MakeHuman might be the right answer. It is free, open source, working well with Blender. It can rig your generated character automaticly for you. You have multiple rigs to choose from. Also, you can changes topologies on the go. They will add more in version 1.1 .The characters are also compatible with Faceshift, a cool markerless facial mo-cap software for Kinect.
Makehuman also lets you create external morphs.
Daz characters are not good for game development. They are high polly, and in order to use them in your game, you need to pay 500$ just to be able to use them legally + 100$ for the decimator. It simply does not worth.
I personally use Blender as modelling software. I also have experience with Maya, and I can tell you that for modelling, Blender has more tricks in its sleeves and I achieve the same results faster. For animation and rigging, Maya is the best. If you want to use both softwares without changing habbits too much, you could check out my custom key configuration for Blender.
I am currently working on a character for Unreal Tournament, using the free tools I mentioned.