Gamers are a social bunch. Society might think we sold our vocal chords for some quick cash to get the latest Grand Theft Auto, but we know better: gamers love to talk. Indeed, it’s often more difficult to get some of you to shut up!

In a competitive environment, there’s no substitute for team communication. Whether you’re bombing sites on de_dust , or wiping in Molten Core because somebody didn’t realise they were the bomb, typing on the fly doesn’t cut it. So what do you do when you want to “voice” your concerns?
Welcome to a three-way fork. Well, really, it’s a three-way fork with a dark alley behind a few crates off to the side that your mother warned you about. Ahead of you are three roads: an over-populated tollway, Ventrilo; the road everybody used before, TeamSpeak; and the cool road that the edgy crowd uses because nobody else has heard of it, Mumble. Let’s start with Mumble.

Mumble
Could Mumble be any cooler? For a start, it’s open source. Add in the Mensa puzzle logo and the ability to skin the interface, and we’re talking ice cold. Thankfully it’s free of the pretension.
Mumble’s greatest asset is its simplicity. Setup is painless, as the wizard will help you configure volume and whether you want a push to talk button, and the UI makes sense in a simple but functional way. The in-game overlay in Mumble continues this theme using plain text and an avatar pic. It’s easily the best overlay of the big three because of how unobtrusive it is. You can also configure the font and colours if you so desire. However, a few games will crash or not display correctly when the overlay is enabled – for a full compatibility list check out mumble.sourceforge.net/Games.

Mumble’s audio quality performed the best of the three in our testing, thanks to its implementation of the Speex codec, one handy feature of which is positional audio. Mumble will adjust the direction and distance your teammates voices will come from in correlation with where you stand in the game. Got a couple of mates backing you up? Hopefully they’ll sound like they’re right behind you so you know they’ve got your back instead of letting you rush to your death. Or if your team splits up – a few to the left, a few to the right, while you hang back – you will be provided with instant audio clues as to where the action is. This obviously has more benefit and utility in an FPS, but MMOs also appear on the list of supported games, of which there are currently about 26. Gimmicky? Maybe. Necessary? Maybe not. Awesome? Hell-yes!

Options at first glance appear pretty basic, but hit the inconspicuous “advanced” checkbox in the bottom left corner and you can access more audio and plug-in options. Mumble’s downfall however is its server – Murmur. It’s not for the faint hearted or those not willing to delve into .ini files or plug-in apps. You'll need to dedicate some time to setting it up. Commercial hosts will help ease the pain if you want an easy way out.

Why choose Mumble? Completely free, great quality, simple but useful client-side UI, best looking overlay, positional audioHopefully from here, things will only get better as more games are added to its compatibility list.
Score 4/5

TeamSpeak 3
TeamSpeak 3 was once hailed as vapourware. Late last year the mists cleared and it was released onto the market in open beta form. It’s still in beta - and probably will be for a while - but there’s no reason not to upgrade from TS2 right now.

If you do, the first thing you'll notice is that version 3 is a lot prettier and user friendly than its predecessor. TS3 claims superior audio quality, but in our testing we failed to notice anything to write home about.In fact, of the three that we tested, it had the least impressive audio quality. However, in its favour, TS3 offers much more versatility.

TS3 bills itself as a complete communication solution for business and gamers alike. As such, it includes features such as “firewall friendly” file transfer, priority speaker settings, and customisation options ranging from the aesthetic to the more functional. However, there’s no built-in overlay so you’ll have to install a plug in (eg. TINT) if you'd like to see it displayed during your chosen game
Hosting and configuring a server is much easier than Mumble but be wary; TS3 touts a 512 slots capability. However the basic licence is 32 slots (still not to be sneezed at – something you really shouldn’t do while holding your push to talk key) and the 512 actually refers to an upgraded licence, spanning 10 servers.

Why choose TeamSpeak 3? Easy to host 32-slot server, user-friendly, functionally and aesthetically easy to customise.
Score: 3/5

Ventrilo
Let’s be honest about Ventrilo. It’s the hunting dog of the party: ugly and mean but it gets the job done; and that’s really the key to why it’s so popular. Vent, as it is affectionately known, boasts audio quality on par with Mumble, and much better than our testing of TeamSpeak 3. There’s also plenty of options to play around with but they're all a little complicated, with vague descriptions, so we're not sure what half of them do.

And that really is our problem with Vent – it thumbs its nose at user-friendliness. Unlike Mumble, there are no obvious visual clues helping the user find their way. This is no more evident than the little arrow buttons to the right of User name, Server and Bindings, behind which reside some of the key features, but don’t stand out at all. The interface itself is about as bland as the Spice Girls. If there’s anything good to come out of the UI it’s that once you’ve actually figured out how to connect to a server and configure your audio, most interactions can be carried out simply by right-clicking users or channels.

Unlike TS3, Vent has an overlay built in, but quite frankly, it’s horribly obtrusive. There are also issues with Vista which prevent it from displaying most of the time. Thankfully TINT (mentioned previously as a TeamSpeak plugin) is also compatible with Vent. Server-side you’re stuck with eight slots before you’re required to rent a server, which means for most clans or guilds you'll be shelling out for the privilege.

Why choose Ventrilo? Good quality, large user base, loads of options for functionality.
Score: 3/5

Remember that dark alley we mentioned earlier? It’s populated by a few shady types that are limited in their usefulness for gaming or have poor functionality. Your first option is in-game voice, but it is generally poor quality (Or doesn't work at all. We're looking at you Bad Company 2 - Ed). Another is Steam’s voice chat, but options are severely limited, and Xfire also has voice capabilities. Your last real option is Skype, which can make conference calls for up to 25 people – strangely coincidental with World of Warcraft’s raid size – but it will eat into your resources, making it a poor choice for competitive FPS gaming. Lack of a push-to-talk button is also a negative.

So which road will you choose? If you want the best and are willing to put in the time to master the server program, choose Mumble. If you like the idea of file transfers or don’t want to deal with ugly UIs, choose TeamSpeak 3. If you're an MMO junkie, you’re probably already on Ventrilo. There’s nothing wrong with that but your admins are probably paying through the nose. If you are already on either TeamSpeak or Ventrilo and are interested in a useful in-game overlay, check out Mumble or download the TINT plugin.

WINNER: MUMBLE!