When it comes to games only (meaning using it primarily for low-poly modeling and animation)... what are the strengths and weaknesses between XSI and Maya? I'm fairly accustomed to Maya, but I hear XSI is pretty productive when it comes to modeling and animation? Could anyone explain the differences? Aside from being a bit lost by the interface I dont notice much yet =)

Differences in interfaces is the biggest difference between Maya, XSI, and 3ds Max. All of their modeling and animation tools have slight differences between how they work, but they all pretty well have the same features. It really is just a preferential thing.