You Mean Gabriel Knight Wasn’t Completely Accurate?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 2, 2011

My interest in visiting New Orleans probably originated with Anne Rice back in the late 80s. But sometime in the early-ish 90s, I played Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, which gave me another shot in the arm to some day visit the historic location. Some movies, stories, and playing an RPG set in Crescent City all helped feed the desire.

I finally got to visit the city fer realz last week. It was a kick in the pants to finally go visit the historic city, five years after Katrina did her best to trash the place. We went on tours. We took a short cruise down the Mississippi river in a steamboat (which called to mind another influential novel of my life – Huckleberry Finn). We ate some really great food, enjoyed some great music (and suffered through a couple short rounds of not-so-great music), and did a bit of exploring. We generally avoided Bourbon Street, as we don’t drink, we weren’t interested in strip clubs, and the smell was pretty bad.

The French Quarter was a bit smaller than I expected. Yes, I knew it was only a few blocks by a few blocks, but I didn’t realize the streets and blocks would be that tiny. Likewise, I expected Saint Louis Cemetery #1 to be quite a bit larger than it was. St. Louis Cathedral, on the other hand, was even more impressive in real life than I’d imagined.

Gabriel Knight, it turns out, wasn’t 100% accurate. Yes, I know, SHOCKING. I’d been replaying it just a little bit after grabbing it for sale from GOG.COM, so I was a little amused comparing it to the real thing. Yes, silly, but it’s actually pretty cool how the game did manage to capture the look and feel of the city.

Oh, and alligator tastes great. Crawfish didn’t do as much for me – it was okay, but not something I’d seek out in the future.

Anyway, I am now back, but that doesn’t mean the guest posts are done. A lot of folks jumped in to help with the posts, and I’d really like to have this be a more regular thing around here. So I will continue to post guest articles (including two more parts of Skavenhorde’s look at roguelikes) interspersed with my less interesting drivel for the next couple of weeks. And I’m continuing to accept guest posts as well, if’n you feel so inclined.

Filed Under: Adventure Games, Geek Life - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Terrormaster said,

Crawfish haven’t quite been the same since the BP disaster. And it really depends on what time of year you get them and who prepares them. Out of all the things I miss about Nawlins since I moved to CT are the crawfish. There’s a void in my heart and stomach.

How’d you have your gator served? And did you get some gumbo sha?
skavenhorde said,

Gabriel Knight…… man I loved that series. Even GK2 was one of the few FMV games that were done right.

Glad you had fun and I can definitely relate on eating weird food. I’ve ate some things over here in Asia that I don’t even want to know what it was when it was alive. Some things weren’t as bad as I thought and some were worse.

The most surprising thing was pigs blood. It’s not as bad as you would imagine. Stinky Tofu is the worst though. Tastes like tofu dragged through a sewer and fried up. No idea how they can stomach it over here.
LateWhiteRabbit said,

Ugh . . . crawfish. My sympathies, Rampant. I can’t stand crawfish. I always expected it to taste similar to crab or lobster, but instead, all the times I’ve tried it, it varies between tasting like excrement I MIGHT eat if I was starving to death, and excrement I would never eat under any circumstances.

@Terrormaster

I don’t see how you can stand them. I’ve had them before and after the BP disaster, prepared numerous different ways, and all were equally terrible. They always LOOK like they should taste good, which is why I keep giving them the benefit of the doubt to taste them again, but BLECH! Steamed crawfish is the worst though.

@Sakvenhorde

Asia is also the place where the Japanese eat bento which is basically moldy beans (served COLD!) and eat seaweed.

I think there must be a mechanism at work that teaches us what is good food as children, and is determined by what our parents shovel into our mouths. They say if you eat anything ten times you will develop a taste for it.
Spaceman SPiff said,

I know the real reason for the guest posts – You just need more time to finish up Portal 2 😀
Stephen R said,

I didn’t play Gabriel Knight until they were released on GOG sometime last year? I loved the first one, the one that was based in New Orleans.

Is it too much to ask for a 4th game based in post Katrina New Orleans? Probably.

I have all 3, but haven’t been able to get into the second one, and have not touched the third one. And I like some FMV games. The Tex Murphy series stands out. Maybe I will give number 2 another shot.

Also, on a side note, you seemed to have just missed CRPGADDICT, who has emerged from his slumber and is in New Orleans for the jazz festival. He promises an increased posting rate when he returns. We shall see.
scotticus said,

I’m glad you had such a good time down in “my neck of the woods”! I hope you had the chance to try some Cafe du Monde beignets when you were here.
Rampant Coyote said,

We enjoyed the beignets immensely, and brought home boxes of the mix as gifts to friends. That was, like, half our reason for going!