Kinetic week three
Still continuing my 12-week Eyetoy:Kinetic fitness program. Difficulty levels have increased since I was starting to get perfect scores on some of the games.
A full Kinetic workout takes about an hour. There doesn't seem to be a way to do more than one optional segment in a workout and it never remembers what segment you did last or what room you used last - the interface always resets to the first in the list.
You can always pause an Eyetoy game by holding your hand right over the camera lens. If you do this during a Kinetic workout, then select "continue", it skips the rest of the current segment rather than finishing it. This is annoying if you do it by accident while trying to aim the camera better.
It's very hard to do the "meditate" segment while being pestered by a cat. :-)
At full speed, the "Pulsate" game is exhausting!
It's difficult to get a good score in the games while using good form, moving gracefully, not overextending. It might be better to start at the beginner level even if you're capable of intermediate level.
Repeated dialog snippets gets old, especially during cool down. I wish the warmup and cool down sequences varied more and the trainers had a wider range of comments to make. That would make it feel more like having a personal trainer and less like watching an exercise video.
I like how high-resolution the trainers are and that you can see them breathing. The game designers made all the backgrounds static -- there's no camera movement, no passing birds or helicopters, nothing of that sort -- in order to focus more polygons on the trainers.
The training program wants you to work out three times a week. If you miss one, you get a failing letter grade for that workout, but you can still get a decent overall grade for the week if you do well on the other two.
I work out standing 6-7 feet from the camera. This works for most of the games, but I have to adjust the camera angle downward to see myself for the floor routines.
A full Kinetic workout takes about an hour. There doesn't seem to be a way to do more than one optional segment in a workout and it never remembers what segment you did last or what room you used last - the interface always resets to the first in the list.
You can always pause an Eyetoy game by holding your hand right over the camera lens. If you do this during a Kinetic workout, then select "continue", it skips the rest of the current segment rather than finishing it. This is annoying if you do it by accident while trying to aim the camera better.
It's very hard to do the "meditate" segment while being pestered by a cat. :-)
At full speed, the "Pulsate" game is exhausting!
It's difficult to get a good score in the games while using good form, moving gracefully, not overextending. It might be better to start at the beginner level even if you're capable of intermediate level.
Repeated dialog snippets gets old, especially during cool down. I wish the warmup and cool down sequences varied more and the trainers had a wider range of comments to make. That would make it feel more like having a personal trainer and less like watching an exercise video.
I like how high-resolution the trainers are and that you can see them breathing. The game designers made all the backgrounds static -- there's no camera movement, no passing birds or helicopters, nothing of that sort -- in order to focus more polygons on the trainers.
The training program wants you to work out three times a week. If you miss one, you get a failing letter grade for that workout, but you can still get a decent overall grade for the week if you do well on the other two.
I work out standing 6-7 feet from the camera. This works for most of the games, but I have to adjust the camera angle downward to see myself for the floor routines.
posted by Glen at 12:31 PM
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2 Comments:
I just read your entire blog. It's a huge help in finding and understanding (the often obscure) games and systems that also provide exercise. Thank you for providing such a service.
I have a couple questions. First, do you know of a punching/boxing/martial arts game in which you must actually hit some sort of punching bag or cushioned sensor? It would be like DDR for your arms, but would also measure the force of the punches.
Also, have you ever tested the Action Stick? It supposedly uses infrared sensors to replicate punches and kicks onscreen. See article here: http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/11/18/comdex.walton/
Thanks.
I saw a game once in London where you punch padded targets that swing out. I don't think I've seen a punching bag as a videogame controller yet.
No, I haven't tried the Action Stick, but from the description it seems like the usual "break infrared beams to sense body movement" sort of thing. I have played a version of Street Fighter where you have to physically jump to jump and punch to punch - they had that at the GameWorks arcade in Las Vegas.
I'll be on the lookout for exertainment devices at CES soon.
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