Sony’s got a booth at PAX. It’s PlayStation branded. There are games there.

One of those games is inFamous 2, the sequel to one of the PS3′s finest titles. During the quiet hour of PAX 2010, CFD! snuck over and snatched up the world’s greasiest controller in order to test out Cole McGrath’s next adventure.

Cole has seen a redesign from the first time we saw him, having gotten a haircut, a new scar and a 5 o’clock shadow. He resembles the original Cole, though he’s noticeably gotten a new set of vocal cords.

Aside from his new set of (considerably higher-pitched) pipes, Cole’s core powers and moves are basically unaltered from the previous title. He can still “grind” on electric wires, though now he can move rapidly across horizontal and vertical lines on buildings. The expansion on the quick transit from inFamous is a welcome upgrade and helps alleviate complaints fielded against the game’s slower-paced vertical movement.

In typical demonstration version fashion, the mission structure was extremely linear and straightforward. While chasing a limo, I sprang from power line to power line in my pursuit and got off track momentarily. There weren’t any other available power lines around the area, so the limo quickly got away and the mission ended. It’s disappointing that the exploration aspects aren’t fleshed out, but there’s still a ways to go before we see it on shelves.

New to Cole’s armory is a metal staff, which (doing what metal does naturally) conducts his electric powers. The result is the equivalent of a sharpened baseball bat wielded by Zeus, able to not only smack down suckers but also impale their sorry asses. Its presence in inFamous 2 improves the weak (see: non-existent) melee combat, though the camera-tracking could use a bit of work in this area.

The satisfying electric wave power is back and feels much more effective, thanks to a new destruction system that affects certain buildings and objects. Another new power, which Cole flings from the hip, spawns a giant electric tornado that wreaks havoc on the aforementioned destructible elements. Unfortunately, the NPCs don’t have any rag-doll physics at the moment and still flop around like stiff boards when they’re wiped out. That exclusion was immersion-breaking during the original title and there’s still a chance it will make it into the new game, but it’s not looking likely.

InFamous 2 comes out in 2011, along with every other game ever made (except Prototype 2). We’ll likely get another shot at a new version of the game before release, so keep checking back for more information.