Eyetoy Kinetic
I finally received a copy of Kinetic. First impression time!
The trainers have strong personalities - much less generic than Maya. I like that "Anna", my Kinetic trainer, has a british accent, slightly messy hair, and a lot of vocal enthusiasm. The backgrounds and the trainers are well-rendered, have strong useful shadows, and the camera views make it clear what they are doing most of the time. The post-workout stretching is fantastic - very comprehensive. I like that the workout is divided into a mandatory minimum set and optional extra components, so you can do more or less depending on how you feel towards the end of the main segment. I like the games - the idea that my workout has a "score" and a "grade" associated with it. Being able to compare a video of myself to a video of a trainer is useful, if occasionally depressing. :-)
You don't have enough control over scheduling. For instance, my training program has a session scheduled for Sat/Sun. If I'm going away for the weekend I may not be able to make that, but there's no obvious way to tell it to shift those sessions earlier or later. There's no way to tell how long any exercise segment (or the entire set) is likely to last. The EyeToy interface for entering personal data is terrible; they should give up on the eyetoy and have the user enter a name, weight, or whatever using the standard controller.
The eyetoy control can be sloppy and inaccurate and it's a pain to get the camera aimed properly but so far the games seem to be forgiving enough that it doesn't matter all that much.
So far, I am favorably impressed. I'm going to put Maya on hold and try my recommended EyeToy:Kinetic "12 week fitness plan" for a while and see how it feels.
The trainers have strong personalities - much less generic than Maya. I like that "Anna", my Kinetic trainer, has a british accent, slightly messy hair, and a lot of vocal enthusiasm. The backgrounds and the trainers are well-rendered, have strong useful shadows, and the camera views make it clear what they are doing most of the time. The post-workout stretching is fantastic - very comprehensive. I like that the workout is divided into a mandatory minimum set and optional extra components, so you can do more or less depending on how you feel towards the end of the main segment. I like the games - the idea that my workout has a "score" and a "grade" associated with it. Being able to compare a video of myself to a video of a trainer is useful, if occasionally depressing. :-)
You don't have enough control over scheduling. For instance, my training program has a session scheduled for Sat/Sun. If I'm going away for the weekend I may not be able to make that, but there's no obvious way to tell it to shift those sessions earlier or later. There's no way to tell how long any exercise segment (or the entire set) is likely to last. The EyeToy interface for entering personal data is terrible; they should give up on the eyetoy and have the user enter a name, weight, or whatever using the standard controller.
The eyetoy control can be sloppy and inaccurate and it's a pain to get the camera aimed properly but so far the games seem to be forgiving enough that it doesn't matter all that much.
So far, I am favorably impressed. I'm going to put Maya on hold and try my recommended EyeToy:Kinetic "12 week fitness plan" for a while and see how it feels.
posted by Glen at 12:21 PM
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2 Comments:
Hi... Love your blog... keep it up! I've been thinking about picking up a PS2 with Eyetoy as well.. How far away from the EyeToy camera do you need to be for Kinetic? I know it has some sort of "wider field of vision lense" or something....
There's a very compact wide-angle lense (in the DVD case) that fits over the eyetoy and makes it easier to put your whole body in the frame. I find I still need to be a solid 6-7 feet away and often need to adjust the camera up or down prior to an exercise.
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