I think you people are trying to read too much into something that doesn't exist with too many variables. I have yet to see someone mention for example shadow issues pending on the card type and drivers you might be using with a specific engine (shadows in real-time don't work in Autodesk products on AMD 8xxx series cards…
All for the game engine route here because if your assets look good in an engine then you know your shit. Below is a good example: http://www.aldenfilioncg.com/
Also Toolbag has less compression and optimization done by default, here's one example, http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2096054&postcount=124