Doof_Guy wants to spend about 700 $. So it makes not much sense to talk about Maya and Max. Maya needs a price multiplier with factor 10 to buy it and the learning edition is useless. Max and Maya are not only expensive, they also come with very frequent upgrades to be paid. And Max crashes more often than other 3d applications do. They are no option for hobby or indie developers and are clearly addressed toward big studios.

If you want to have a full package with modelling, animation, texture baking and normal map generating then there is the free Blender available and the cheap XSI foundation.

But if you are willing to go only a small amount of percentage above your price range then you could look into Lightwave3d. This is a great package with all the rings and bells of Max and Maya but very much affordable, stable and robust. The range of tools is so big that you need some time to learn it.

Modo is even a better modeller (with the lack of animation) than all the tools above. I talked to professional studios and they said Modo has the best UV tool-set on the market. It even has a mode für 3d-painting and sculpting so you dont have to spend money for ZBrush and Bodypaint then.

Many Lightwave users bought Modo for modelling (but still do animating and rendering in Lightwave). But you can also do animating in Fragmotion or Milkshape. I would prefer Fragmotion over Milkshape.

Truespace and Gamespace are a bit buggy especially in terms of animation. But modelling works fine there. I used to model with Gamespace once. You could still do animation in another package. But they dont deliver the power and stability of Lightwave 3d.