EA Sports Active 2
by Electronic Arts
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Category: Video Games
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Product Summary
Brand: Electronic ArtsAudio: English (Unknown)
Published: 2010-10-31
Release Date: 2010-11-16
Platform: Xbox 360
Model: 19475
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Product features:
- Create unlimited customizable workouts with combinations of more than 70 games and activities, and exercise with games every day without the need for a controller
- Track your heart rate on screen in real time with the innovative EA Sports Active heart rate monitor that rests comfortably on your forearm
- Watch your body's every move translate seamlessly on screen
- Chart your progress and share your achievements as part of the EA Sports Active online global community, and join groups of people with similar goals
- Build muscle with foundational exercises like squats, lunges and bicep curls, and shake up your routine with a huge range of fun fitness activities from mountain biking and dodgeball to boxing and more
Video Game Reviews of EA Sports Active 2
Customer Review: Not Polished and Rushed to Market, but still worth buying
Summary: 2 Stars
This game is the third in the series of this title. The first game was "EA Sports Active" and then there was "EA Sports Active More Workouts". Usually game sequels get better with each subsequent sequel. However, this third installment game is extremely unpolished. In addition to the game being available on the XBOX, the game is also available on the Wii and PS3. It definitely feels like the developers put very little time tailoring the game specific to both the XBOX and the Kinect experiences.
The Audio Feedback from your virtual personal trainer is useless.
I was hoping that the game would take full advantage of the the heart rate monitor that comes with the game and the Kinect sensor by changing the motivating feedback based on what is actually happening. Instead the feedback uses canned responses which is as useful as the feedback that you get from a workout video where the instructor doesn't have access to these real time sensors since the video is prerecorded. I was hoping for such responses like, "Good job! You've reached your target heart rate zone", "Come on! Your heart rate is dropping. Try pushing yourself"", or "That's bad form. Try keeping your back straight while doing this exercise".
Instead the responses are canned. It doesn't matter if you are doing an exercise poorly, the response doesn't change. I tried doing an exercise with bad form and it didn't correct me. When I stopped working hard and my heart rate started to recover, it didn't tell me to push myself. At one point, I was doing a squat and it gave me a canned informational response with something like "try squatting lower to get the fullest benefit". However, I was already low and if I were any lower, I would have been sitting. If the program had been using the Kinect to see my form, it would know this and if anything it may have warned me that I was too low.
During bicep curls, my virtual instructor was doing curls at a normal even pace. To test the system, I did my curls at triple time. Although, the game successfully registered my curls, I was expecting that the virtual instructor to yell at me and tell me to slow down since I am not getting the full advantage of the exercise by doing it too fast. During a different exercise, step aerobics, the vocal feedback was totally disconnected from what I was doing and from what the game knew what I was doing, or rather what I was not doing. During the step workout exercise, the program counts up how many successful steps you have performed. To test the game, I stopped following my virtual avatar. The counting up of my steps successfully ceased, but the vocal feedback said something to the effect "You're doing this at a great pace!". The game knew I wasn't moving but the vocal feedback seemed to be disconnected from the rest of the game.
Sometimes there are textual feedback, but the feedback is not as helpful as what I laid out above. Also it is extremely hard to read this text, which brings me to my next point.
Poor menu design and hard to read text.
This is one of the areas where you can see that the developers didn't change the game to make it suitable to navigate using the Kinect hand motions. The very first screen is evidence of this. There is a single button on the initial screen. The button is wide but extremely small in height. It's hard to keep your hand over the button to select it using the Kinect sensor. They could have resolved this by doing what other Kinect games have done. They could have either made the buttons larger so it is easier to keep your hand over the button or they could have made the button sticky where your hand cursor sticks to a nearby button until you motion away from the button. Forget trying to navigate the game's menus using your hand. It's easier if you keep your game controller around to navigate the game. Any part of the navigation which cannot be gotten to by the regular controller can be gotten to using voice commands (more on that subject latter).
Overall the game seems like it would be easier to navigate using a mouse and keyboard rather than even a regular game controller, let alone the kinect.
Some of the text on buttons and some textual feedback or achievement windows is EXTREMLY hard to read because it is too small. I actually found this as a problem with other games, but more so with this game. I don't have a big screen HDTV. I have an "old fashioned" boob tube, a 30" SDTV. So if you have an HDTV, this may not be as much of an issue, but the developers could have been aware of this and made the text bigger especially the times when there is PLENTY of real estate on the screen to allow for bigger and easier to read text.
Another example of this game not being polished is when you create your own workout or when you choose a different song. When I was making a custom workout, I highlighted a an exercise with the option to add that exercise to my workout. When I had this exercise highlighted, it only displayed its title. It would have been better if a description and or an image of the exercise appeared when I highlighted the exercise. This is similar when you are choosing a different song to play. The game comes with different sound tracks. When you are changing the soundtrack you can see what songs are available. When you highlight a song, it would have been nice if a preview of that song started playing. (This is how Dance Central navigates their songs.)
No party mode.
There is no easy way to jump into a specific exercise. This game is not really a "game". It is a workout program. But the program could have been designed so it could be used as BOTH as a workout program AND as a fun game. But again the polish isn't there and this feature is not possible.
Let's say I just finish a workout using this game. There is no easy way to start a specific exercise just for the fun of it: i.e. soccer goal keeping, dodgeball, mountain biking, etc. I think if this game allowed you to jump into a fun activity whenever you wanted, there is more chance of family members not sold on the idea on a workout game to exercise with you thinking that they are playing a game. This was a problem with the previous 2 versions and it would seem that this may have been an intentional thing left out.
The only way to sort of allow you do this is if you make a custom workout with just ONE activity in the workout. So if you want to play dodgeball whenever you want, then you would need to create a custom workout with just the dodgeball exercise. However, if you want to be able to easily jump into any exercise at any intensity level, then you'll need to create a custom workout for each intensity level. You can't choose the intensity level after you choose the workout.
Some people won't mind this missing feature and some will actually prefer that there is no game mode, but I personally would have preferred a game/party mode.
Naming a custom workout is buggy.
When you create a custom workout, it asks you to create a name for the saved workout. (Again, you should have the regular controller nearby instead of relying on the kinect hand input.) I attempted to use a workout name with a hyphen: "Soccer - Goal Keeping". When I tried to save the workout name, it told me that I could not use special characters. If the keyboard offers characters like the hyphen, then I should be able to use those characters. I've seen other games where they hide the characters that you can't use. But still they should allow you to use some special characters like a simple hyphen. Again the polish is not here.
You can CHEAT and avatar movements are NOT one-to-one.
One of the advertised advantages of having the kinect is for your avatar to mimic what you are doing exactly. This is not the case with this game.
During a running exercise, the avatar's legs didn't keep up with my legs. It didn't matter if I were running at a normal pace or if I were running really fast with high leg lifts and with my arms swaying, the avatar's feet would go at the same pace. Overall it seems like the program registers my movements in a very general way and then translates those movements not in a one-to-one real world movement, but as a way to hit a virtual forward button. The avatar during the running exercise seemed to have a few speeds it registered: stopped, slowest, slow and normal. There didn't seem to be a sprint speed. Again if the developers were taking advantage of the kinect technology, then the speeds could be more variable.
The game promises that you can't cheat, but I found that you can. Not only can you run a normal pace and have it register as the fastest speed, but during squat jumps, I was able to barely squat and barely jump and it registered the exercise as successfully completed.
Achievements do not look like XBOX achievements.
Again this is the case where the developers created a generic product for the 3 consoles and didn't take the time to customize the game for the specific console. When you earn an achievement in the game, there is a message with a trophy graphic. The trophy image never changes. In other XBOX games, when you earn an achievement, the graphic for each achievement looks different. When I logged into my XBOX Live account, I was able to see that these achievements did have different badge images associated with them, but this is not reflected when I was playing the game. This is a very nit-picky complaint but it is evidence that this game may is not very polished and may have been rushed to market.
There is another issue with the achievements. As I was testing the program, I started a workout only to quit the workout after a second. After I got back to the main menu, I was told that I completed a goal and earned an achievement for finishing another workout. The game should have only registered a completed workout when I actually finished the workout, not when I quit the workout after 1 second.
Another minor complaint about these achievements is that there seems to be an achievement for every 100 calories that you burn. So after one workout, you might get 2-3 of these achievement messages. It would probably better if the calorie achievements were spaced out a little bit further: i.e. every 500 calories. Again, this is a very minor gripe.
Voice commands are helpful but are not intuitive.
As I mentioned before, you can use voice commands to navigate some of the menus. When you are using the normal controller, there are some menu items that you cannot reach unless you use the kinect hand gestures or a voice command. I recommend using the voice command since it is hard to navigate the menus using the kinect hand gestures. However, it is not alway intuitive when you can use voice commands. It's also unintuitive what some of these commands may be. I had to actually read the manual (who reads a game manual) to see what commands were available to me. I also did some trials and error to see if voice commands would work for particular menu screens. Sometimes there is a voice icon to let you know when you can use a voice command; however, this icon is not always present for all of the menus that can use voice commands.
Not great Kinect support.
This is one of the worst kinect title games I have. It feels like the developers slapped the kinect feature in a hurry.
As previously mentioned the avatars don't mimic your every movements as well as other games. Sometimes the avatars movements are very limited - more so than other games. During exercises where the game was made with the kinect in mind: i.e. dodgeball, soccer goalkeeping, etc, the avatars movements are more 1:1, but are still not as good as other kinect games.
Sometimes the game loses where you are as other kinect games do sometimes; although, this seems to happen more so with this game. In any case, the game recovers less eloquently than other games. In other games when you're near the edge of the kinect losing you, it may make your avatar translucent and give you a warning but you're still able to control the avatar. If you totally stray out of the kinect's view, then other games will pause the game. With EASA2, this is less eloquent. It will warn you that you need to move back into the kinect's view, but it will not pause the game and you will not be able to control the avatar. During a round of dodgeball, this happened to me. I returned back into the view of the kinect, the game took a moment to recognize me again and during that time when I could not play, my avatar was hit by a bunch of balls which wouldn't have happened if the game paused automatically. How humiliating!
Another problem that I experienced with dodgeball is that it would constantly tell me to square my shoulders and face the kinect camera. If I did not, then it would stop the game. In other games, "Kinect Adventures", this didn't seem to be a problem.
During dodgeball, I also experienced problems with the game recognizing my jumps and ducks. Again other games didn't have as much of a problem with this.
The game also had a hard time seeing me when I did any floor exercises: i.e. situps, pushups. But I had noticed that during floor exercises it is easier for the game to see you if you 1st move into the exercise from standing position even though your avatar is already sitting/lying down. Another thing is that the game can be easily fooled when doing floor exercises. For example, I was doing a reverse crunch where the legs go up and down. From the sitting position, I lifted my arms as if they were my legs and the game thought I was doing the exercise properly. However, if you don't go out of your way to try to fool the game, then you should have a decent workout on the floor. Having a hard time with floor exercises could be more of a problem with the kinect as I have not seen other kinect games do anything while the gamer is lying down.
Another way that they could have taken more advantage of the kinect is during the mountain biking game. During this exercise there are curves in the path. It would have made sense to use the kinect to know when you are leaning into the curve in order to make the bike go faster. Leaning does nothing.
Misc Buggy Unpolished behavior.
Here is a list of miscellaneous behavior that could be better.
When you are sprinting against the computer avatars. The computer avatars serves as no motivating competition. You start running at a normal pace and you leave them behind in your virtual dust. It would be great if the computer tried to challenge you. Of course as I previously mentioned, the sprinting exercise only registers a few speeds so if the computer tried to challenge you, I'd imagine that all the avatars would get to the finish line all at the same time.
When going to the main menu, it often displays a message "obtaining server data". This seems to occur too often especially since I was navigating the menu and submenus and not changing any settings or starting any workouts. I would think that it would talk to the server only when necessary and cache settings when possible.
Price is too High.
Because the game doesn't seem to be very polished, the game seems to cost too much.
Also, with this and the other console versions, the game comes with a heart rate monitor. The other console versions also come with two other pieces of hardware that you don't need because you have the kinect to perform what those 2 other pieces of hardware do. Since the game comes with LESS hardware, I would have expected that the Kinect version to cost less.
In its current unpolished state, I would say a fair price for this game would be $30.
Even though I am only giving this game 2 stars, I would still recommend it. Many of the issues that I have can be resolved by software updates. (Whether or not EA will devout time to correct these issues is another story.) If the game does get updated I will increase my rating and change my review.
I still recommend the game because it does what it was intended to do. It makes you sweat and workout. I am unsure how this compares to the other workout Kinect games, but I have heard that they too are not perfect. If you buy this game, just be aware of its limitations and you should be happy especially if EA issues some patches.
Description of EA Sports Active 2
EA SPORTS Active 2 with Total Body Tracking will include the innovative EA SPORTS Active heart rate monitor that provides constant on-screen monitoring, allowing users to capture intensity and optimize performance over time. Additionally, it will utilize the full body motion tracking ability of the Kinect Motion Camera*, providing users complete freedom of motion. Users will also be able to track and share their workout data online through automatic uploading from their online connected console to their personalized EA SPORTS Active profile. EA SPORTS Active 2 with the Kinect Motion Camera* will make working out simple, fun and effective wherever you are.
huge range of fun fitness activities
Synopsis
EA SPORTS Active 2 with Total Body Tracking will include the innovative EA SPORTS Active heart rate monitor that provides constant on-screen monitoring, allowing users to capture intensity and optimize performance over time. Additionally, it will utilize the full body motion tracking ability of the Kinect Motion Camera*, providing users complete freedom of motion. Users will also be able to track and share their workout data online through automatic uploading from their online connected console to their personalized EA SPORTS Active profile. EA SPORTS Active 2 with the Kinect Motion Camera* will make working out simple, fun and effective wherever you are.
Unlimited customizable workouts
Build muscle
Features
- Create unlimited customizable workouts with combinations of more than 70 games and activities, and exercise with games every day without the need for a controller
- Track your heart rate on screen in real time with the innovative EA Sports Active heart rate monitor that rests comfortably on your forearm
- Watch your body's every move translate seamlessly on screen
- Chart your progress and share your achievements as part of the EA Sports Active online global community, and join groups of people with similar goals
- Build muscle with foundational exercises like squats, lunges and bicep curls, and shake up your routine with a huge range of fun fitness activities from mountain biking and dodgeball to boxing and more
- Commit to a progressive nine-week body-conditioning program crafted by fitness experts to get you in shape and keep you motivated, following a workout roadmap
- Add on extra workout mini-programs to keep your motivation high after nine weeks are up
- Get customized fitness advice from a personal trainer
- Download new workouts and exercises via Xbox Live to keep workouts fresh and maintain motivation (Internet connection and EA account required)
- Includes the EA Sports Active 2 game and the Active heart rate monitor
- For 1 to 2 players
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