.
I've never been an extremely athletic person, but I'm not particularly out of shape either. The game is probably most useful for people who haven't really been doing much with physical fitness before getting the game rather than for people who have already been regularly working out.
Senior Member
Alnark, I like YSFE and Active 2 equally as well for very different reasons. They are each an important part of my current daily fitness plan. And I enjoy them both. I find neither of them to be particularly gender specific.
The only thing I dislike about Active 2 is the menu navigation. It seems primitive and old style website to me. While you can navigate using Kinect hand gestures it's not a comfortable experience. It is clearly a controller built navigation (likely the same or similar on all the console versions) that was simply made to sort of work with Kincet. I don't want to use a controller to navigate a Kinect game so I continue to stubbornly struggle with hand gestures in Active 2.
The navigation in YSFE, while the newness of it takes a bit of getting used to, is much more intuitive in terms of hand gestures. It makes much more sense to me as a part of a sensor based environment.
YSFE feels like it was build for Kinect from the ground up, Active 2 does not.
Member
The YS is more for women wasn't meant to be sexist. Obviously there are female athletes. The point I was trying to make is YS has workouts like "After the baby" "Tone your Hips" and many more that give it a female feel to the workouts. Very little in the resistance department that men would gravitate to.
As for the menu argument, yes, YS is better laid out for Kinect navigation. But the catch to menus is that in Active I may spend 2 minutes of a 30 minute workout in menus while in YS I would spend 10 minutes of a 30 minute workout in menus. So when I fire up a game for a workout, I want to workout and not spend a third of my time menu sorting.
Member
I suppose it was putting women into the same category as fitness beginners, and those who needed/wanted low impact that was confusing in that statement, especially when there are a lot of men who are also in those same categories.Originally posted by Oblong2007:
The YS is more for women wasn't meant to be sexist. Obviously there are female athletes. The point I was trying to make is YS has workouts like "After the baby" "Tone your Hips" and many more that give it a female feel to the workouts. Very little in the resistance department that men would gravitate to.
"After the baby" is as useless to me as it is to men. I ignore all the hip toning and anything similar too as they usually aren't very good workouts. Can't "tone" specific parts of the body. Just doesn't work that way, woman or otherwise.
I'll probably try the EA game after getting all the achievements (except the impossible one) in this game, and when/if the price comes down a lot. Something like P90 Kinect would be really cool though!
