Top Multiplayer PC Games of 2007

The Burning Crusade is the first expansion for World of Warcraft, and it came out way back in January so there's a good chance you've been running Karazhan for months now. This release added 10 levels to the cap, tons of new high-level content, and two new races to the world's most popular MMORPG. If you still haven't tried it, it's as good a time to start as ever, and it looks like the game will continue to grow for a while yet.

This is a stand-alone remake of the famous Team Fortress mod for Quake that helped popularize online gaming back in the late 90s. Team Fortress 2 isn't the most sophisticated multiplayer shooter on the market, but it recaptures the player classes and teamplay of earlier games in the series beautifully. It features a distinctly cartoonish appearance that fits extremely well and gives it an extra dose of character. You can buy it separately using Steam or as part of The Orange Box compilation of games on store shelves.

Renowned for intense World War II infantry combat, Call of Duty 4 brings the series into a modern warfare setting. Multiplayer features received special attention in the latest release, which has a deep and very addictive persistent stats system that rewards players with upgraded skills and items as they gain experience. Call of Duty 4 also offers a robust variety of multiplayer modes and some of the best graphics in its class.

Based on an alternate history of the Cold War, World in Conflict is a fast-paced RTS where NATO and Soviet forces battle over the west coast of America. In a fresh approach, they've forgone base-building completely, and you control a very limited number of units compared to most games of this kind, but this gives it a strong tactical component. Multiplayer features different player "classes," and requires a great deal of team coordination.

Set in the mythical world of J.R.R. Tolkien, Turbine has built a MMORPG around the famous story that in many ways defined the fantasy genre. The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar lets you experience the adventure as a Human, Hobbit, Dwarf, or an Elf, and is designed to bring you into contact with various members of the Fellowship along the way. PvP is offered through "monster play," which allows players to temporarily assume the role of monsters in an optional battleground. It's an impressive rendition of Middle-earth that has had extensive content updates since launch.

This is the first shooter from Splash Damage and id Software that has included a full compliment of player-controlled vehicles. The battle is between humans and an alien invasion of Strogg, with first-rate graphics, cool deployables, and detailed objective-based maps. Strategies can get quite complicated, but objectives are made crystal clear in the HUD. Integrated voice chat was added to Quake Wars with patch 1.2.

The Unreal Tournament series has always been a solid contender among multiplayer shooters, and Unreal Tournament 3 brings it up to date with Epic's new Unreal 3 graphics engine. Bombing Run and Assault modes are gone, Vehicle CTF has been added, and Onslaught mode has been transformed into the new, but very similar, Warfare mode. Along with many of the vehicles from UT 2004, there are a bunch of new machines to drive, including the incredibly cool Darkwalker and Hoverboards that let you "hitch a ride" on other vehicles. True to the Unreal Tournament tradition, the game comes with a full suite of editing tools.

Opposing Fronts is a stand-alone expansion for Company of Heroes, a critically-acclaimed RTS game released in 2006. Two more factions have been added to the fray, allowing players can take control of the British 2nd Army or the German Panzer Elite in online battles as well as the new single-player campaigns. These factions require a little more micromanagement than the originals, and the learning curve is a bit steeper for new players, but overall it's an impressive addition to the game.

One of 2007's most anticipated FPS games, Crysis pushes PC graphics to the next level, not only with first-rate visuals, but also some of the best physics in a game to date. As well as the standard Deathmatch mode, Crysis offers Power Struggle, which has players capturing bases to dominate the map, similar to the Battlefield series. The game has 5 multiplayer maps and supports up to 32 players. Although you'll need a good system to run it on high settings, it looks like online play will catch on better than it did with its predecessor, Far Cry.

The aliens have landed and forced humanity to take refuge on a distant planet. The future for our species looks grim, but we're not about to go down without a fight, and we have found some friends out there. Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa uses a mix of FPS and RPG to keep you in the action, and puts you in the middle of an ongoing war where NPCs try to control territory. Not an overly deep game, but worth consideration if you'd like something different.