Well...I will tell you all what I think. I went to school for 3D, learned Power Animator(not around anymore), Softimage(the best for animating), Maya(yippee!), and Lightwave(yuck). I have used Houdini(really hard), I am learning Max right now, and I have touched every other program out there except for truespace and Mirai.

Personally I would recommend Maya(personal favorite). It is the most powerful, and remarkably easy to use. the one down side is the price, but they have the deals going on now for builder for like $3000 or something. But of course, that is for the professionals.

For beginners, i would recomend trying to get your hands on studio max. it might be a little bit of money...but well worth it. you could also try Nendo...a nice little package for $100, which is great for low poly stuff. or even Hash, which is also $100. These programs are more for just getting you feet wet though.

i would stay away from ray dream - far away
bryce...the only good thing about bryce is its easy and good for making textures.
lightwave...i cannot stand lightwave...but many of my friends like it a lot, so its up to you.

thats enough of my rambling. but when deciding what you want to do, its pretty easy. if you want to do games, learn max. if you want to do movies, get maya or softimage, or sometimes even max or lightwave.

-Luxury