I went against the grain yesterday..

[Animalor]

..and bought Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 instead of MW3 yesterday.

I used the one from last year a LOT and I partially credit it for the 40lbs weight loss I experienced since I decided to make changes in my lifestyle.

I tested the new one last night and it's clear that Ubisoft learned a lot about how to interact with Kinect in the last year and brought it to the fore with this title. The menu system is very much metro inspired (looks a LOT like that the new Xbox Dashboard is going to be).

The first thing the game did is realise who I was thorugh Kinect, proceeded to check Ubi's servers and downloaded my burned calorie count from the previous game into the new one so I can pick up where I left off.

I setup some objectives within the game's structure as to what I want to do. In this case I chose lose weight again as my goal is to (hopefully) dip under the 200 mark. The game suggested that I do activities 3 times a week for 4 weeks for a certain amount of time per session. It reconneded that I do a mix of warmups, games, activities and classes for the week and clearly identified the ones that would be in my range. Again very concenient and gives you some goals. I did one of the warmup ones and the game behaves as I expected. It's really precise but doesn't capture 100% of my movements because of lighting limitations in my living room.

The activities are much more varied this time around and Ubisoft has figured out ways to track floor exercises as well so you're not limited to the stuff you can to standing up. There's cardio, muscle building and toning for various body regions and in the classes you have a lot of stuff from the excer-dancing stuff to the cardio kick boxing.

All in all, if you're looking for something that will get you moving and is cheaper than a gym subscription, this is a great product. You do need to hprovide your own self-motivation to actually do the workouts though.

[miir]

Is it more like EA Sports Active (serious workout program) or Wii Fit (minigame activity/exercise)
Does it come with a heart rate monitor?

[Animalor]

It's definately more of a serious exercise game. No heartrate monitor either.

[Canelek]

Think I'll check this out since my Kinect is just sitting on top of my center channel all sadface. I've been wanting to start hitting the heavy bag again and this may be a nice warmup/cooldown device so I don't fuck myself up.

[Animalor]

This is a pretty accurate representation of the game with very little bullshit PR fluff..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPEZdU9ZMPw

[Animalor]

This one has a look at the UI as well as a few of the warmup activities (the jump-rope and games involving the cubes).

http://www.youtube.com/xbox#p/u/7/PHcx-d8mOJU

[Winnow]

I thought this game was the best Kinect offering when I tried out and reviewed all the original Kinect games. It's the best serious workout program available. Nice to see they improved on an already great foundation.

There's no fooling Kinect workouts. It detects your body movements. You either do what it says or you fail.

[Leonaerd]

the 40lbs weight loss I experienced since I decided to make changes in my lifestyle.

good on ya m8

[Animalor]

the 40lbs weight loss I experienced since I decided to make changes in my lifestyle.

good on ya m8

I tell ya.. My main motivation now is the fear of putting that shit back on.

[miir]

It's the best serious workout program available.

Have you actually tried any others?
EA Sports Active 2 is generally considered the best one out there.

[Winnow]

It's the best serious workout program available.

Have you actually tried any others?
EA Sports Active 2 is generally considered the best one out there.

Doesn't sound too good. Maybe their next version:

Unfortunately a very unpolished, unfinished game which although does have its moments of excellence, is let down severely by bugs, glitches, system crashes, poor implementation of body tracking on some of the fitness "games", poorly thought out menu systems, and not least of all by the unusable website. If they can get it right for EASA 3 though, we may be in for a treat.

Crappy menus suck on kinect. I tried out two other workout Kinect games and they both sucked compared to YS: Fitness Evolved.

The last you want to do is fight a crappy UI and bugs in a game made for kinect. I could care less about a heart rate monitor throw in.

YS: Fitness evolved was the most polished Kinect game coming out of the gates and it looks like they improved on that.

[miir]

You must have had to search pretty hard to find that EA forums review by tibbyninja1977

There were some interface and detection issues (which have been mostly patched) with the Kinect version but the overall package is excellent. The Wii and PS3 versions are superior.

I could care less about a heart rate monitor throw in.

Uhhh, it's not a 'throw in'. it's an integral part of monitoring and tracking your workouts and a easy way to evaluate your fitness level.

[Winnow]

I don't need a heart rate monitor to know my heart is beating fast. Gimmick! Spend less time tracking heart beats and more time doing the workout.

Flailing your arms around wildly trying to get that buggy UI EA game to work probably gets your heart rate up all by itself...and your blood pressure as a bonus!

[Leonaerd]

Uhhh, it's not a 'throw in'. it's an integral part of monitoring and tracking your workouts and a easy way to evaluate your fitness level.

If you are living healthily, you will be progressing exactly as you should be, regardless of numbers. This is a superfluous feature and can easily be misinformative, as there are complex factors that could influence your current heart rate.

I imagine that many use good numbers as an excuse to splurge. Sticking to the plan is such a nuisance!

[Animalor]

I looked at the EA game last year but the extra premium they charged for the monitor turned me off to the product.

[Funkmasterr]

I've stopped using heart rate monitors for working out, I personally don't think they're useful if you have a little common sense. You want to get your heart rate up and try to keep it around the same for the duration of your workout, until your cool down at least.

There are a lot of factors and differing opinions on where your heart rate should be at for your age/weight/etc, and really like Leonard said, if you're exercising and living healthy in general you'll see good results.

[Canelek]

Correct. Fingers and a radial artery and the ability to do simple math can replace a heart monitor for this purpose.