Guild Wars: Factions (Windows)

As in the original, GUILD WARS: FACTIONS offers a huge online world to explore, filled with mythical beasts, massive mountains, and cities teeming with other players. In this fictitious world, players constantly battle enemy creatures and other online players. In this installment, play takes place in a new land and there are two additional classes. The main difference here is that guilds can form alliances, taking sides in a war that's splitting the continent.

In role-playing mode, players develop a character through quests and battles. Player vs. player mode starts players off at the highest level with decent weapons and skills. Players battle it out in games such as capture the flag. To defeat a rival guild or an opposing team, players must use strategy and teamwork rather than depending on superior weapons and armor.

This game is more family friendly than other massively multiplayer online role-playing games. For one thing, there's no monthly fee, and you don't need to buy the original game to play this installment. The game also alerts players when they've been playing for an hour, two hours, and so on.

The downside? When navigating to a city, players often lose the other folks they were playing with, and it can be difficult to get back in the same group. Also, some places in the game force players to play with random teams, instead of with known friends. In the end, though, Guild Wars: Factions is a fun, cheap alternative to other games in this genre.