I agree with Astral. You can get a pretty decent tone with software amps, which by comparison, getting a similar sound with cabinet mic'ing will cost you a lot. Some studio's spend thousands of dollars on mics and fancy amps and cabinets, but you can get the same sound for like...$50.
I relied on Guitar Rig 5 for years, but I recently switched to amplitube, and I'm super impressed. For $50, you can buy credits from their custom shop to buy specific amp models, cabinets, and mics. I use the soldano amp myself with the diode overdrive disortion petal, and I get some pretty good results. The fact that you can download anything from their custom shop and test them for a few days really helps you make a decision.
Another thing I like to do is use ghost kicks to add subtle sidechain compression to the rhythm guitar and bass. Helps add more punch to the mix.
Check out this little exercise I did. The guitar is a pre-recorded phrase from 8dio's progressive metal library with bass and drums added. I re-amped it with the previous mentioned plugins.
https://soundcloud.com/ghostxb/zeus-dru ... -5/s-P6VvXOf course, there is also hours (and hours) of miscellaneous mixing going on too, but it should give you an idea of what plugins can do.
EDIT: I just realized I shared a closed link. Fixed it.