See icon, pretty much
Dec. 2nd, 2012 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dotsandlines(Please excuse the retread from FB, universe. This will be longer.)
I bought a second 360 and a Kinect on Black Friday for the sole purpose of adding Dance Central (and probably Just Dance and some XBox versions of DDR, eventually) to my PS2-era-DDR routine.
It annoys me that I didn't realize how FAR the user has to stand from the Kinect sensors - 6 feet, minimum. I don't live in a house in which there are 6 linear feet from the TV and 6 linear feet side to side to allow for lateral movement. Judge away; I know we bought a wee little elfin house and I don't regret it. But step back 6 feet from our living room TV, and you are phased halfway through the wall to the outside. Step back 6 feet from our basement TV [in my sewing room, where I currently play DDR], and you are sitting on my cutting table. If I shove the cutting table back as far as it will go, I can JUST BARELY get inside the Kinect's detection field. It works, but the Kinect pesters me to step back if I drift forward at all.
I am annoyed with myself because I know I could have found out all of this if I'd done more research and taken measurements beforehand. That's the kind of thing that the hubs is really good at, and I am not. But he left this entirely in my hands, rightfully so, because I was buying it out of my own personal funds.
Space issues aside, it is entertaining so far, although it's not as much of a cardio workout - I assume it's because I'm not skilled enough yet to do anything really vigorous. It does add some upper-body flailing to the mix, though, as my shoulders will attest the day after every workout. I am confident that as I get better at this, I'll be able to do some more difficult routines and get more of a workout out of it. In the meantime, I might start swapping back and forth between the old DDRs and DC2 to make sure I'm keeping up my usual level. My brain does not like it very much when I start getting less exercise, especially during the winter.
I've been playing DC2 for the most part, with a little bit of DC1. DC1's dancer natter after each song is annoying, and it doesn't seem to have a nonstop workout mode, so I hope to eventually transfer the songs over to DC2 (it's possible, a la Rock Band 1 and 2). Haven't tried DC3 yet.
Let's not even talk about the music mix. However, even a song I hate can be entertaining for dancing purposes, so I don't mind, really. (Here's an example: Among the easy-tier songs in DC2, I am probably worst at "Venus", which is one of the few songs that I know well IRL.)
Also bought a "trainer" game/program that I haven't tried yet. Need to get around to that.
edit: OK, just finished a really satisfying set: Easy Start / Cardio / Warmup. (I love ending on "Bulletproof." Fun.) I hadn't done the Cardio set before, assuming I couldn't hack it. I sometimes couldn't, but the scoring is pretty lenient, and I never got kicked out of a song. It actually felt worthwhile this time. Woohoo.
I bought a second 360 and a Kinect on Black Friday for the sole purpose of adding Dance Central (and probably Just Dance and some XBox versions of DDR, eventually) to my PS2-era-DDR routine.
It annoys me that I didn't realize how FAR the user has to stand from the Kinect sensors - 6 feet, minimum. I don't live in a house in which there are 6 linear feet from the TV and 6 linear feet side to side to allow for lateral movement. Judge away; I know we bought a wee little elfin house and I don't regret it. But step back 6 feet from our living room TV, and you are phased halfway through the wall to the outside. Step back 6 feet from our basement TV [in my sewing room, where I currently play DDR], and you are sitting on my cutting table. If I shove the cutting table back as far as it will go, I can JUST BARELY get inside the Kinect's detection field. It works, but the Kinect pesters me to step back if I drift forward at all.
I am annoyed with myself because I know I could have found out all of this if I'd done more research and taken measurements beforehand. That's the kind of thing that the hubs is really good at, and I am not. But he left this entirely in my hands, rightfully so, because I was buying it out of my own personal funds.
Space issues aside, it is entertaining so far, although it's not as much of a cardio workout - I assume it's because I'm not skilled enough yet to do anything really vigorous. It does add some upper-body flailing to the mix, though, as my shoulders will attest the day after every workout. I am confident that as I get better at this, I'll be able to do some more difficult routines and get more of a workout out of it. In the meantime, I might start swapping back and forth between the old DDRs and DC2 to make sure I'm keeping up my usual level. My brain does not like it very much when I start getting less exercise, especially during the winter.
I've been playing DC2 for the most part, with a little bit of DC1. DC1's dancer natter after each song is annoying, and it doesn't seem to have a nonstop workout mode, so I hope to eventually transfer the songs over to DC2 (it's possible, a la Rock Band 1 and 2). Haven't tried DC3 yet.
Let's not even talk about the music mix. However, even a song I hate can be entertaining for dancing purposes, so I don't mind, really. (Here's an example: Among the easy-tier songs in DC2, I am probably worst at "Venus", which is one of the few songs that I know well IRL.)
Also bought a "trainer" game/program that I haven't tried yet. Need to get around to that.
edit: OK, just finished a really satisfying set: Easy Start / Cardio / Warmup. (I love ending on "Bulletproof." Fun.) I hadn't done the Cardio set before, assuming I couldn't hack it. I sometimes couldn't, but the scoring is pretty lenient, and I never got kicked out of a song. It actually felt worthwhile this time. Woohoo.
