Well I have not done any game related work. I know you can use wings and Blender to make UVmaps Gimp can take care of textures. You might be able to pick up an old version of photoshop if you look around. For game related stuff there are better sites.
Here is where there is a lot of game artists hang out. You can pick up some good tips from them.
http://www.cgchat.com/forum/
This site is run by one of the top game artists in the industry and has tutorials and a lot of good info. (don't be fooled by the name)
http://poopinmymouth.com/