A 3D artist just bought
Carrara 8 Pro. He feel that it is amazing and easy to use compare with other big brands (e.g. Bryce and Poser).
This is probably just a standard stuff to people who've been using it for a while, but he was really impressed that using within 2 days! He has used to make a good control over the Physics and Particle generators with Carrara 8. He has never used Carrara before. He has worked in other 3D apps (Bryce and Poser mostly).