Yahoo! Games: Best of 2006 Awards

We scrutinize all of last year's releases and hand out the Best of 2006 honors.

By YVG Staff

Best Online Multiplayer Game

NOMINEES:

Battlefield 2142 (PC)

Developer: Digital Illusions CE AB
Publisher: EA

Battlefield, but with giant stompy robots? Don't mind if we do. Predictably, EA's latest in this tremendously popular series turned out to be another solid multiplayer shooter. 2142 develops the previous game's "unlock" concept even further, promoting players for their performance over many games. Find a good team -- and a good commander -- and the Battlefield series still offers some of the best squad-based action around.

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Gears of War (Xbox 360)

Developer: Epic Games
Publisher: Microsoft

Gears of War's multiplayer proved enormously popular, boosting Live subs by 80 percent and shooting it past Halo 2 into the coveted most popular Xbox Live game slot. Including online coop play no doubt helped, but it was the team-based modes that really caught the public's imagination. Curbstomping your rivals into submission is one of those feelings that you just can't get anywhere else. Well, not legally, anyway.

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Guild Wars: Nightfall (PC)

Developer: ArenaNet Inc.
Publisher: NCSoft

We've been big fans of this NCSoft mostly-massively-multiplayer online RPG ever since its release, and Nightfall brought piles of welcome new content to the Guild Wars world. It saw the game branching out into content more typical of single-player RPGs like the Baldur's Gate series, by introducing complex solo missions and controllable henchmen.

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Marvel - Ultimate Alliance (ALL)

Developer: Raven Software
Publisher: Activision

Kick your computer-controlled teammates to the curb, pull in an Xbox Live buddy or three, and enjoy superhero-related online thrills. Ultimate Alliance's seamless integration between its solo and multiplayer scored points; and so did the way it combines cooperative and competitive play by making players compete to make the killing blow on bigger enemies.

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Rainbow Six Vegas

Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft

Earning acclaim for its superb graphics and clever face-mapping system (you can snap your own mug and use it on your character in multiplayer), the latest installment of Rainbow Six even has a cover system that beats out Gears of War's celebrated setup. We loved the variety, too. If you're fed up with competitive games on Vegas's 10 excellent standard maps, you can play coop on any of them -- or take on any of the single-player missions with up to three friends.

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Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Xbox)

Developer: N/A
Publisher: Ubisoft

Eclipsing the newer, flashier Xbox 360 version of the game, the good old-fashioned Xbox proved the best place for Splinter Cell multiplayer last year, thanks to its three-on-three spy action and numerous online coop missions. If for no other reason, it deserves its nomination for demonstrating so convincingly that there's life in the old dog yet.