I’ve hesitated talking about chicken rice on this blog because many Singaporeans have their favorites and defend it zealously.  I’m a big fan of chicken rice and I’m really sick and tired of consuming mediocre excuses of this quintessentially Singapore dish.  

What’s worst is that some of these bad ones are reviewed “favorably” by certain food reviewers.

I’m no culinary expert, just someone who loves his food passionately so in the light of sharing, I’ve finally mustered enough courage to say:

My favorite chicken rice stall in Singapore is Heng Ki Chicken Rice in Chinatown Market, #02-131.

There, I said it.

Better still, here’s a picture.

Heng Ki Chicken Rice

Let me tell you why it’s my favorite.  

Chicken rice has three main components – Chicken and rice (duh), and the chili.  A good plate of chicken rice absolutely has to do well in all three.  Before I go on to describe (and defend) why Heng Ki is good, let me first disclaim and say that Heng Ki’s chicken rice is unashamedly full-flavored.  If you’re looking for plain white meat with rice that merely tickles your taste buds, stop reading now.  Or if you belong to the health conscious group who constantly grumbles how unhealthy a dish this is, please go read some salad reviews.  The following is not for you.

You have been warned.

Let’s start with the chicken.  The chicken in most chicken rice is prepared in more or less the same way.  And I guess any other way other than boiled would just be odd.  But after it’s hacked up and served on plate, Heng Ki’s really shines.  The fowl is doused in a generous mixture of soy sauce and what looks like liquified chicken fat kept warm in a mini-slow cooker by the chopping board.  Now don’t underestimate what a soya sauce and chicken fat does in terms of flavor.  I’ve had chicken dressed from a range of oyster sauce to “rose-flavored” sauce.  I think that masks the flavor of the chicken more than enhancing it.  Back to Heng Ki, the meat itself is moist because it’s a little undercooked, which you can tell from the meat still a little red near the bones.  This is good because if it’s cooked thoroughly through, the meat will be tough and dry.  Moist and tender beats dry and tough any time.

The Rice.  I’ve had chicken rice rice that ranged from plain to overambitious.  Heng Ki’s rice is prepared pretty much the same way – rice with ginger, pandan leaves and the chicken broth after boiling the chicken.  They’ve added one extra ingredient.  Good guess – chicken fat.  The rice is oily, just like any decent chicken rice should be but not too oily.  You can detect the distinct aroma of chicken on the rice which really works for me.  And though a technicality, I also enjoy the fact they serve in bowls instead of plates.  It just feels a little more authentic shoving chunks of meat and rice into your mouth with chopsticks compared to arranging everything neatly onto spoons, but that’s just me.  By default, they serve you their 30 cents portion which I find a little too small, so if you’re a slightly bigger eater, ask for the large which costs 50 cents.  Or you could do what I do and order one large and one small for 80 cents.

The chili.  To me, this is the ultimate test for a good chicken rice because this is the ultimate differentiator that separates the mediocre from the divine.  To those who know me (yes, all three of you) will know that I’m not a big chili fan because I do prefer the original flavor of food rather than nuking it with heat.  Even for chicken rice, I tend to moderate my chili consumption to just have enough to give the meat a kick without overpowering the chicken.  Broadly speaking, there’s two types of chicken rice chili.  The first is plain spicy, and the second is spicy cut with a slight sourness with the addition of lime juice.  Heng Ki’s chili on the other hand, has three distinct flavors – spicy, sweet and sour.  The sweetness is not a background flavor, in fact I dare say it’s the first flavor to hit you before the spiciness and sour kicks in.  Breaking it down, it’s about 30% sweet, 50% spicy and 20% sour, in that order when you taste it.  The sour is not the citrus kind of sour, but from vinegar.  Eating it together with the salty, soya sauced chicken completes the spectrum of flavor that makes the Heng Ki offering so unique compared to the rest.

The prices are pretty reasonable too.  As above, the rice itself is 30 or 50 cents, and for half a chicken it’ll set you back $10.  The stall is open from 3 to 9pm, but by 7pm, they’re just about sold out for the day.  The stall is unassuming with no fancy lights or cut outs of newspaper reviews whatsoever and the best part, it’s run by three warm and friendly folks, unlike other chicken rice stalls which I shall not name here.  So if you’re ever in the area, do swing by and give it a try because if you made it to this part of the post, I’m sure you’ll like it as much as I do.

I finished the game two days ago and by today, I’m asking myself “Is this it?”

To be honest, I felt a little let down when I completed the main quest but maybe I could have set my expectations a little too high after my initial review, which to be honest, the game failed to fully deliver what I thought it would.

I still think it’s a well-crafted RPG, with some unforgettable moments.  To avoid spoilers for the benefit of some, there were moments where I got slightly emotionally involved when *beep* killed *beep* right before your eyes.  The world of Albion has great depth, from the backstories to how the world still functions after you complete the main quest – just like a “real” game world should.  There are still quests to be completed, jobs to do and property to buy.  And I believe the game will keep generating new minor quests as long as you’re playing it.  So in that sense, the game never really ends.

However, I have noted three key areas that could really be improved.

Main Quest – It’s terribly short.  The more I think about it, the more I feel like there’s so much opportunity to lengthen it but didn’t.  In fact, it’s short to the point that the ending felt painfully anti-climatic.  Breaking the conventional of a traditional RPG, Fable 2 has no major boss battles.  Good or bad?  You decide.

Morals – Though it promises that you can craft your character to slant any way you want – good vs evil or pure vs corrupt, the game seems to impose a judgement on you if you choose to stand in moral middle ground.  Just one example, shopkeepers will give you a bigger discount if they like you, and less if they’re afraid.  Of course you can just kill them and take what they have for free, but if I don’t want to be that bad, then should the game penalize you for living in a shade of gray?  Given the perceived freedom of choice, should the game appear to reward you more if you’re good and pure?  You decide.

Character Builds – Though there are three branches of skill to develop, I feel there isn’t much liberty to create diverse characters.  This could be because of how the balance between the three skill types complement each other so well in all your battles.  The flip side is the game doesn’t really allow you to create specialized characters like other RPGs do.  So if I want to create a ranged fighter, I won’t be able to because I’ll need to invest significant amount of experience points to increase my health.  Likewise if I want to create a spellcaster.  Is this the best mechanic to implement or should health increase be given everytime you spend X amount of experience points regardless of which skill tree?  You decide.

At the end of the day, it’s a give and take.  The game is well crafted in many areas that broke the convention of a traditional RPG and I still maintain that the dog is a very well designed and implemented aspect of the game.  And perhaps if they had followed how a traditional RPG delivers a game experience, it wouldn’t have turned out to be such an enjoyable and unique experience.  But if the game is built around the ideology of choice (vs predestination?), then I feel it failed to fully deliver on that because underneath the illusion of choice, the reality is that most of how you experience the game is decided for you.  

My ratings still stand for all the categories except replay value, so here’s my humble grading of Fable 2.

Art/Graphics: 9/10
Music/Sound: 9/10
Controls/Playability: 8.5/10
Production Value/Design: 8.5/10
Replay Value: 3/10
Overall: 38/50 or 76%

p.s. after so many years, the best RPG in my books is still Diablo II.  I can’t wait for the sequel. 

Fable 2 Cover Art

Let me start by saying I’m not a big fan of RPGs. I find games in this genre tend to take up too much time (which is a commodity I seem to having less of), and the badly designed ones just feel too repetitive – you either have to kill someone, find something or bring an item to someone.

I think a well-written RPG needs to fulfill two important criteria: First, the RPG needs to move the narrative in a non-linear fashion so the player is free to pursue whatever he wants with no dire consequences to the story.  The player should be able to jump in and out of the main quest anytime he wants, however he wants. Second, the game needs be crafted such that consequences do matter. Contradictory?  Here lies the dichotomy of an RPG game.  Every action the player takes needs to bear consequences because the world the game lives in needs to be alive and real – or at least give an illusion of. And the easiest way to achieve this is simply making it more linear: action-consequence. Yet, when it’s crafted this way it defeats the point of an open gameplay and results in a flat, oversimplified experience.

Fable 2 has done well in these two aspects.  The gameplay is balanced well between the two – whilst there’s no dire consequences for not pursuing your main quest all the time, your every action will affect you and the world around you.  If you steal something when no one is looking, you increase your evil balance. And too much of that, your physical appearance will alter and NPCs will react to you differently.  You wear certain clothes and increase your attractiveness score, the ladies in town will flock to you. It doesn’t stop there, the world of Albion is deeper and more dynamic.  If you increase the rent on the house you’re renting out, it will affect your purity score. If you trespass in someone else’s property, the guards will come for you.  Everything you do affects the world.

In terms of gameplay, the controls are pretty straightforward. Despite some criticisms, I find the simple fighting mechanic working very well.  X for melee, Y for ranged and B for spells.  You can combo them any way or you can choose not to. Depending on whichever attack you choose to dispose of the enemy, the experience orbs that drop will be from that same category.  So if you’re a predominantly melee player, you will level up your melee skills faster based on the melee experience orbs dropped.  The player’s attributes is governed by the same three skill branches. You can choose to pursure melee, then your character will appear more muscular.  If you choose to pursue range (called “skill” in game), your character will be taller and lankier.  If you pursue spells, your character will develop a magical glow.

My first character is quite well balanced between melee and ranged, but less on spells.  There’s no additional points to spend on what RPGs traditionally label as strength, dexterity and intelligence.  To me the simplicity works – you don’t have to spend too much time mulling and planning what skill point to spend next. The time is better spent exploring the world.

Furthermore, the game isn’t punishing when you die and that’s important.  The more punishing it is, the faster the game frustrates the player. When you die in Fable 2, you merely collapse to the ground, then get up again with full health.  The only drawback is every death will give you a permanent scar. And in this game, the scars you have will have an effect on how an NPC reacts to you.

In terms of storyline, the game establishes very early what your final goal is.  In fact, the first part of the game when you’re playing as a kid, sets up the entire game for you.  Though that first part is terribly linear, it establishes many important facets of the game so it’s very clear what your objectives are once you transition to play as an adult.  However, like a good RPG, the game lets you decide when you want to pursue your main quest or when you just want to tinker around – get an odd job, check out stores that are on sale or even just go exploring the world.

One of the best feature I like about Fable 2 is the inclusion of the dog.  It’s such a risky and difficult mechanic to build into the game but I have to say that it works really well.  The dog is a reflection of you. If your character skews evil, your dog’s appearance will change just like yours.  And how you treat your dog will affect how the dog is.  If you punish it all the time, you’ll get a more aggressive dog that will aid you in fighting but always fearful of you.  If you praise your dog too much, it will be more playful and might not fight as hard.  You can buy trick books to teach your dog new tricks or you can buy a rubber ball to play fetch.  After a while, the dog is so much part of your character that you begin to develop a bond with it.

Once I was taking my time fighting a group of bandits early in the game, and the dog got kicked really hard by one baddie.  Doggy whimpered and collapsed and that really pissed me off so I proceeded to zap that mofo with lightning, shoot him with my rifle until he collapsed then finished him off with a sword through his chest.  Injured doggy needs to be given potions to heal, just like you. After that, I bought a book called “Dogs of War” and upgraded the little canine to fight better. After the upgrade, the dog is able to pounce on fallen enemies to finish them off.  So in my typical encounters now, I’ll start by shooting a few enemies from distance and pooch will finish them off while I clean up the rest.

The dog also acts as your mini-map.  If you’re exploring and there’s a treasure chest nearby, the dog will bark to get your attention and will lead you there.  If there’s something buried, the dog will start digging as an indication that you should take out your spade to join in.  Even the treasure hunting skills can be upgraded via books.

There are some bad points about the game.  There’s some framerate issues especially when the screen gets busy and on menu screens and sometimes the camera seems a little misplaced. But all these are not particularly glaring so I can live with it. All the stuff that’s good covers these little flaws.

Overall, my experience with this game far surpassed earlier RPGs like Oblivion.  The balance between simplicity and depth is very well thought out and executed.  The visuals look rich, and I particularly like the music, which I believe is scored by Danny Elfman. If you’re a fan of RPGs in general, you should enjoy this.  If you’re not, this game could be a pleasant breath of fresh air, unlike some others before that in comparison to Fable 2, plays heavy and feels terribly stuffy.  Though I’ve yet to complete the game and can’t give a complete review, I feel the game has definitely got legs to be terribly engaging. I would say this is highly recommended for new players and fans of the Fable franchise alike.

Art/Graphics: 9/10
Music/Sound: 9/10
Controls/Playability: 8.5/10
Production Value/Design: 8.5/10
Replay Value: 7/10
Overall: 42/50 or 84%

Star Wars: Force Unleashed cover art

I just finished the game last night and I’m having such mixed feelings about this one.  On one hand, there’s so many things that make this game fantastic but there’s some parts that feel so painfully unpolished.

If you’re follow the Star Wars timeline via the films, this game takes place just between Episode III and IV.  Towards the end of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin carried out Order 66, which saw the start of the Great Jedi Purge, which took place just before the end of the Clone Wars.  Then when Episode IV kicked off, Vadar stopped purging Jedis but went on to focus on the rebellion led by Princess Leia.

The key events that led to the rebellion are answered in this game so at least for me, it connected all the dots without reading the novels.  The game is great in this aspect as it’s official Star Wars canon.  

For the most part of the game, you play as Vadar’s secret apprentice, though the first level you get to control someone else, as part of setting up the plot for the rest of the game. 

For most parts of the game, you’ll be using a lot of force as well as saber attacks.  As you level up your character, you earn points to purchase and unlock more powers which allows fancier and more powerful moves.  By the end of the game, you should be able to slash the helpless Storm Trooper, fling him in the air, jump and slash him some more, then slam him back on the ground.  This is really where the game shines – by a certain point, I actually felt… powerful.  In which other game can you pick up a Trooper with force grip, zap him with force lightning, fling your saber to impale him, then throw his body out the window?

Unfortunately, this is about all in the game that really shines.  The other parts range from mediocre to downright broken.  Some gripes:

• “Save” doesn’t really do anything because if you die after you save in mid-game, you’ll still respawn at the last checkpoint before you saved.
• Controls are terribly unresponsive, and at crucial battles it really pisses me off if I die because the game can’t detect your button presses.  (Then you respawn before your last save point).  
• The in-game cinematics are well shot and the recreation of Star Wars universe is gorgeous, except the dialogue and lips don’t sync most of the time.
• Block doesn’t work very well.  If you hold block (Left Trigger) while you’re down, you’re not going to block when you get back to your feet.  You have to pull the trigger again when your feet is on the ground to work.  Irritating if you’re under heavy blaster fire.  Then you die, and respawn before your last save.
• Camera is wonky.  Some parts when you’ll have to jump certain obstacles, the camera is so fixed on you that you can’t adjust it to see where to land.  Then you miss, and respawn before your last save.

But my biggest gripe is really the horribly unimaginative button-pressing sequence at the end of every boss fight.  In geekspeak, it’s called Quick Time Event, where you follow an on-screen sequence of buttons and when you get it right, the boss is killed.  How imaginative, using a mechanic that’s 25 years old and worse, something that totally breaks the flow of the game.  I don’t understand they needed this because the hack-and-slash mechanic in the rest of the game works so well.  And worse, the button sequences aren’t even remotely challenging.  To take down and AT-ST, for example, you just have to press no more than 4 buttons with about a second in between.

I think Lucasarts, as a content company has shown it’s definitely weak in creating compelling gameplay and in this outing, it really shows.  The demo posted on XBL a few weeks ago had great promise, maybe because it was such a short level no one really noticed the gaping flaws.  I really wished Lucas would have held this back for a couple of months to iron out the kinks, or better still, work with a proper game developer to make it right.

For a game that was almost right, it turned out mostly wrong.  In summary, I score the game:

Art/Graphics: 4/5
Music/Sound: 4.5/5
Controls/Playability: 2/5
Production Value/Design: 3/5
Replay Value: 2/5
Overall: 15.5/25 or 62%

Overall, if you’re Star Wars fan, you should play this to know what went on.  If you’re not, then you won’t be missing much if you didn’t buy this.  You can always borrow from a Star Wars fan who has this.

I don’t think I’ve ever watched so many movies in a row before. In my 14 hours flight, I watched more movies than I did in 2007. Here’s a quick run-down with my armchair review:

Michael Clayton – The role seems to be written with George Clooney in mind, and I don’t think it’s always a good thing. It’s like casting Jet Li whenever you need an Asian kung fu character. Michael Clayton IS George Clooney. I mean, he pulled off the role well and credible, but really how hard is it to act as you? Nonetheless, it’s a good film, executed well and definitely a good watch.

The Kingdom – Jamie Fox is intense, Jennifer Garner is sexy decked in kakis, Jason Bateman adds the comic touch and Michael Cooper tops off the stellar cast as the credible FBI inspector. Does it get better than this? Yes, if one of the white guys died with a dozen bullets pumped into him. But no, this is as gritty as an action film gets. I love the Call of Duty 4 moments when they shoot baddies through walls and RPG-7s gets fired all over the place.

The Last King of Scotland – Forrest Whitaker is brilliant, capturing the unabashed intensity of President Amin of Uganda. Good pacing, well-acted and had some brilliant moments, which is hard to find in a historical/biography piece. Highly recommended.

3:10 to Yuma – This is intense Christian Bale as the good guy versus charismatic Russell Crowe as the bad guy. This is one of the classic western remakes which is so well done that you won’t compare to the original. On the surface, it’s a classic dichotomy of good versus bad, right versus wrong but by the end of the film, you can’t help but feel the lines blur and feel awful when one of them had a dozen bullets pumped into him. Oops, did I spoil it for you?

Elizabeth: The Golden Age – Cate Blanchett in one of her most comfortable genres and there’s nothing to dislike about her performance. She switches between strength and vulnerability with ease, and she holds the audience in her hand with every line and gestures she delivers. Personally, I still prefer the first Elizabeth.

Good night, and Good luck – Every journalism or media student could use this as a case study. It questions how the media is considered the fourth estate, or watch-dog of society. Where is the line you draw between reporting and getting involved with politics? I personally love the fact that in the 1950s, everyone in the television industry smokes, even the talk-show presenter on air.

Also, I had time to squeeze in a two TV shows:

Bionic Woman – Ugh, I’m not hot on this one. I didn’t see the original, but this is one show I’m happy to miss. The characters feel very 2-dimensional, and has all the predictable TV stereotypes; from the disgruntled Asian bad guy to the angsty younger sister to the young professor who tries to hard to be charming. Although its only a pilot, but it doesn’t feel like there’s anything more than this.

Cooking in the Danger Zone – This one is well-produced, and has a charming host with exotic locations. This episode features cooking in the Chernobyl zone of exclusion, and in the end, I was hoping to watch more episodes. Highly recommended if you’re into travelogues. If you’ve played Call of Duty 4, this episodes shows scenes of the Ferris Wheel in Pripyet, and that hotel where you sniped that dude’s arm off.

Back to London.

I had a quick dinner last night, then was off to bed by about 8pm (4am Singapore time), as you can imagine, I didn’t sleep a wink on the flight so that wasn’t too hard. The best part of last night was a nice warm soak in the tub before that. Simply divine.

This morning, I nearly killed myself with a full English breakfast. First, about half a dozen toast and pastries came. Then came a pot of freshly brewed coffee, and a big glass of orange juice. Following which, a big bowl of oat and barley porridge, which is really lovely with honey. Lastly, came the real thing – sausages, two sunny-sides-up, black pudding, baked beans, grilled tomato, mushrooms and back bacon. Needless to say, I lay motionless for a while on the bed after that.

Lunch was at the oldest pub in London – Gordon’s wine and bar, by Villier’s Street. Dark and dingy, but has the most charmingly rustic atmosphere.

Now at 6:18 pm, I’m back in my hotel room, still full of food writing this post documenting my first 24 hours in London. My trip is off to a great start, and I’m wondering what else lies in store in the next 8 days to come.