Thames & Kosmos Exit the Game Nightfall Manor Puzzle Spoiler-free Review by George Gensler, @chocophilenyc @thamesandkosmos #letknowledgegrow @kosmosgames_us #puzzles #NationalPuzzleMonth #gifted 17 Jan 4:00 AM (2 days ago)
It’s time for our second puzzle review for National Puzzle Month! We’re giving you a month of puzzle reviews. We’ll be covering all kinds of puzzles, so make sure you subscribe to our newsletter so you can link directly to the reviews. Today, Thames & Kosmos’s Nightfall Manor puzzle. If you don’t know already, we are big fans of Thames & Kosmos puzzles here at Gay NYC Dad. Their puzzle advent calendars are always a highlight of our year and – #spoileralert – this new escape room-type puzzle is a hit!
Thames & Kosmos’s Nightfall Manor is an escape room in a puzzle in a box. Gaston, the village storyteller, has disappeared after claiming he was going to solve the mystery of Nightfall Manor, the local castle. Our task is to track him down and find out what has happened to him. Pack your curiosity, your intuition, and your best puzzle-solving skills and let’s go!
Before I get started on the review, here is my primer on Exit the Room games:
Exit the Game puzzles are escape room puzzles that come in a box. You work your way through a series of puzzles that lead you to solve the overall puzzle and Exit the Game. The boxes are about the size of a paperback book, so you can easily travel with them, though be sure you’ve got all the tools you need to solve the puzzles. My family think they’re best solved together, because we have not yet solved one where every single person didn’t make a significant contribution to discovering the solution to a puzzle. You can probably do it on your own, but it would take a lot longer and it really is gratifying to see the light bulb go off when someone realizes the way to solve the puzzle, especially when the solver is a child.
What’s in the Box?
The innovation with Nightfall Manor is that there are jigsaw puzzles included in the puzzle solving. It’s the best of both worlds! There are four jigsaw puzzles, a decoder disk,14 riddle documents, 10 strange items, and the rulebook, which includes the help section. You’ll need your own scissors, pen, pencil, paper, and a clock of some sort for timing yourself (for the score at the end). You can also use the Kosmos Helper App, which has a timer in the Nightfall Manor section. The Kosmos Helper App is the best option, because it also has a soundtrack for each of the four jigsaw puzzle sections! And you can pause the timer, if you need to take a break.
The decoder disk comes as four dials that have to be assembled with a snap fastener, which, unfortunately, I dropped and stepped on, so it didn’t work correctly, but that just meant that I had to hold it together when I spun the dials. Don’t drop yours, then stop on it and you should be fine.
How to solve Thames & Kosmos’s Exit the Game Nightfall Manor:
As you follow the directions in the Rulebook, you’ll be instructed to complete the jigsaw puzzles, which are, essentially, the game board. Each of the jigsaw puzzles represents a different location on your quest to find Gaston and they’re distinguishable by the patterns on the back of the pieces.
As you journey towards Nightfall Manor, you stop at the locations on the puzzles and open different-colored combination locks by solving puzzles. When you solve the puzzle correctly, you enter the combination of the lock into the decoder dial. If you’re correct, when you turn the decoder disk over, there’s a window that has either the combination lock that you’re trying to solve or a red X. If the combination lock is in the window, there are three windows on the front of the decoder disk and each window has a symbol, which is used to determine which of the Riddle documents to open. The correct Riddle document carries your further into the story, letting you know where to go next.
TOP TIP: If you can’t figure out how to solve a puzzle, you can flip the Rulebook and turn it over to find the Help section. There are two clues per puzzle, plus a hidden solution (on the reverse of the clue page) that you can use if you can’t solve the puzzle on your own.
Continue building jigsaws and solving puzzles until you’ve completed the story and learned Gaston’s fate. If you’ve been timing yourself, stop the clock now and mark your time. In the Rulebook, there’s an Assessment table which helps you score your performance. It combines your time, whether or not you used any clues (and how many clues you used), to give you your stars. Don’t forget to include any extra stars you might have earned at the final solution (I got 2!). There’s even a certificate in the Rulebook where you can mark your results.
I LOVE Thames & Kosmos Exit the Game Nightfall Manor! Adding the jigsaw puzzles really increased the fun and the diversity of the puzzle-solving aspect of the games. Nightfall Manor is for 1-4 players, aged 10 and up. These puzzles are probably a bit too sophisticated for littles, though they might be helpful with the jigsaw puzzles, which are very well made. The box indicates a play time of 2-3 hours, but it only took me 2 hours on my own, so a team might even be able to do it in less time. The jigsaw puzzles have 88 pieces and take 15-20 minutes to build. There are three jigsaw puzzle Exit the Game puzzles in the series, so far, click the links below for my affiliate links! Hopefully, there will be more!
https://www.amazon.com/EXIT-Family-Friendly-Puzzle-Based-Experience-Collaborative/dp/B09QF42DK7/
https://www.amazon.com/Exit-Puzzles-Family-Friendly-Puzzle-Based-Experience/dp/B08TWYHFVF
https://www.amazon.com/EXIT-Lighthouse-Family-Friendly-Puzzle-Based-Experience/dp/B08TWZ7GC2
٭٭٭٭٭Highly Recommended
The post Thames & Kosmos Exit the Game Nightfall Manor Puzzle Spoiler-free Review by George Gensler, @chocophilenyc @thamesandkosmos #letknowledgegrow @kosmosgames_us #puzzles #NationalPuzzleMonth #gifted appeared first on Gay NYC Dad.
#Giveaways Ending This Weekend, 1/19/2025! New #Contests Listed! 17 Jan 3:45 AM (2 days ago)
January 19, 2025
$5 McDonalds Gift Card Giveaway!
January 26, 2025
$20 Taco Bell Gift Card Giveaway!
February 2, 2025
$25 Smashburger Gift Card Giveaway!
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WOLF MAN – IN THEATERS JANUARY 17! #WolfManMovie @WolfManMovie25 @UniversalPics @blumhouse 15 Jan 4:00 AM (4 days ago)
WOLF MAN – IN THEATERS JANUARY 17!
I enjoy a good werewolf story from the supernatural perspective, and this werewolf story is more from the horror perspective, so fun for the horror fans. The hook in this movie is to show the transformation from man to werewolf as a much slower process, like a disease slowly taken over the body. We are used to seeing a physical transformation happen in minutes. The horror is that the wife and child have to watch this happen to a loved one while locked up in the house. Fairly predictable, but fun for the horror fans from what I could tell from my fellow audience members. Chirstopher Abbott is the stand-out here as his acting skills throughout the transformation are incredibly well done!
Golden Globe nominee Christopher Abbott (Poor Things, It Comes at Night) stars as Blake, a San Francisco husband and father, who inherits his remote childhood home in rural Oregon after his own father vanishes and is presumed dead. With his marriage to his high-powered wife, Charlotte (Emmy winner Julia Garner; Ozark, Inventing Anna), fraying, Blake persuades Charlotte to take a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter, Ginger (Matlida Firth; Hullraisers, Coma).
But as the family approaches the farmhouse in the dead of night, they’re attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside the home as the creature prowls the perimeter. As the night stretches on, however, Blake begins to behave strangely, transforming into something unrecognizable, and Charlotte will be forced to decide whether the terror within their house is more lethal than the danger without.
The film co-stars Sam Jaeger (The Handmaid’s Tale), Ben Prendergast (The Sojourn Audio Drama) and Benedict Hardie (The Invisible Man), with newcomer Zac Chandler, Beatriz Romilly (Shortland Street) and Milo Cawthorne (Shortland Street).
From Blumhouse and visionary writer-director Leigh Whannell, the creators of the chilling modern monster tale The Invisible Man, comes a terrifying new lupine nightmare: Wolf Man.! Wolf Man is directed by Whannell and written by Whannell & Corbett Tuck. Whannell’s previous films with Blumhouse include The Invisible Man, Upgrade and Insidious: Chapter 3.
The film is produced by Blumhouse founder and CEO Jason Blum p.g.a., and Ryan Gosling (The Fall Guy, Lost River) and is executive produced by Leigh Whannell, Beatriz Sequeira, Mel Turner and Ken Kao. Universal Pictures and Blumhouse present a Gosling/Waypoint Entertainment production, in association with Cloak & Co: Wolf Man.
WOLF MAN – IN THEATERS JANUARY 17
Official Website | Facebook | X | Instagram | YouTube | #WolfManMovie
Cast: Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner and Sam Jaeger, Matilda Firth, Benedict Hardie, Ben Prendergast, Zac Chandler, Beatriz Romilly, Milo Cawthorne
Directed by: Leigh Whannell
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Winners Announced and New #Giveaways Posted For January 15, 2025! #contests 15 Jan 3:45 AM (4 days ago)
The numbers generated by this widget come from RANDOM.ORG’s true random number generator.
Jeff G. won the $15 Best Buy Gift Card Giveaway!
NOTE! All prize fulfillments may be delayed due to the Corona Virus. And we are not responsible for any USPS related delays or missing items. We mostly use the Gleam app to determine winners.
January 19, 2025
$5 McDonalds Gift Card Giveaway!
January 26, 2025
$20 Taco Bell Gift Card Giveaway!
February 2, 2025
$25 Smashburger Gift Card Giveaway!
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Memes 135 w/Linky! #memes #humor #comedy #Laughs #jokes 14 Jan 3:29 AM (5 days ago)
You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
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$25 Smashburger Gift Card Giveaway! @smashburger #smashburger #giveaways #contests 13 Jan 3:55 AM (6 days ago)
These burgers are delicious!
Are you in their loyalty program? I love eating my way to free food!
And check all their locations!
GIVEAWAY:
One lucky reader of the GayNYCDad award winning blog, will receive a $25 Smashburger Gift Card!
Contest ends 11:59 p.m. EST, February 2, 2025. Prizes must be claimed within 48 hours. Maximum winnings of 2 giveaways per every 90 days. See official rules for more information.
$25 Smashburger Gift Card Giveaway!
Thanks, and good luck.
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#Giveaways Ending This Weekend, 1/12/2025! New #Contests Listed! 10 Jan 3:45 AM (9 days ago)
January 12, 2025
$15 Best Buy Gift Card Giveaway!
January 19, 2025
$5 McDonalds Gift Card Giveaway!
January 26, 2025
$20 Taco Bell Gift Card Giveaway!
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DOG MAN – IN THEATERS JANUARY 31, 2025! WIN TICKETS FOR THE MOVIE HERE, NYC AREA ONLY! #DogManMovie @Dreamworks 9 Jan 4:00 AM (10 days ago)
We love Dav Pilkey! And I have 10 four packs of tickets to giveaway for the NYC area, leave a comment if you can be at the theater in Regal Union Square, in Manhattan, on Saturday, January 25th, by 10:30 am to pick up your tickets for the 11 am showing. Tickets will not be held after 10:30 am! Want 4 free tickets? Enter now! Contest ends in 1 week, or when I get 10 folks who can make the showing. Leave your email address in the comment!
Part dog, part man, all hero.
From DreamWorks Animation—creators of the beloved blockbuster franchises Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon and The Boss Baby—comes the canine-crime-fighting film adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s New York Times bestselling literary phenomenon: Dog Man.
When a faithful police dog and his human police officer owner are injured together on the job, a harebrained but life-saving surgery fuses the two of them together and Dog Man is born. Dog Man is sworn to protect and serve—and fetch, sit and roll over.
As Dog Man embraces his new identity and strives to impress his Chief (Lil Rel Howery, Get Out, Free Guy), he must stop the pretty evil plots of feline supervillain Petey the Cat (Pete Davidson; Saturday Night Live, The King of Staten Island). Petey’s latest plan is to clone himself, creating the kitten Lil Petey, to double his ability to do crime stuff. Things get complicated, though, when Lil Petey forges an unexpected bond with Dog Man.
When Lil Petey falls into the clutches of a common enemy, Dog Man and Petey reluctantly join forces in an action-packed race against time to rescue the young kitten. In the process, they discover the power of family (and kittens!) to bring even the most hostile foes together.
Dog Man also stars Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers, Rango) as TV reporter Sarah Hatoff; Poppy Liu (Hacks, The Afterparty) as Petey’s assistant, Butler; Emmy nominee Stephen Root (Barry, King of the Hill) as Grampa; Billy Boyd (the Lord of the Rings franchise, Seed of Chucky) as Sarah’s cameraman, Seamus; and Emmy and Golden Globe winner Ricky Gervais (The Office, Extras) as Flippy the fish.
Dog Man is directed by Emmy winner Peter Hastings (The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness), whose credits include the groundbreaking animated series Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain. The film is produced by Karen Foster (Spirit Untamed), who served as co-producer on DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon.
Launched in 2016 by Dav Pilkey—the #1 global bestselling author and award-winning illustrator of the Captain Underpants books—the Dog Man Scholastic series now includes 12 books. The series has more than 60 million copies in print and has been translated into 47 languages. Cat Kid Comic Club, a spin-off of Dog Man launched in 2020, has also topped bestseller lists around the world. The most recent Dog Man book, Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea, was overall the #1 bestselling children’s book in the U.S. in 2023, across all children’s formats and ages. Pilkey’s newest book in the Dog Man Series, Dog Man: Big Jim Begins, is set to release on December 3, 2024.
The post DOG MAN – IN THEATERS JANUARY 31, 2025! WIN TICKETS FOR THE MOVIE HERE, NYC AREA ONLY! #DogManMovie @Dreamworks appeared first on Gay NYC Dad.
Puzzle Books Spoiler-free Review by George Gensler, @chocophilenyc @laurencekingpub @hachetteuk @ic4design_inc @Mobius_Books @greenfinch_books @CJ_Yates @QuercusBooks #puzzles #bookreview #NationalPuzzleMonth #gifted 8 Jan 4:00 AM (11 days ago)
It’s January and that means it’s National Puzzle Month! We’re giving you a month of puzzle reviews. We’ll be covering all kinds of puzzles, so make sure you subscribe to our newsletter so you can link directly to the reviews. Today, we’re covering two puzzles books: Pierre The Maze Detective: The Search for the Stolen Maze Stone from Laurence King and 5-Minute Murder from Greenfinch, an imprint of Quercus Books.
Pierre The Maze Detective: The Search for the Stolen Maze Stone by Hiro Kamigaki & IC4DESIGN is the first in a series of puzzles books (for ages 8 and up) that follow Pierre the Maze Detective through various scenes, chasing Mr. X, who has stolen the Maze Stone. Each chapter involves a new maze scene to solve as Pierre tracks Mr. X through various neighborhoods. In each neighborhood there are extra challenges. Find the hidden yellow stars, red trophies, and red and green treasure chests, plus a variety of items that differ for each neighborhood, and a special challenge from Mr. X. You might have the traditional, lined maze in mind, but these mazes are more abstract, following paths up and down streets and ladders and staircases, around people, animals, and things. Don’t get too lost in the mazes, though. Be sure to enjoy the illustrations in all their intricate glory. And when you finish The Search for the Stolen Maze Stone, you can work your way through the rest of the series, which is at five books and counting.
https://www.amazon.com/Pierre-Maze-Detective-Search-Stolen/dp/1780675631
٭٭٭٭٭Recommended
5-Minute Murder by Christopher J. Yates and Bruce Pitchers is a series of mystery stories that require you to solve puzzles to get to help the detectives find the perpetrators. There are ten different stories and each story has ten puzzles. You can solve nearly all of the puzzles without reading the story, but the stories are engaging, fun, and very helpful in solving the puzzles that include the information tucked into them, so don’t skip a word! There are gridded and gridless logic puzzles, sukoku and futoshiki puzzles, word puzzles, and more, with several pages at the end of the book for taking notes and practicing solutions. And don’t worry if you don’t know how to solve a particular type of puzzles. There are instructions and examples to help you along. This book is perfect for when you don’t have a lot of time, because each of the puzzles should take about 5 minutes to solve. I’m hooked and am on chapter 5 already!
https://www.amazon.com/Minute-Murder-addictive-mystery-puzzles/dp/1529440890/
٭٭٭٭٭Highly Recommended
Another favorite puzzle book is one we’ve previously reviewed: Laurence King’s The Official Agatha Christie Puzzle Book. Check out that review here. Next up will be a jigsaw puzzle review for a puzzle that is perfect for families.
Spoiler alert! ٭٭٭٭٭Highly Recommended
The post Puzzle Books Spoiler-free Review by George Gensler, @chocophilenyc @laurencekingpub @hachetteuk @ic4design_inc @Mobius_Books @greenfinch_books @CJ_Yates @QuercusBooks #puzzles #bookreview #NationalPuzzleMonth #gifted appeared first on Gay NYC Dad.
Winners Announced and New #Giveaways Posted For January 8, 2025! #contests 8 Jan 3:45 AM (11 days ago)
The numbers generated by this widget come from RANDOM.ORG’s true random number generator.
Bill N. won the $15 Subway eGift Card Giveaway!
Bree D. won the Sonic X Shadow Generations Video Game Code Giveaway for XBOX!
Chris H. and Stephanie B. both won the The Curse Of The Dead Man’s Diamond by Christyne Morrell Book Giveaway!
NOTE! All prize fulfillments may be delayed due to the Corona Virus. And we are not responsible for any USPS related delays or missing items. We mostly use the Gleam app to determine winners.
January 12, 2025
$15 Best Buy Gift Card Giveaway!
January 19, 2025
$5 McDonalds Gift Card Giveaway!
January 26, 2025
$20 Taco Bell Gift Card Giveaway!
The post Winners Announced and New #Giveaways Posted For January 8, 2025! #contests appeared first on Gay NYC Dad.