I'm looking for a top of the line art program that doesn't cost as much as a small car... so Corel Draw 3X isn't all that bad. It has loads of great capabilities, but is it good for creating game graphics (2D of course).

Try Gimp. I LOVE IT! It is basically Photoshop but in a much easier way, but that generally means less features. Still, free. And it also is a fantastic attempt to clone Photoshop for free.

Here is the website for Gimp.

Corel Draw may be used to draw artworks, model sheet and some oil & paint style wip. It is not designed to be a tile maker, prefer gimp, pixia and friends if your aim is to provide ingame usuable ressources.
nb: corel draw is so cool to use with a graphic tablet ~