Photomatix standalone Vs. PS Plugin or something else?

[Johnboy2978]

I have been fiddling w/ HDR and I'm unimpressed w/ my ability to use CS2 to make a nice HDR. I am sure it has more power and ability to do a HDR justice than I am capable of. I downloaded the trial of Photomatix as well as the plugin for CS2. I really like this and am considering purchasing either the stand alone or the plug in. Is the stand alone that much more feature rich? I can't really see a difference.

If there is something else out there that people like, I'd be interested to know. I tried the freebie open source one "qtpfsgui" but was rather unimpressed w/ it.

Here's 2 examples I did today from a construction project I am working on for the company I work for. What can I do to improve these? I still can figure out how to get that surreal look, not that I necessarily want it in these.