Hmm, good way of looking at it! :)

I've been checking out Modo's tour (no trial version unfortuantely), and it looks really good!

You're right about 3ds Max... it's been around for ages and is very complex... I started using it on version 3, and even then it had a little complexity... now it's probably rediculous lol

And for Maya, yes, probably best suited for movies, etc... all I'll be doing is modelling and rendering models for games, etc.

Ok, so in this case, that means I can chop out those 2 from my list? :)

So max3d uses Cinema4D, and PaQ uses Modo (they're 2 users here that I've noticed what they use)...

Right now I'm almost convinced on Modo, because it looks fantastic from the tour.

So Cinema4D can compete, I assume? Their product tour isn't as good, but they have a trial, so I'm downloading that...

-EDIT-

So Modo vs Cinema4D - is it mainly just personal preference?

-EDIT 2-

After a bit of checking around, it appears that Cinema4D is much more popular than Modo... is there any reason for this?

Also, another general theme of what people are saying...

- Cinema4D is better for animation
- Modo is better for high-poly and character modelling / sculpting