I never bought the full version of Silo 2, I managed to use it for a while on the Silo 2 betas (and then the official demo). I found Silo 2 to really work and I found that the interface and features made it quite quick for me to model and nothing got in my way or slowed me down, which I found good, the tools were handy and getting the topology right or the edge loops right wasn't too much of a chore.
I'd personally recommend it (there were only a couple of bugs, but most proggies have, hence I save regularly). But bear in my it is a modeller, sculptor and UVMapper, it's not designed as a full 3d package, just one ideal for the modelling part.
Download the demo - I have a basic tutorial written for it:
Non-human modelling for beginners
http://seppuku-arts.66ghz.com/seppuku05/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=1
And something I got done with it:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/seppuku05/Models/Gilgamesh/Gilgtorso.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/seppuku05/Models/Gilgamesh/gilgtorswire.jpg
As for Carrara, I have Carrara 5 Pro, I've never tried using it with a game engine, so I can't tell you how good it is for that nor have I done much with it at all, I've only been using it for renders for a few pictures and a project I'm doing at Uni (an illustrated interactive fiction), it has quite a cool tree modeller built in and it isn't too difficult to use...I've found it stable and you can get some nice results and the UV mapper isn't bad either. The modelling side of it is something I've not really tried, I'd probably recommend leaving the modelling to other apps (if you're getting Silo, then you can do your modelling there). The interface for Carrara has something left to be desired, though it's not difficult to navigate and it isn't all that confusing, it isn't as responsive as I'd like nor as ergonomic as I'd like. It's not my favourite tool, but I lost my disc and code for Cinema 4D 6 and well, C4D 6 is way outdated now, so I've settled with Carrara for now. But it is not a bad tool and its renderer is good quality and it's not difficult to set up a scene in it.
A couple of scenes I've rendered in Carrara 5 Pro (not modelled):
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/seppuku05/Seppuku/urukcar.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/seppuku05/Seppuku/Doc15-1.png
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/seppuku05/Seppuku/screeny3.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/seppuku05/Seppuku/loading.jpg
But also bear in mind TrueSpace 7 is free, I always thought of Carara as a TS alternative, because both used to be around the same price range and more or less capable of similar things. It might be worth giveing TS a try (though I've not really been a fan of it) and give the Carrara trial a go.
I hope that's helpful enough.
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