The 11th Hour The Sequel to 7th Guest

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Used Price: $6.78
Customer Review: Great game, not worthy of a “Sequel”
Well if you read my 7th Guest review, you would know the story about when my sister got the game and how it was cool but scary. Well a year or two later (dont remember when THIS game came out), my sister picked up this game since she loved the original game “7th Guest”. Well since I was scared of 7th Guest when I was little I was thinking “Great another game that’s going to make me crap myself” (I was around 6-7 at the time when this game came out). Well I saw her play it and it’s not a freaky and it’s not as cool. My sis let me borrow it and the patch over the summer and I beat it, here’s the review. Story: Well the story for 7th Guest was about how 6 guests went into Henry Stauf’s mansion and never came out. Well this one isn’t as cool. You play as Carl Denning who one day receives this “gamebook” and finds out his girlfriend who is a reporter has been locked into the Stauf Mansion. So you go in there and figure out what’s going on. (7/10) Gameplay: Exactly the same as 7th Guest, go around solve puzzles, except there’s one or two twists. You also have to go around and solve these riddles which are EXTREMELY hard and don’t make sense. Also I’d like to add that this game is harder than 7th Guest, this game makes 7th Guest look like a Mathblaster game, no offense. (8/10) Sound: Well the music is somewhat the same as 7th Guest, they have an eerie feeling and they freak you out. Some have upbeat tempos and some are just freaky. Some of the music is the same so you have to give props to that. Again the music sets the scene. (10/10) Graphics: This is my favorite part of the review for this game…the Graphics. The thing I really like about this game is that it’s the same graphics, nothing has changed. The really cool thing about this game is that your in the same EXACT mansion, everything looks the same except older. The only thing I didn’t like about this game compared to 7th Guest was that the real actors in this game weren’t actually in the mansion when shown like 7th Guest, it shows them as in a movie where they are in a real place and not a cartoony mansion. But a couple times they are like at the end of the game. (9/10) Outro: This game is cool and anyone who loved the 7th Guest should get this game. It’s definately not as cool as 7th Guest but it’s still worthy of a play. My sister let me borror with the patch a while ago and i’m probably going to buy it sometime soon so I can beat it again. I would say pick this game up if it’s $20 or less new or used, you might also want to buy a strategy guide for this one cause it’s harder but that’s up to you, I personally had no problem. I would also like to add that this game isn’t as freaky as 7th Guest but still fun to play.
Customer Review: Too Convoluted
I greatly enjoyed the 7th Guest. Its sequel, The 11th Hour, is not bad, but it’s not very good either. On the plus side, the graphics and the music are just as creepy and cool. On the minus side, the plot is just too stupid, and the extra puzzle elements make the game too convoluted. In the 7th guest, the plot (although not the greatest) was creepy and entertaining, and held the game together. In the 11th hour, there are some elements that are so unbelievable even horror, mystery and intrigue can’t account for them (example: somebody gets raped by a house: THAT’S JUST DUMB). The actual gameplay is also unecessarily convoluted. In the 7th Guest, you solved the puzzles to open more doors, where you could solve more, and open more, until you’ve been able to solve the puzzle that will take you to the end of the game. The plot elements emerged around the house as a natural part of this process. In the 11th Hour, there are actually two different goals: you have to play the word-clue puzzles to unravel the plot, but you have to play Stauf’s puzzles in the House to open doors and get to where you need to go. Perhaps this was an attempt to make sure the plot was revealed “sequentially.” In any case, it makes the game less enjoyable, with the word-clues seeming kind of like nagging errands which distract you from the meat of the game. Final verdict? Play it if you have the chance to borrow it from af friend, or if you have a buddy you can play it with. But don’t pay money for it.
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Kiri Te Kanawa is featured in this glittering Covent Garden Opera production of Johann Strauss’ masterpiece. Placido Domingo conducts the Royal Opera House Orchestra and Chorus. Other soloists include Hermann Prey, Hildegard Heichele, Benjamin Luxon.
List Price: $29.99
Amazon Price: $26.99
Used Price: $24.81
Customer Review: Very good DVD, Very good delivery!
This DVD was delivered quickly, and in prime condition. I am very glad to own a new copy of this beautifully performed operetta.
Customer Review: Good live performance, fun the first time, but with problems for repeated viewings
SOURCE: Live 1983 performance at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. SOUND: Reasonably good stereo. The singing of the soloists is generally well caught, the orchestra and chorus slightly less so. Some dialogue fades occasionally, but that may be due to the performers as much as the sound pick-up. CAST: Gabriel von Eisenstein, a prosperous Viennese gentlemen with a roving eye - Hermann Prey (baritone); Rosalinde, his wife - Tiri Te Kanawa (soprano); Alfred, Rosalinde’s would be lover - Dennis O’Neill (tenor); Adele, Rosalinde’s maid - Hildegarde Heichele (soprano); Dr. Falke, Eisenstein’s good friend but also the victim of one of his practical jokes - Benjamin Luxon (baritone); Frank, Governor of the City Prison - Michael Langdon (baritone); Prince Orlowsky, a jaded and bored visiting aristocrat - Doris Soffel (mezzo-soprano); Dr. Blind, Eisenstein’s lawyer - Paul Crook (tenor); Ida, Adele’s sister - Ingrid Baier (speaker); Frosch, a jailer - Josef Meinrad (speaker). CONDUCTOR: Placido Domingo with the Royal Opera House Orchestra and Chorus, Covent Garden. TEXT: The lyrics are sung in a German not heavily burdened with Viennese lilt. Spoken dialogue veers wildly from one language to another. SETS AND COSTUMES: The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, is a very large theater with a big stage. The settings are of necessity of large scale. This makes Eisenstein’s residence, which ought to be the well-appointed townhouse of a prosperous but nevertheless middle-class Viennese banker who keeps only a single servant, seem out of scale. The ballroom set for the second act and the jail in the third are serviceable. The costumes are generic, late 19th Century, but attractive and appropriate. STAGE DIRECTION: Overall, the stage blocking is quite traditional, even sensible, leading one to make wild speculations about the director having actually read the libretto before staging the piece, improbable as that seems. The decision to sing in German and speak the dialogue in polyglot form is a questionable one, probably earning, I imagine, about equal quantities of praise and disdain. COMMENTARY: The roots of Johann Strauss II’s “Die Fledermaus” stretch back to an 1851 German farce by Robert Benedix, “Die Gef?ngnis” (”The Prison”). In 1872, that admirable pair of hacks, Meilhac and Hal?vy, cobblers of libretti for both Offenbach and Bizet, converted the old German play into a French vaudeville called “Le r?veillon” (”The Revel” or perhaps “The Christmas Eve Party”). In 1873-4, the French text was re-translated back into German for Strauss to set to music, but with all references to Christmas carefully expunged as a sop to respectable Viennese sensibilities. Oddly enough, the one-time Christmas Eve tale that premiered not far away from Easter in 1874 has taken firm root in Austria and elsewhere as a New Year’s Eve entertainment. If there exists a poor sound recording of “Die Fledermaus,” I have never encountered it. Each major recording has its unique merits and its champions. Choosing the best among them is simply an exercise in expressing personal taste. “Chacun,” as we are wisely advised, “? son go?t.” Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for all the DVD outings of “Die Fledermaus” (and especially not for two recent outright horrors from Salzburg and Glyndebourne, respectively.) Let me now hasten to allay fears by assuring you that this DVD “Fledermaus” is a good one. Many, including the Good Grey Gramophone Magazine, regard it as a very, very good one. The cast is a generally sound one, and everyone (but Heichele) seems to be having an infectiously good time, especially Domingo, conducting in the pit. They are all right, but neither Te Kanawa nor Heichele would be my first choice for Rosalinde and Adele, respectively (nor, indeed, my twenty-first choice, if it came to that.) Hermann Prey is a sprightly Eisenstein, although perhaps a bit too old and stolid-looking to make Eisenstein’s shenanigans entirely convincing. Eisenstein is a low-lying tenor part or a high-flying baritone role. I prefer a character tenor as Eisenstein, especially in Act II where he will be the only tenor voice. Dennis O’Neill sings pretty well as Alfred, here translated into as Alfredo. Benjamin Luxon, oddly enough for an operatic baritone, is adequate singing but notably better in speaking the dialogue. Doris Soffel, is a tall, splendidly epicene figure as Prince Orlowsky. Soffel, a very fine and well-known mezzo-soprano, here sounds very soprano-ish. Had I been given the choice, I’d have cast her as Adele and Heichele, if I had to use her at all, as Orlowsky. While the performance is enjoyable enough the first time through, there are problems that emerge on subsequent viewings. The choice of having characters speak in different languages to one another–Te Kanawa in English to Dr. Falke but in German to Eisenstein and Adele, for instance–gets real tired real fast. The part of Alfred was intended for a Viennese tenor–imagine the young Richard Tauber. Strauss wrote appropriately Viennese music for him. Performance tradition, however, has turned Alfred into a caricature of an Italian tenor, Alfredo, and interpolated all kinds of tags and snatches from Puccini and Verdi. Here, they have gone one step further and made him speak in Italian–hardly the native tongue of a Dennis O’Neill, I fancy. It’s a wearisome conceit. (When they extend the idea to make Eisenstein emulate Wotan when he bids “farewell” to Rosalinde, it’s really just too much!) Even more wearisome is the “gala” in which outside performers offer a mixed bag of turns during Orlowsky’s ball … amusing once, tedious thereafter. Finally, there is the matter of Domingo’s conducting. The Good Grey Gramophone calls it “stiff.” Since the Royal Opera House Orchestra is manifestly not a Viennese band, I’ll give Domingo a pass on that point. On the other hand, he seems to me to be a little over-indulgent on making comedic points at cost to the essential snap and crackle of Strauss’ champagne-soaked score. Compared to the overall enjoyability of the show, my negative comments count as relatively minor. You can certainly do worse–much worse–than acquire this particular version of “Die Fledermaus.” Four stars.
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Whether prospecting for gold or seeking rare coins on the beach, the avid treasure hunter can make good use of these full-stereo headphones. Compatible with all Bounty Hunter metal detector models, the headphones utilize a 1/4-inch stereo plug, feature individual volume controls for left and right sides, and can help extend metal detector battery life. Padded for comfort, the headphones measure 8 by 8 by 4 inches. –Ann Bieri
List Price: $29.99
Amazon Price: $23.96
Customer Review: Order Cancelled without any explanation.
I ordered these in combination with a metal detector for Christmas and now that Christmas is here, the order cancelled without an explanation. I have no idea as to the quality of the headphones, but there appears to be a problem with supply and distribution which will make me look elsewhere!
Customer Review: Recommended
Ordered this product to go with the Bounty Hunter Fast Tracker Metal Detector. If you don’t want to disturb the neighbors when searching for treasures in your back yard, this is the product for you.
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What to Do Each Month to Have a Beautiful Garden All Year. Take the guesswork out of gardening. The Month-by-Month Gardening Guides offer valuable advice on the proper timing of garden maintenance for each month. Use of the guide will take the fear and guesswork out of gardening, as well as provide an achievable plan for gardening success for beginners and experienced gardeners alike. A Month-by-Month Gardening Guide is available for each state or region.Published by Cool Springs Press.
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