When playing multiplayer online games you usually need to communicate with your friends for different reasons: to design a strategy for your next assault or just to have a fun, relaxing chit-chat while killing enemies mercilessly. Many games feature a chat tool that allows you to exchange messages with other players, but typing a sentence while trying to stay alive in the game can be really annoying. The only solution then is using voice communication. It's easier, faster and far more comfortable than writing messages on a tiny chat window. And one of the best options for voice communications in multiplayer online games is TeamSpeak.

This piece of software comes in two separate applications, one to be used as a server and the other one as a client. You can therefore have your own private TeamSpeak server installed at home, which allows you to talk to your friends while playing with them in an absolutely private, secure way. As the server administrator, you have the right to create and delete user accounts, set different privileges for each one of them, ban any given user or password protect the access to the server, just to mention a few.

As for the client application, it's very easy to use. Just enter the required connection data (server's address, nickname and password if needed) and you're done. You can either enter the IP address of your own private server or use any of the hundreds of public TeamSpeak servers available on the Internet, which you can conveniently browse directly from your client. Both TeamSpeak server and client feature a simple, straightforward design that, in all honesty, could be improved a lot. The program's interface is just too basic: a bare window with no graphic elements at all and quite schematic menus that make you think something has been left out.

The program stays minimized in the system tray and uses few system resources. The voice quality is excellent. Also, you'll find some interesting settings in the program's configuration menu, such as the possibility to adjust its bandwidth usage or the option to activate the microphone only when you speak, though this may be a little tricky to configure at first sight.

Needless to say, you can use TeamSpeak with any online game you play, as it's a totally independent application. So next time you meet your friends online to play, forget about messy written conversations right in the middle of a crucial battle and move on to TeamSpeak. You'll enjoy the game a lot more.