There are a lot of programs with VoIP built into them, but I’ve found that it’s pretty dismal due to the time delay and overall quality.

While gaming it’s hard to hear what most people are saying and that doesn’t help if they trying to tell you that there’s someone creeping up on you. There are many online chatting programs like Skype, Xfire and MSN. But these aren’t perfect, you either have to pay (Skype), you’re talking constantly so you’ll get someone suddenly cursing in your ear when they’ve been killed or you have to minimize the game each time you want to talk. The best program I’ve found is Teamspeak, which works on the basic principal that phones do. It may not be as visually attractive as the others but it’s the best. The audio quality is near perfect and once you’ve found a server to join and chat with your mates that’s it! You can even run your own server (but that’s a bit more difficult).