It's not often The HotSpot crew get to use the phrase "ripped from groin to gullet," but The Darkness II gives us the perfect excuse. Mostly because that's a thing that actually happens in this game. With The Darkness II and Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning as this week's backdrop, Carolyn Petit, Kevin VanOrd, Tom Mc Shea, Marko Djordjevic, and Tom Magrino rip into combat mechanics, from groin to gullet, one might say.

The HotSpot - Kingdoms of Amalur, Darkness II - 2/8/12 by gamespot

Audio above, video below.

EXPERIMENT TIME!!! Comment, question, correction, or clarification? Email us at hotspot@gamespot.com, and I'll make you famous…kind of like these folks!

Ash writes:

I listened into your show last week and I noticed that many members of the hotspot are indeed against the industry. However most of you fail to understand the reason why the anti-used game movements are not good for the industry. Let me tell you why i do not support the anti-used games methods:

1) online passes for games such as amaleur are ridiculous due to the fact that not only do they deny a large number of offline gamers (yes a lot of them still exist) to quest content even if they buy the game new, but in addition this online pass ruins reckoning's play-ability later on when the game is much older. The problem is that when microsoft decides to cut it's xbox live service to the 360, games like reckoning will be missing a chunk of new content if something were to happen to a user's xbox 360 data (i.e. if my xbox broke and I decided to purchase another one). While on the other hand if I were to pirate the game, I would get all the content forever without having to worry about this possible scenario (how does this make sense?)

2) What if a game like Reckoning doesn't do well in terms of sales? There will still be a lot of people who will still want to check the game out when the game drops in price, but by that point the publisher has already cut it's support for the game and will no longer publish enough copies. Therefore used games are the only way to get a taste of this game. This is actually good for the gaming market because a possible sequel will now be much awaited if the first game was good (but not marketed very well). A good example of this is Mirror's Edge. Mirrors edge did not sell very well, however used game sales have made this game a cult classic and a sequel is very wanted within the game's community. An online pass in this situation will decrease used game sales and such a phenomena would not have happened.

3) Trading in games is one of my primary ways of paying for new games. I don't buy used games very often, but it is a simple fact that as a university student I don't have enough money to pay for every new game, and therefore I must make the sacrifice of trading in some games which were not favourites. If gamestop is taken out of the equation here, i would maybe be able to afford 3-6 games per year rather than the 10+ games which i do purchase. I'm not sure about you guys, but in my opinion that seems like a positive for the game industry (I'm looking at you Tom!)

I hope I've been able to convince you that the used game market is not so evil, and it actually does have positive effects on the industry.

Adam writes:

First off piracy is wrong, it is by definition stealing.

Secondly, I am so sick of game companies whining about used game sales. Video games are a product not service, there is no argument to support it being a service. Any business that offers a product has used sales. I don’t see a myriad of businesses complaining about ebay, craigslist, classified ads, etc. Used product sales have been a fact of business since the beginning of organized economies.

On the other side of the coin video game companies have every right to do online passes, exclusive dlc to new purchases, etc. The consumer only has the right to vote with their dollar.

In summary video game companies are not exempt from undeniable facts of economy. Video game companies thinking they are is a sense of entitlement.

Even though I disagree with what some of you said about the topic, Hotspot is still the best video game podcast!

Imoyikust writes:

I'm currently 29, but in the college and pre-college years I bought
almost exclusively used games, because I could actually afford them.
This allowed me to play a lot of really great games without resorting
to spending hundreds of dollars (literally) online to find a pristine
new copy that wouldn't have seen the funds go towards the people who
made the game anyway. As an example, this is how I played Ico, Shadows
of the Colossus, Final Fantasy Tactics, Chrono Cross, and so many
more. Also, used games serve a purpose in the modern day because there
are a lot of slightly older games that you can't find new anymore.
That's why I bought the first Uncharted used, instead of new (I found
new online, but it was grossly overpriced).

However, with little exception all the games I buy currently are new.
PC games are purchased through Steam, and games for my PS3 and various
handhelds are either from GameStop or amazon. Despite what McShea
says, I still use GameStop for console games (and the occasional PC
game) primarily because of the in-game pre-order bonuses that might be
available (Mass Effect 3 collector's edition, for example). A big
reason why I still want boxed copies of some of my games is the sad
truth that my hard drive space can be used up, and if I don't feel
like buying a brand new, larger sized PS3, I'm then out of luck if I
want to download anything else ever again. Boxed copies remove a large
part of that problem. This is a non-issue on PC, however, for obvious
reasons.

Liquid_Bullet writes:

There are two things I feel on these topics:

1) It is beginning to bug me one specific argument people use for piracy and buying used games: That games are so expensive, in order to play more than one a season they have to pirate or buy used. I'm in the same boat, college student, college expenses. HOWEVER that does NOT mean I have a "right" to these entertainment pieces. If you can't afford them, you do not have a right to them. Entertainment and software is the only product where there seems to be some kind of "gray area" as far as piracy goes, and I'm getting sick of hearing this argument. It doesn't justify it. (Note: not saying that piracy is always bad, and that it hurts the industry, just saying that argument IN PARTICULAR holds no water.) You are not justified in getting something for free just because it is expensive or out of your price range.

2) Used games/online passes/ etc: Let's look at this car analogy: Buy a jeep, use it for a few years, and sell it. Someone else buys it. Do they expect it to be the same condition as a new version? Hell no. Gamers do, however.

You should have every right to resale your old games, and every right to purchased used games at a discount. You have no right to expect it to be in the same condition as a new product. Think about it for a second: "I want the same item in the same condition, but for 5-10 bucks cheaper, and my money won't go to the people who created the product. And then I want to be able to use it online on the servers the company is paying to keep running." is a bit of a ludicrous statement.

What I'm getting at is gamers (and others as well) have a sense of entitlement that is just astronomical, and it's quickly getting out of hand.