For those of you who don’t know a whole lot about video games, Razer as an organization is rather dear to most people who play them (at least on the PC). Since it hit its stride back in 2004, it’s established itself as an industry leader in gaming-related peripherals. It produces some of the best and highest quality products on the market, and Razer’s marketing is positively brilliant. It’s centered on one simple idea:
By Gamers, For Gamers.
Admittedly, I’m one of those guys who could probably be considered a Razer fanboy. What can I say? They have their finger to the pulse of gaming, and I’ve yet to have a problem with anything I’ve purchased from them. Even with this in mind, I was somewhat hesitant when I was informed that they’d just put their own proprietary VOIP solution into open beta.
The market’s more than a little flooded with VOIP clients, particularly where video games are concerned. You’ve got TeamSpeak, Mumble, Skype, Ventrilo, Xfire…you get the idea. Understandably, I wasn’t entirely certain what Razer was capable of bringing to the gaming VOIP table. What exactly could they deliver that all these other clients so sorely lacked?
Still, my roommate – and several of his friends – were rather insistent as to the quality of Razer’s new offering. This, coupled with my prior love of the organization, essentially made the decision for me. I decided to sit down and give Comms a try in one of the mediums it’s most likely to be used: Riot Games’ League of Legends.
Testing Out Gaming VOIP From Razer
The install process was quick and relatively painless, and the first thing I noticed about the app was how slick everything looked. Razer decided to go with its tried-and-true chrome black and neon green color scheme for the Comms interface, and as a result, everything looks incredibly snazzy.
After getting the app onto my computer and setting up an account, I logged in and was good to go. Anyone who’s used a chat client should have no trouble familiarizing themselves with the interface and layout of Comms. It’s quite simple to use.
You’ve got four tabs on the main window that are available to you: Contacts, Groups, Games, and Notifications. The first and last are rather self-explanatory, so I’m not going to go into much detail. Instead, we’ll discuss the middle two: Groups and Games.
The “Groups” tab basically lets you create your own private chat server. It’s extremely simple to do: simply name your group, name the lobby of the group, then select the group’s category. If you feel the need, you can also signify which game the group is related to.
After fiddling around with it for a bit, I can honestly say I’m impressed. As near as I can tell, you can create a virtually infinite number of channels (presumably, a near-infinite number of players can be chatting simultaneously, as well), set up group mods and admins, and password-protect the whole array.
The “Games” tab lets you launch games directly from the Comms client, which detects what you’ve got installed. A nice touch, and an incredibly convenient one.
These are just bonuses, however. The best part about the platform is undoubtedly the sound quality. It blows Mumble and Teamspeak out of the water and it puts Skype to shame. The addition of an in-game overlay (which, as of beta is a bit buggy…) allows you to see who’s talking at any given time in a chatroom and access your groups and channels without having to tab out, while you can still set up private text and voice chats at your leisure.
Have I mentioned the entire thing is extremely lightweight, as well?
Though I was hesitant about Comms at first, my brief time with the beta has me more or less convinced. If Razer’s competitors don’t make some very big changes very soon, this app might well become the new standard for in-game voice chat. You can check out the open beta here.
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