This week Epic released their Unreal3 SDK for free download for non-commercial use, which is the same development software we use here to create Mass Effect 2 (minus custom bells and whistles).
I’d recommend this over any other engine for those wanting to break into the industry right now as it’s fast becoming a standard across many studios and any level of knowledge of its various animation-related systems like Matinee, Kismet, FaceFX and the AnimSet and AnimTree editors would certainly be a boost at the entry level. Nowadays I’m seeing Unreal3 experience on CV’s alongside traditional software like Max and Maya, so get downloading and start tinkering away…