Well, you could give Maya a go and utilize the fbx export. The learning edition is free and allows you to save to fbx I think. The last time I tried it, it appeared well-suited for low polygon work and the most noticeable restriction was a watermark over the shaded and render views-- not such an issue for low poly work.

Again Med is very valuable as it makes a lot of what is hard in other engines very easy in Gamestudio. However, you'll find a robust set of tools in Max or Maya. Even Maya/Max are taken to the shed on some tasks by other programs. For example z-brush and mudbox are great for super high poly work. A little known program called Moi3D can't be beat for spline based model creation simplicity.
etc. Blender's interface has some getting accustomed to, but it's a great program.