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DeepMind AI can predict kidney illness 48 hours before it occurs
Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) kills 500,000 people in the US and 100,000 in the UK annually, often because it's not detected soon enough. Researchers want to use AI to change that. DeepMind, the Alphabet-owned AI company, partnered with the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to develop an AKI prediction algorithm. In a paper published in Nature today, the partners share their findings that the algorithm can predict the presence of AKI up to 48 hours before it happens. The model correctly identified 9 out of 10 patients whose condition worsened to the point that they needed dialysis.
The Hoff has a sense of humor (when paid to)
We don't find the celebrity parodies in Ready 2 Rumble Revolution so much "funny" as "disgusting." But we're changing our tune a bit, thanks to a well-placed endorsement from David Hasselhoff, who is himself a parody (of David Hasselhoff). In this trailer for Aki's boxing game, The Hoff is presented with his pugilistic double. We don't want to spoil the reaction, because we don't want to dull the impact of a fine Hasselhoff performance. But we will say that we appreciate a somewhat disgraced celebrity more when he is willing to make fun of himself. It's a win-win for Hasselhoff -- he gets to improve his image a bit, and make a little cheeseburger money in the process!%Gallery-38364%
3 Trailers 4 Ready 2 Rumble Revolution
Are you ready for three Ready 2 Rumble Revolution videos? How do you even prepare for something like that? We're imagining a Rocky-style training montage before sitting down to take on these videos -- we aren't sure how punching a side of beef or running up stairs will help you watch Internet videos, but who knows? Your Ready 2 Rumble video endurance may improve as your physical endurance does.The first trailer shows the awful "Syphon Cruel" versus the (faintly) James Brown-ish "Fight Machine." Next on the bill is "Mal Function" against circa-Staying Alive John Travolta in the form of "Fever Friction," followed by "Mosh Deck'em" versus "Kaiser Kong." Developer AKI has done an exemplary job of designing punchable characters.%Gallery-38364%
Ready 2 Rumble Revolution: Fake Nic Cage vs. Some Guy
The latest Ready 2 Rumble Revolution trailer features the character we previously called out as our favorite, The Impersonator. It's kind of hard not to be impressed with the sheer randomness of a boxer who looks like none other than Nicolas Cage in Honeymoon in Vegas-era Elviswear. Not necessarily "this is definitely a game to buy" impressed but at least "hey, look at this thing in a video game" impressed.The other fighter, "Dragon Chew", isn't quite such a hit (pun unintended). Is he Bruce Lee? Some other martial arts star we can't identify? It's actually starting to bother us. And then one of you will tell us and we'll feel a combination of total humiliation and relief. The trailer is after the break!%Gallery-38364%
Ready 2 Rumble boxart, videos enter the ring
First of all, it would appear that the boxart for Ready 2 Rumble Revolution has leaked onto the net courtesy of GameStop's site (image has been pulled from their site, but peep it on the right). Love it? Hate it? Indifferent?Second on the agenda, IGN has uploaded four new trailers of boxing action and they feature a variety of different aspects of the title. We've got character intros, as well as individual looks at some of the combatants included in the game. We're not sure how to feel about R2R Revolution yet, to tell the truth. For one, if looks like the gameplay is spot-on with the original games, but on the other hand, it looks a little too slow to us. That is, in these new trailers. But, hey, at least we aren't stuck having to play as David Hasselhoff Dewie Streudel or anything. There's other boxers to choose from, aside from the celeb knockoffs we've already seen. Check out the trailers past the break.%Gallery-38364%
Prepare for a Ready 2 Rumble Revolution trailer
Yesterday, we brought you gameplay footage of Ready 2 Rumble Revolution, featuring a few of the game's off-putting celebrity caricatures. Now we've got a trailer packed full of ugly funhouse-mirror versions of people you probably don't like anymore! Our "favorite" is Nicolas Cage in Elvis regalia. We spotted a School of Rock-era Jack Black easily enough, but we don't actually recognize a lot of the other ones, except as "ugly boxer."The graphics in the trailer actually seem pretty good, which makes it that much more of a shame that they're used to display these guys. The good news is that we won't feel bad about punching them repeatedly in the face.%Gallery-38364%
Wii Warm Up: Ready 2 Rumble with Hasselhoff?
Ready 2 Rumble is making a Balboa-esque comeback on Wii, but here's the catch: Ready 2 Rumble: Revolution will follow an example set by Celebrity Sports Showdown, by having only caricatured celebrities as fighters. That means no Afro Thunder, Boris "The Bear" Knokimov, or any of the other original cast.While fighting as a moobed Simon Cowell wouldn't be our first choice, if the game is as fun as the Dreamcast titles were, we'll suck it up and get throwing haymakers. What do you personally make of AKI wheeling in the slebs? Would the fact the original line-up is totally missing color your decision to buy Ready 2 Rumble? And who did you use back then? We were Angel Rivera experts.%Gallery-38364%
First gameplay footage makes us doubt our Readiness 2 Rumble
We're not sure we understand what has happened with Ready 2 Rumble Revolution. The last Ready 2 Rumble game featured some exaggerated celebrity characters as well, and we found it kind of funny. But there is nothing funny about the caricatures in Ready 2 Rumble Revolution. That Hasselhoff-esque boxer is, in fact, kind of upsetting. The good news is that, aside from the substitution of these abominations for Ready 2 Rumble's cast of wacky stereotypes, this looks a lot like the classic boxing game we know and kind of like. After the break, a video featuring what looks like custom characters -- a possible escape from the offensive appearance of Dewie Strudel.%Gallery-38364%
Ready to Rumble ready to return
EA's Facebreaker K.O. Party doesn't seem to have met with the task of imitating Ready 2 Rumble Boxing. According to this new announcement, the next Wii game to attempt the feat may be ... oh, hey, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing! Ready 2 Rumble Revolution was first announced back in 2006, but that's too long ago to count. This time, however, the announcement from Atari is for real, with screens and everything. Unfortunately, those screens show off the new character designs, which are based on celebrities and also awful.Revolution is developed by the wrestling game company formerly known as AKI, and thus is actually quite likely to be good. Of course, it stands no chance of competing with Punch-Out!! in terms of sales or hype, but Ready 2 Rumble used to be decent fun.[Via NeoGAF]%Gallery-38364%
Rumor: The greatest wrestling game of all time could come to the VC
If you had a N64 and friends, then you probably played a couple of different games on the regular. Some game starring a "Bond. Mr. James Bond" or something, called Goldeneye 007, seemed to be the crowd favorite. Another game some would say was quite popular was Mario Kart 64, a game that involved kart racing and some guy with a mustache. Last, but not least (for us, anyway), was a series of wrestling games based on both the WCW and WWF (a magical time when one guy didn't totally destroy what used to be a kind of fun program to watch).Now, the last amazing wrestling game that the N64 would ever see (and most would agree, gaming as a whole) might be making its way onto the Virtual Console. But, it won't be the same game you remember, because word on the street is that it's to be updated with the current roster of WWE superstars. While we could care less about the new crop of wrestlers, we could easily create all of our old favorites using the awesome character creation mode.Who else is with us in wanting this game?[Via Game | Life]
Chicago signing for Uematsu, Aki, & Roth tonight
Are you in Chicago tonight for the big PLAY! concert tomorrow, but weren't willing to shell out $125 for the VIP meet-and-greet at the event? Well, you might be in luck (even if you're not attending), as a few famous folks from the concert will be on hand to sign autographs in Chicago proper for free tonight.From 7 to 9 PM (presumably Central time) at the Tower Records store on 2301 N. Clark St., Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, bilingual songstress Angela Aki (who wrote and sang the theme song for FFXII), and Principal Conductor and Music Director of PLAY! Arnie Roth will be signing autographs to promote the world-tour premiere of 'PLAY! A Video Game Symphony' and the CD for More Friends - Music from FINAL FANTASY.While this blogger is sadly occupied with prior engagements tonight, gamers in the area are more than welcome to mob that Tower Records and cause the store's employees much consternation and bewilderment. If you don't have any imported CDs to sign, however, don't fret: the store's web site claims to have "some awesome Japanese imports available for you to purchase and have autographed at the event." Not only that, Angela Aki will be performing live as well. Score! Anybody wanna tell us how this evening turns out when it's all sung and done?[Via The Daily Northwestern; image culled from Angela Aki's blog, Nobuo Uematsu's Squenix profile, and Arnie Roth's 2005 interview with IGN]See also: Official page for Tower Clark Street (with details on the signing) Ticketmaster site for the PLAY! concert debut tomorrow Sonic and Chrono composers to join PLAY! in Chicago
