You get some pretty strange, fun swag at conventions. At CES I was walking by the AikenLabs booth when a cheery woman handed me a foam axe. Needless to say, I had to find out what axes had to do with their product.

Quantic Dream, the developers of Heavy Rain, have started work on its latest videogame project. Though no details have surfaced yet, we at least know it will involve motion capture. Quantic Dream is holding a casting call for talent in Paris for a child actress.

inFamous was a surprise hit for Sony and Sucker Punch. It sold so well, Sucker Punch decided it was worthy of a sequel. Everyone was shocked (no pun intended) when new Cole was revealed as a younger, more hip character. Not only did Cole’s character model change, but so did Cole’s voice actor. So why did Sucker Punch virtually start from scratch with a character most people seemed to love? The inFamous team answered this question during a panel at Comic-Con.

Motion capture company, PhaseSpace, has signed on to allow developers using the Unreal Engine 3 videogame engine to directly direct in-game characters using its motion capture tech (how redundant was all that?).

Actors and game directors can see the full character moving within the game in real time instead of a standalone, wireframe character on a blank background. This will save developers weeks of post-capture cleanup and help to create more realistic movements (we hope). It will also help game companies develop games more quickly as well as…