3D Studio Max, Maya, Lightwave, SoftImage and Cinema 4D all do the same stuff. There maybe slight diffrences, but the results are the same.

I think Max is genrally used in the video games industery and Maya genrally in the film industery. Saying that, they used Max at Blur.

I think each of the mentioned software has there strengths, but I hard Maya seems to be the all round best.

It's really a matter of prefrence.

But remember, these are tool, your the artist