The problem was that when people tried to get into their rooms, they found the keys no longer worked. Huge crowds of people lingered in the lobby and halls since they had nowhere to go. The hotel elevators were also locked out. The police even had to be called as some fights broke out in the hotel. When it was all over, guests were locked out for about four hours. The lockout didn’t end until about 3am, and people were given free rooms as a thank you for not destroying the hotel.

Strangely enough, the problem started at about 11pm, so it’s not clear if the cutover to 2012 was responsible for the failure, since the system clock would have had to have been on Central time for that to have had an impact.

[via 9news]

Basically the server(s) handling log ins for Assassin’s Creed 2 players crashed, and since the game is being constantly authenticated as it is played, it locked players out.  The official Assassin’s Creed forum is overflowing with hate, even from people who don’t actually own the game. I think the server is still down as of this writing. Someone is probably going to get fired for this, but if that happens the people who thought of this idea should get the boot as well. What now Ubisoft?

[via Joystiq]

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. I’d like to add that boredom is its father. And for people whose needs are mostly being taken care of, daddy reigns supreme: “The idea was inspired last year by boredom and a strong desire to drive something off of a cliff. So Bob’s son Rick and his buddy Jake figured out a way to turn big cars into remote-controlled toys.”

Rick and Jake rigged the vehicles so they could remote control the steering and the throttle. Brakes? What brakes?

The insane…ly fun event lasted for 8 hours. Moravitz didn’t charge spectators for their show, but he says they got enough donations to cover the insurance that he bought for the event. Redneck geeks sure are crazy.

[via KARE 11 via nfttu via Make:]

The Takumi CRASH Calculator apparently is designed to crash itself when it feels like it. Why, I don’t know.

Maybe the description from the product page will help shine some light on the manufacturer’s intentions:

Everybody has an impulse to CRASH! We seek for the excitement of crashing in this calculator. You will be driven to crashing with the unpredictable action it makes. Calculate to crash, get an answer to crash… Enjoy yourself by operating this uncontroll”

Now it all makes sense, doesn’t it? Idea Frames sells the CRASH Calculator in black, orange and light grey versions for the rather lofty price of $60 bucks a piece. And if you can believe it, they’re already so insanely popular that they’re currently sold out. I guess if you happen to have three Jacksons burning a hole in your pocket, you could buy one for the hell of it.

Just don’t try running the U.S. Treasury with one of these. I think that’s what Alan Greenspan did, and look where that got us.

Buttons on the sides of each car automatically trigger ejector seats that make its passengers and driver go airborne on contact. A carefully placed side impact should propel two of the occupants, but it’ll take a serious rollover wreck to get all four of them out and eating the pavement.

Each car comes with an RF wireless remote control and is propelled by AA batteries. A pair of the crashing stock cars costs £24.99 (appx. $44.98 USD) over on I Want One Of Those.

Here’s an interesting thought: When you turn a Windows XP machine on it’s side, does it become an Apple? Apparently, these kiosks are really running on Dell machines and Samsung displays. I guess that’s cheaper than using Apple gear, but something about it just doesn’t feel right to me.

[via Gizmodo]

The Clarion DriveEye camera automatically senses emergency braking and captures video before, during and after an accident. A G-force sensor detects aggressive braking and then automatically triggers a digital recorder.

It saves 15 seconds of footage in its buffer from right before the crash occurred, and an additional 5 seconds after impact. Since the device has no moving parts, and is encased in a heavy duty magnesium alloy housing, it should withstand all but the nastiest fender benders.

The camera can also be used to manually record video whenever you want, so I guess if you want to record your street racing escapades, you could.

The DriveEye is currently only available in Japan, and can be found from Yodobashi for ¥49,800 (about $412 USD.)

The ridiculous Steering Rapper lets you tap out obnoxious beats and sound effects while you drive your vehicle. If the distraction of that isn’t enough, the whole thing is attached to your steering wheel with velcro straps to get in your way while driving.

If you’re really into being a road hazard, you can pick up the Steering Rapper from 7dream for ¥3,129 (appx. $26 USD.)

There’s just something inherently funny about hardware that cost millions of dollars to develop, yet fails about as often as that $200 PC you picked up from Wal-Mart.

[via Plastic Bamboo]

I especially dig the shot with the car jumping between the train cars. If that’s in the game, I can’t imagine what sort of mayhem we crash-loving fools will be able to dream up this time.

Keep in mind that EA is notorious for showing “target renders,” but the Criterion team is known for really eeking every last drop out of a console, so I wouldn’t be surprised if these were pretty close to what the game actually looks like. I’d assume that the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions will be pretty close, but in a recent interview, Alex Ward mentioned that they’re building Burnout 5 on the PS3, then porting it to the 360, so who knows.

The game is still listed as having a release date of March 26th on both platforms according to EB Games, so here’s hoping we’ll get our hands on this one real soon!

[UPDATE: You can now view a full copy of the original PSM article in PDF format here.]

The ScreenSmasher is a goofy little desktop toy that comes with a foam “axe”, a special USB sensor and software (Windows only) which makes it look like you just smashed the screen on your monitor as you swing the weapon towards your monitor. Check out the video below to see it in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

For those of you who aren’t worried that the novelty will wear off in about 30 seconds, you can pick up a ScreenSmasher here for the introductory price of $29.95 USD (regular price will be $10 more.)

[via SlashGear]

It’s common sense that the more resource intensive a game is, the more heat it will generate. The sheer number of reports of Xbox 360 failures due to heat is certainly higher than most devices, and I personally never had a console die prior to owning an Xbox 360.

That all said, a $16.99 investment in a Nyko Intercooler is all you need to avoid such an ugly and tragic death of your system.