http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/08/not-so-far-far-away-the-old-republic/

here's the entire blurb:

"If you’re one of the lucky ones able to access your Origin account, and you’ve pre-ordered The Old Republic, you’ll be pleased to learn you’re going to get access to it a week early. Which is in five days! Five days! Coo lummee – it feels like this game’s been in development for over a thousand years. I’ve certainly been to a thousand preview events. And it’s any pre-order that gets you early access, not just one of the fancy special editions. You also get 30 days of “free” play (I love the idea that it’s free, after you’ve just spent £30 on the game), before the tithing begins at £9 a month (with discounts for buying in lumps)."

crank some more on that twat-age dial RPS ... crank some more.

What's the objection, their mocking of the use of the word 'free'?

RPS is terrible.

Ummm...what's the bias here, exactly?

Agreed. I actually like RPS a lot and I go there often for reviews and opinions of indie games. For more well-known games I try to look at multiple reviews from a variety of sites, but I find RPS' writing much better than a lot of other sites I visit.

I do try to be respectful of other people's opinions, especially when it comes to games, but it seems like most of the hate and accusations of bias levelled against RPS stems from the fact that their opinions simply disagree with theirs. Nothing "biased" about that.

That's the other thing... their reviewers actually know how to write. Their MW2 review was one of the best videogame reviews I have ever read.

If you want heavily biased boot-licking "news" about Valve or Steam, go to RPS. If you want news about EA or Ubisoft, look elsewhere. All you're going to get on RPS is their bitching, poorly disguised as non-fact checked EA/Ubisoft news.

It's been like that for ages now with the recently added bonus of whining every time they don't get a free review copy of a game or a beta invite (they actually manage to make self-entitled whiny PC gamers look good by comparison). "If you’re one of the lucky ones able to access your Origin account" -- or in other words, their continued "campaign" against so-called "unfair" bans preventing access to Origin accounts. Yet you'll never see the respective campaigns against Valve and their practice of disabling accounts whenever they please.

Maybe I'm a complete moron but where is the bias? Being honest =/= being biased. I'm starting to think some of you guys are looking for reasons to bash RPS.

Here's the gist of it:

RPS loves Steam.
Some members here hate Steam.
Conflict is inevitable.

if this was part of an editorial, I'd be fine but for a news announcement to be lathered in Sarcasm is not really professional.

Pretty much. There is merit to it though, in the sense that RPS constantly complain about other sites, stores and companies doing things Steam does as well, but they never complain about Steam.

One of the funniest was when they complained about GFWL requiring activation and running while the game does. When Steam does those two things though, RPS outright praise them for it. It's also hard not to notice when they do these things that they're on the Steam news feed and all use Steam press accounts to get their free games.

Lets see, a bug prevents access to Darkspore for a few days, RPS run a story on it blaming DRM and failing to acknowledge it was in fact a bug that was being fixed at the time.

EA allegedly ban people from accessing their games for 72 hours, RPS run many stories on it.

Valve consistently deny access to legally purchased games solely based on IP address, even - at times - against the wishes of the publishers of those games, for months on end (in one case just over 8 months), RPS refuse to cover the issue.

People have their Steam accounts disabled for months on end, sometimes through no fault of their own, with Valve basically telling them tough shit. RPS refuse to cover the issue.

The bias, is not just in what RPS publish, it's also in what they are refusing to publish.

For those asking where the bias is, I see two main areas. The first is the one Bansama pointed out a few posts above, where they state, "If you’re one of the lucky ones able to access your Origin account." They are continually going after EA and their policy of allegedly banning users for no reason, of which I have still seen very little supportive evidence of (maybe I missed an article by this point though, I hardly visit now). The way they word it is the problem. They make it sound as if it is a miracle for anyone to access their Origin account, when the only people losing their accounts are those said to be violating forum/TOS rules.

The second part being the comment about 30 days being "free." This is standard practice for the majority of MMOs. Why are we bringing it up with an EA published game, other than personal bias towards the company? Did they make this statement about the hundred of other MMOs that give you the "free" month after your initial purchase? It just seems awfully convenient to have in an article announcing the release of an EA game, which RPS is developing some serious dislike towards.

Can't blame them. EA has not been handling some these recent releases very smoothly.