They just keep teasing me…  Yet another AvP video, but still no playable demo.

Years ago, I saw a movie on TV about killer rocks.  These things would grow when they got wet and topple over on top of people.  If you were unfortunate enough to be touching the rock when it was wet, it would turn you to stone.

It left quite an impression on me, but I never caught the name of the movie.  So I was never able to see it again.

Then, a couple weeks back, there was a post on the Pharyngula blog that happened to link to a YouTube trailer for The Monolith Monsters – the movie I’d watched all those years ago.

We found it on Netflix…  They shipped it out…  And last night I got to watch The Monolith Monsters once again.

Obviously the movie is a bit dated.  It’s still in black & white.  But the picture was amazingly well-preserved.  Very crisp and clean.  The acting was a bit formulaic…  But that’s to be expected from sci-fi movies of this era.

It was a ton of fun.  I think I liked it more this time around than the first time I watched it.

And it left me with the same oddly fascinated feeling…  It isn’t often that you see a movie where the antagonist is simply a pile of rocks that might fall on you.

I stumbled across a great little game last night – Gratuitous Space Battles.

The gameplay is pretty simple, but crazily addictive as well.  You design ships ahead of time…  Sticking various weapons and shields and stuff onto different hulls.  Then you deploy those ships against an opposing force and sit back to watch the carnage.

You can set some basic orders for the ships as you deploy them…  But once the battle has begun, you can’t do much.  You can’t tell them where to move, or who to attack, or what weapons to fire.  You just sit back and see how your designs and strategy play out.

The ship building reminds me of designing ships in Master of Orion, and that was always one of the parts I liked best.

The actual combat, however, is more like a tower defense game.

The visuals are very nice, but not amazing.  It’s done in a 2D style that’s very reminiscent of Master of Orion II.  You’ve got just enough modules and hulls to make you ponder your choices, without having so many as to be overwhelmed.  There are a couple different races to play as, with unique ships.  And some of the maps have weird anomalies in play that screw with your shields or weapons.

The end result is a very fun, very relaxing game that I played for hours last night without noticing the time passing at all.

There’s been a steady stream of new gameplay videos for Aliens vs. Predator.  Today’s is a gameplay video featuring the Predator.

Looks very cool.  I always enjoyed the whole stalking your prey aspect of playing as the Predator.  This game seems to play up that aspect quite a bit.  You have the ability to project a voice recording, to distract your target.  And it looks like you can asses your target’s strengths…  Determine what kind of equipment they have and whatnot.  Looks good.

My only complaint, at this point, is that I still haven’t seen a demo.