PS3 - EA Sports Active 2

Summary: If it's cold outside &/or you need something to nag you into exercising, get this. B- (It feels like it's still in beta, a fairly polished beta, but still beta.) Pro: It works. I've lost almost 10 lbs in 2.5 weeks, and I feel great! Con: There is at least one exercise out of the 20+ exercise set that won't register. :( I'm a 45 year old ~280 lbs 6'4" male that's pretty sedentary and a little chubby. I saw that EA Sports Active 2 (EASPA2) was on sale for $48 (MSRP $99!), so I picked it up (it being pretty chilly outside sealed the deal.) If it weren't for EA's email newsletter, I would never had heard of the product, and I surf 3 PS3 websites daily (where's the advertising EA?) So I get it and opened the box (BTW: keep the box, there's 5-7 things inside you'll want to store later.) I'm disappointed that there's a USB transmitter instead of BlueTooth (I have a PS3.) I know BT has enough bandwidth for heart rate monitors because my wife has one (not a deal breaker.) The Right Leg, Right Arm, Left Arm monitors are pretty straight forward. Be SURE that the indictor lights are upward when you put the leg sensor on, and downward when you put the arm sensors on. I wait to turn them on until the game asks for them, so I can confirm the right monitor is on the right appendage. A stretchy band with handles is included for resistance. It's a little ghetto, but it's better than nothing. I'm going to upgrade to some 5/10 lbs hand weights (which the game allows for, nice touch EA!) The enclosed booklet is near worthless. It would've been nice if EA when into detail about each program and what it entails. As the game starts, you'll notice it's slow (get used to it.) It lags, especially when it checks in online. Hard to tell when you've hit the start button. Here's a bummer, player setup. So my wife is the primary user on our PS3 (yes, she is awesome,) and I am a secondary user. So EASPA2 assumes that I'm my wife, there is NO changing this. Come on EA, nobody who develops for PS3 sets there players up like this (even EA!) Apparently the only way to do this is to get the EASPA2 2nd user kit (for $39, really?) or buy yet another full blown $99 kit. Then it is supposed to recognize me as the second user. This sucks because all the accessory kits are out of stock. I ordered mine from EA 3 weeks ago when they were having a 50% off sale ($20 is reasonable.) Not only did my order not register online so I could track it, the EA Tech Support people weren't able to kick it in. I asked how I was going to track my order and they replied "It's on it's way (not cool EA.) So after I setup my male avatar "Lisa" ( :| ), I was presented with two different types of trainers, two different types of workout programs, and various levels of difficulty. I selected the aggressive trainer for an easy 3 week Cario Kick Start program (3WCKSP). You start out with ~18 min. of ~20 aerobic exercises which ramp up a little every day. It also presents you with a calendar to schedule your workouts. The 3WCKSP makes you do 4 days a week, I wanted to do 7, but it won't let me. That's a bummer, but there does appear to be some form of customized workout (I just would have liked a little guidance on mine, this would have been real handy info in the booklet on how to do this.) I would have liked to concentrated on upper body too (my legs are fine.) The workout is pretty leg intensive, it would've been nice to tweak this too. So the workout starts, and I'm pretty happy with it. The monitors do NOT do a direct one-to-one feedback to the game. It lags big time, and I'm guessing the game is doing a lot of guesswork to make it interactive. This gets really apparent when you hit the (at least,) one exercise out of the set that will NOT register. Sometimes you can "kick" in the feedback by making overextended gestures, or doing the exercise twice, but at least half of those won't be tricked. It wouldn't be so bad if you had an option to skip or replace the exercise, but you don't. It just sits there like an idiot yelling at you to do the set & hold still. And it will continue and yell at you for at least 4-5 minutes until it gives in, does a rep, then repeats (this TOTALLY sucks.) I wish there was some onscreen feedback of your monitors, so you could determine what the game is wanting you to do, then you could adjust your movements accordingly. There's no pause and return feature either. You just have to quit & lose all your progress, or pre-cognitively check off the problem exercises. Checking them off also sucks, because the game doesn't replace them, and you only get a ~90% workout. This is SO beta, it's not even funny. SHIP A PATCH ! ! ! , this makes an A+ game a B-. The exercises that don't register (out of the ~50 I've tried): Alternate Side Lunges (the right lunges don't register well. It almost seems to learn your moves better as you go on.) Squats with Bicep Curls (you can do them twice to kick it in.) Overhead Tricep Extentions (if you over-exagerate your movements, it seems to help.) Bent Over Rows with Tricep Kickbacks (you REALLY have to swing your arms around to get this one to kick in.) Bent Over Reverse Flys (IMPOSSIBLE, nothing seems to kick this in except waiting.) Lateral Shoulder Raises (IMPOSSIBLE, nothing seems to kick this in except waiting.) As the excises continue, some of them are like pushups, which mean you can't easily face the TV (and mine is 5 feet up on the wall.) More audio feedback here would be nice on these (not a deal breaker.) Also, the instructor alternates between doing opposite and mirror moves. Please pick one, maybe set this as an option? When the tutorials talk about things like gluts and your core, use arrows. I have no idea what you're talking about, and it sure isn't in the booklet. There's a couple of times between exercises when the game says "take a water break." It only gives you the normal 3 second pause between workouts to do this, & since there's no pausing the game, it's essentially useless. It's doubly useless because you really need to be in position for the next exercise so the monitors can register you properly (not a deal breaker.) I do love the warm ups and cool downs, it keeps me from getting achy and it's a great muscle stretching. There's a log where you can enter in nutrition info, but it's pretty sparse. I'd really like to see a fruits & veggie like serving inputs here. Maybe coordinate with a WeightWatcher & Atkins like diet programs for EASPA3? A really cool feature is that you can enter in your own workout soundtrack. I dumped in ~70 songs, but it keeps replaying the first one over every workout. A shuffle option would be nice here (not a deal breaker.) The good news, it doesn't take long, you break a sweat, you get your heart rate up, and you feel obligated to keep going. My ankles, calves, and laterals are shaping up nicely, I've lost weight, my back doesn't ache and I've stopped snoring! EASPA2 is pretty generous with the trophies, & the online tracking component is detailed almost to a fault. In conclusion, EA get that patch out and start shipping those accessory packs! You've got a potentially great product here that you could almost sell for $99 if you fixed it.