I dug out my 'Marathon' CDs again and admired the game artwork. Which started a train of thought which led to me launching Carrara ...

Carrara was used quite a lot in this image. The soldier's BFG was made in Carrara, as was his headset, targeting visor and the hull of the wrecked shuttle in the background. Our hero is, of course, Poser Michael and the soldier's armor is actually Michael's dress shirt. The armor look is achieved using a Bryce texture with a 2D picture driving the bump channel. The collar and shoulder pads are Bryce primitives (creatively Booleaned and bump-mapped in the case of the collar).

The wreck in the background is a Carrara spline object that has been duplicated twice. The first duplicate was reduced in size slightly and then subtracted from the original to 'hollow out' the hull. The second was also reduced in size, and a mesh texture applied to it. Finally, a terrain was used to cut an irregular hole in the side of the hull, allowing the mesh to show through and making the whole look suitable wrecked.