Hexagon is one of my favorite modelers, the only thing I don't like about it is the UV pelting system, which can be annoying at times.
Lately I just use Hexagon to create a base mesh and send it into Zbrush.

Bryce is sorta like Vue... I had just purchased World Machine, and the next day I heard about the Freebies, so I'm going to be using Bryce a lot with my World Machine. Interesting to compare Bryce 7 pro to Carraras terrain/instance generator and see which works better.