Metal Gear Online
When you pressed 'select' it'd bring up a menu of 16 preset phrases that once selected would be said to your teammates and it had constant ingame text chat for those times when a preset of 'Follow me', 'I need backup' or 'Take Cover' just wasn't enough. I realy wish every other online shooter out there would rip it off because I'm actually happier hearing preset commands or seeing a text chat than hearing someone through a headset. Headsets can ruin immersion.
Naturally with it being Metal Gear some of the presets were just downright humorous aswell
SlickShoes wrote:
SOCOM 2 had the best for me. Text chat in main server lobby, text and voice chat in lobbies, voice chat in games. All voice chat was push to talk so you didnt get garbled music or dogs barking coming through much.
The game also had its own messaging system built in and you could use a USB keyboard with it.
All of this was on the PS2, and since then its like games have got worse since everyone adopted open comms, no text chat etc.
Gotta say, I'm a big fan of push to talk. Warhawk's just didn't work but SOCOM Confrontation got it dead right 
Level 9
SOCOM: Confrontation
Only one person can talk at a time which makes it much clearer to hear people rather than having every one talking together in one big mess. Also has preset commands so if you have no headset you can still communicate with your team mates.
BFBC2 would have had my vote if you could communicate out side of squad. E.g. by pressing a dpad arrow so you could talk to non squad members in the same vehicle as you.
Edit: socom also has proxy chat so you can hear near by enimies through you TV speakers allowing you to be one step ahead of them 
Level 5
I'm not really much of an online gamer but I remember playing the first Resistance game online quite a bit and the voice coms were perfect. Enough to even have a laugh & make friends with a couple of dutch guys as it was just as good as talking on the phone ingame.
Otherwise I'm guilty of always switching voice coms off on everything else.
Level 3
But I loved the communications system in Resistance: Fall of man. The different party systems you could go in was really helpful, if you wanted a serious chat, discussing tactics etc. you could stick to one party or if you wanted just a normal chat and a bit of a laugh, you could go in another.
Only thing it's missing is push to talk.
Level 3
Communication in games these days is one of the most important parts of any online game and it can seriously hinder the users enjoyment if communication is a ball ache.
I think my favourite game for communication to date has to be SOCOM confrontation and while I never got to play the earlier SOCOM's (which I've heard lots about) I have to say confrontation was the best. Confrontation use's a push to talk system and even though it can be annoying to try and grab the mic suring a heated debate/argument in a 32 player lobby I think it all adds to the SOCOM experience.
It's probably not suitable to use this kind of chat system on a lot of other games but for SOCOM it definitly works. When your in the game it makes you use the mic very carefully. If you see the enemy you need to communicate your description of where you saw them very quickly so you dont hold up the mic incase another team member has more important information to share. This all adds to the tense atmosphere SOCOM brings.
I played Confrontation about 6 to 8 everyday for about a year straight and it was what got me into shooters, The comms system played a big part in that.
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