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I wasn't aware EASA2 came out yesterday and I decided to do something I usually never do: buy an expensive product without reading the reviews. Totally worth the gamble.
The game comes with two programs you can enroll in: a 9-week exercise program and 3-week cardio program. It's recommended that you start off with the 3-week one but I decided to jump into the 9-week one. You're also given a choice between 3 difficulty levels (which you can adjust at a later time): Easy, Medium, and Hard. I went with Hard and it definitely showed. It was a great 30 minute workout that had me sweating hard by the end.
I bought the PS3 version which uses three sensors that connect wirelessly to a USB peripheral. One goes on your left forearm, one on the right, and the last one goes on your right thigh. Setting everything up was a breeze and after I completed the avatar creation process (which you shouldn't expect much from if you're a heavy RPG player like me), I filled out some surveys for the in-game journal (for better tracking) and then proceeded with my first workout session using EASA2.
So far I've found the music tracks enjoyable but I'm probably going to make my own playlist and import it into the game pretty soon. The exercises are wonderfully paced and the mountain bike one is a lot of fun. You can make custom workout sessions and track all the progress you've made and create schedules and view your workout calendar.
All the data is stored on EA's servers and a lot of it is accessible from EASportsActive.com; the companion website is mostly functional but does have a few janky (buggy) moments. EA is not known for excellent launches (online stat tracking for Battlefield Bad Company 2 was an atrocious mess for the first few weeks), but you should expect excellent functionality soon.
If you're interested in doing this thing with a partner, the game features a 2-player mode if you buy another set of sensors (so far EA is only selling bundles) and that seems like it might be really fun. I don't have friends willing to shell out $110 on something like this but I can see couples getting a lot out of buying 2 bundles.
If you're even remotely interested in exercising at home without buying monetarily and spatially expensive equipment, then EA SPORTS Active 2.0 is the product for you. Recommendation based on the first day impressions? Buy it.
P.S. The bundle comes with a resistance band but neither the manual nor the game instruct you to put it together prior to starting your workout. Just when I was really getting into it, I had to pause the whole thing in order to set up the resistance band. It's a bit of a lame oversight on the developer's side, but definitely not a deal breaker.
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I am a sucker for any product that's going to make my workout more fun. I own both previous version of this game, and faithfully ran out to get this one the day it was released. I am in good shape and have done intense workouts in the past such as p90x, so I consider myself an advanced exerciser. I am probably not the target audience for this product, but if you are like me, maybe this review will help you. If you are out of shape and don't exercise, go buy this product right now and start using it! If not, read on...
EA Active 2 is by far the best exercise video game available, so if you have already decided to get one, definitely get this one. However, compared to most other forms of exercise its still lacking, will annoy the crap out of you, and probably end up not being used. Some of the issues from previous versions have been improved, but there are still enough annoyances that you can't get through a workout without getting frustrated and slowed down by the technology.
Lots of people have written about the pro's and improvements so I'm just going to say what I think they left out. The program still gets stuck waiting for you to 'stand up and stay still' between reps of many exercises. Even when standing completely still I sometimes have to wait 10 to 20 seconds for it to continue. It is still too slow to register when you have gone into a position (faster than before, but still too slow!). The avatar tracking of any running type motion, including high-knees and kick-ups is still terrible. Sometimes it goes slowly while I'm running fast (and keeps telling me to speed up) and sometimes it runs extremely fast when I'm just doing a light jog. A lot of these issues could be caused by improperly positioned sensors but I am following the limited instructions that came with the game and have tried making many minor adjustments without any improvement. The warmup routine is improved, but still totally monotonous and is much more of a stretch than a warmup. I still end up jogging in place between stretches to get a decent warmup (not a big deal).
The pace of the exercises (even when its working right) is just too slow for my taste. Timing is probably the biggest issue preventing me from enjoying the workout. The 1 to 2 second pause between each rep sounds small, but ends up making me feel like I'm holding myself back the entire time. There is also a 10 to 15 second delay between exercises, ugh. It would be much better if this was adjustable. No other form of exercise (video, class, gym, home gym) has you waiting this long between each rep and activity. Good for beginners, not so much for people who already know what they're doing.
The bottom line is at the end of a workout I'm just annoyed and relieved its over, which is a horrible way to feel after exercising. I recommend you spend your money on something else, unless you're just looking for the novelty experience. I hope EA keeps working to improve it, maybe the next one will get right!
Buy EA Sports Active 2 Now
EA Sports Active 2 for PS3 comes with everything you need in the box. It doesn't use the move controllers. This is so exercises can be hands-free in case you wanted to use weights with some of the resistance routines.
If you are looking for an alternative to the gym or a personal trainer... I would recommend this over any other fitness title as it provides real exercises instead of routines where you can only wonder if you are getting an effective workout. The routines and programs in this software were designed by personal trainers.
You can have the software create a workout routine for you focusing on cardio, upper body, lower body, core, or full body. You can also create your own personal routines. When you create your own routine, the software lets you know what percentages of the body you are covering. Such as 50% upper body, 20% lower body, 10% core, 15% cardio. This is so you can be sure you are tailoring the workout to what you want. There won't be any guessing on if you are working the body effectively.
There is a 21 day cardio program and a nine week total fitness program which also features weekly fitness tests that measure how long it takes for your heart rate to recover.
This software uses motion sensors to make sure you are doing the exercises properly. These may present a problem initially for some people as they may put them on incorrectly. They aren't difficult to put on, it's just one may overlook something about them when first using them. Overall, they work excellent.
Two people can play if there is an extra set of motion sensors. These should be available for purchase from the EA website.
The heart rate monitor is accurate as well as it shows you and saves your heart rate data. This enables you to see your intensity levels on your workouts. You can make sure you are working out in the right zone and not overdoing it or underdoing it.
There is a journal that is optional for you to fill out that keeps track of your nutrition and workout progress. If you already know quite a bit about fitness and nutrition, you may find this repetitive. I do, I still choose to use it though, it makes it easier to know your eating patterns over time compared to writing it in a book. I know on my days off of work, I choose to eat more snack type foods. So at the end of the day, you just answer about 10 questions of what you ate and drank that day and that's it.
If you don't know anything about nutrition or are confused by it, they have built in, easy to read and follow nutrition charts on what is good to eat and what you should avoid. These are very easy to follow and I highly recommend them to someone who wants better nutrition but do not know where or how to start.
Also, if you don't know the first thing about exercises and/or are just starting out exercising, the lead and follow exercises the virtual personal trainers perform are great. There are also tutorials before an exercise begins.
Not only are there the traditional exercises and stretches, but there are also "games" which cover up the "exercise" to make fitness fun. There is mountain boarding where you have to run up hills and jump from rail to rail. This covers up the running in place and squat jumps you are doing.
What I like about this software alot is that when you are doing an overall workout, you aren't doing one type of exercise for 20 or 30 minutes. It moves from one exercise to another smoothly and quickly. So you may be doing 20 mini exercises in a 30 minute workout for example. The way it is laid out though, it covers the body areas you chose to focus on and you don't get bored doing one exercise for 20 minutes. I think this is the thing that will keep me at it long term for myself.
To sum up, whether you are familiar with working out or not, this is a real fitness product. If you don't know where to start concerning exercise and nutrition and wonder if you should join a gym or hire a personal trainer, I would recommend this. It's cheaper than a gym and a trainer, although some people do better in that setting.
The PS3 version also will feature downloadable workouts as well to keep things fresh.
written by The Fun Zone Nutrition Health Fitness If you are looking for a higher resistance band than the one that comes with the package, on the site there is a chart of weight equivalents for thera band resistance tools.
Read Best Reviews of EA Sports Active 2 Here
First some background: I am in my mid-30s and in OK shape. I play ice hockey recreationally, skating 3-5 times a week depending on time of year. I try to keep a balanced diet, not necessarily eschewing fast food or junk food but making sure my portions are moderate in general and get my whole grains, fruits, vegetables, etc.
I went through a period in my 20s where I was a gym rat in terms of lifting weights to gain some size but w/o doing the supplements and protein shakes so I know the proper techniques, the difference between lifting to get cut versus pure power versus size, the importance of rest, so on and so forth.
Outside of that though, I don't have a real athletic background. I'm a decent sprinter b/c I'm lean but my cardio is somewhere south of terrible. It's something I've always wanted to improve but the problem is I hate running and biking as I find them monotonous.
Recently, I had been thinking about getting back to the gym or joining a fitness program in order to improve my cardio as I was tending to fade at the end of my hockey games and it was hurting my performance IMO.
I was doing some shopping and was looking at buying a Wii when I stumbled across EA Sports Active completely by accident. I wasn't necessarily looking for a fitness tool on a video game console but I was intrigued. I almost pulled the trigger right away until the read the reviews for Sports Active on the Wii were somewhat mixed and also saw that version 2.0 was coming out on the PS3 which I already have.
I waited until it came out and read a couple of reviews. It seemed like the PS3 version had the most favorable reviews at the time since you didn't have to buy any extra peripherals, it was hands free, and seemed to garner the best results in terms of response. After that, I went ahead and bought it.
Out of the box, you get the following:
* Game disc (duh)
* Resistance band w/ 2 handles (you must assemble this yourself it's a matter of tieing the band to the handles)
* A sensor/heart rate monitor meant to be strapped to the left forearm
* A sensor for the right forearm
* A sensor for the right leg
* USB w/ a sensor
* 6 AAA batteries
The sensors are battery driven, each requiring 2. The USB plugs into one of the USB ports of the PS3 like any other controller/peripheral. I believe the way the game works is that the sensors on your body "communicate" with the sensor in the USB to feed into the game, serving as the controller to speak.
Once I popped it in, the initial walkthrough was straightforward and easy to understand.
Figuring I wasn't completely sedentary and had some athletic base, I decided to start off on the Medium 9 week program (choices are either a 3 week intro program or a full 9 week program and within the two, you can select Easy, Medium, Hard). Initially, I wasn't going to write a review until I had completed it but after 2 weeks, I think I have enough to provide useful feedback and can update later as necessary.
I picked the 4 days I wanted to workout (my guess is other programs may have more or less days where you workout) and it was off to the races.
The idea of the game is that you are represented on screen by your avatar (whose appearance you can customize) and as the trainer directs you to move, your movements are captured by the sensors and your avatar on screen performs the same.
I had some problems with my initial set of sensors and it turns out the problem was with the leg sensor. It deteriorated over the month to the point where it was unusable (kept losing the sync). I contacted Amazon and got a new set (they just shipped me an entire new package w/ everything else included as well) and everything works much better. Seems as if there is a potential QA problem w/ the sensors but if things aren't working for you outright, I recommend trying to work with Amazon to exchange for a new set and see if that doesn't work better. Everything is -muchbetter with a good working set of sensors (although there are still some instances where it seems to have problems registering your movement).
For the workouts themselves, I am in phase 3 of 9 week program. To those folks who started on Hard and said it wasn't challenging and/or there was too much time between exercises, I tip my hat to you. It's at the point where I cannot push myself 100% without artificially pausing between exercises or even during exercises.
So far it seems like the workouts are cardio/plyometric based. Everything so far looks to be geared towards general endurance and lower body explosiveness.
If you lift for size or are focused more on upper body workouts, this probably won't do it for you. You can customize your workouts with respect to what you want to improve and while I haven't played with it, without doing free weights, I don't see how you can significantly improve your bench press for example.
A side benefit I want to mention is that since the exercises are more plyo-based (short and explosive), it seems to serve as a pretty good dynamic warmup. On the nights where I have a hockey game after I workout, I am not too tired to play and in fact, I feel pretty good from a looseness standpoint. Next day is definitely a full recovery day though. Not sure how well it would work for other sports though.
Other useful features:
* A journal where you can log things like, hours slept, glasses of water consumed, other activity you may be involved in. This is more for your personal benefit as the game doesn't really provide any feedback based on trending of the data (at least not that I've seen). It'll give general advice as you make your entry but that's it.
* Ability to configure the music playlists. Most useful if you have ripped and downloaded tracks to your PS3 but I haven't tried it yet though)
* Sync with EA Sports Active website to share results.
In conclusion, I definitely see the utility of this. I think it's a great innovation and hope that EA continues to build and improve on this product line.
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Its funny that it ended up this way but its true.
The PS3 version is the best version of EA Active 2.
The Wii version you are forced to hold the Wiimote.
The 360 version you are forced to use Kinect including all the current growing pains of the system (situps on the floor hard to see, menu navigation, etc).
The PS3 version does NOT use Move and instead gives you an extra armband making it actually the overall easiest to control version.
As far as the actual software goes whichever version you get the workout is VERY well done. Impressive and a lot of fun actually.
If you want exercise you should seriously consider this product.
