Wii Voicechat
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Nintendo has failed to deliver a bluetooth headset even as hardcore online games are beginning to hit the market. Medal of Honor Heroes 2 is coming in November, and because Nintendo won't let them, it's shipping without voicechat.

But all is not lost. There's a net connected PC in virtually every home in America. Many Wii owners own laptops with a wifi connection. You can attach a bluetooth headset to your PC, even from another room, or a wired headset to your connected laptop, and combine with voip and bypass Nintendo's tardy ways. Below are voip programs that can be used to accomplish this.

1. Teamspeak

Teamspeak is an old and free solution for voicechat while playing online games for the PC. Combine it with a bluetooth headset, and then head into the living room for some wiimote shooter action.

Teamspeak instructions.

Download Teamspeak

2. Skype

If you're playing with 9 others or fewer, Skype's conference call option will allow you to get up and running quickly and won't require you to set up a server. While there are skype plans that cost money (Skype out and Skype in let you make and recieve calls to and from landlines), basic skype is free. It also has video conferencing ability.

Skype conference call setup

Download Skype

3. Gamestreet talk

Gamestreet is pretty much Teamspeak, but newer and easier to set up, and supposedly has a better voice quality. You can set up guild specific channels, do video conferencing (in our scenario, this could used on a laptop in the same room as your Wii, or while you're in the lobby waiting for the game to start up), it's contact list could help you keep track of when other users you like to play against are online and help you set up games with friends. It's still in beta, but it looks great. The basic setup is free, but there are pay options you can sign up for.

The Setup looks fairly simple, and you don't need to run a server off your own PC server to use it. Other users will connect to Gamestreet.

Download Gamestreet talk (download link is at the bottom of the page, read requirements, ie, requires .net 3)

4. Others
programs like Ventrilo, AIM, Google Talk, MSN Messenger and Yahoo all offer voice chat functionality. This page will be updated to discuss their viability for our purposes. While some wouldn't be used by PC gamers, who are trying to run resource heavy games on the same pc they're using for chat software, for Wii voicechat, they could potentially work just fine.

Find other voip solutions here.

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