Wiki: env_message

env_message - Point Entity

The env_message entity allows you to display predefined text messages on the screen. The messages it can display are defined in the titles.txt file.

Target (target) - When this entity is triggered, it will trigger the entity specified in Target.
Name (targetname) - Name is a general attribute used to identify entities.
Message Name (message) - This should specify the name of the message that will be displayed, as defined in the titles.txt file.
Sound Effect (messagesound) - This allows you to specify a sound that should play when the message is shown to the player. This accepts an input of the form path/filename.wav (starting from the sound folder). (/Example: ambience/drips.wav /).
Volume 0-10 (messagevolume) - Sets the volume of the sound. Scales from 0 (completely silent) to 10 (maximum, default).
Sound Radius (messageattenuation) - Sets how far away from the env_message entity the sound can be heard.
- Small Radius (0) - The sound will be at maximum volume within a roughly 256 unit radius, fading out completely at around 512 units away.
- Medium Radius (1) - The sound will be at maximum volume within a roughly 512 unit radius, fading out completely at around 768 units away.
- Large Radius (2) - The sound will be at maximum volume within a roughly 768 unit radius, fading out completely at around 1280 units away.
- Play Everywhere (3) - The sound will be heard throughout the entire map.

Play Once (1) - If enabled, the env_message can only be triggered once.
All Clients (2) - If enabled, the message will display for all players rather than only the player that caused the env_message to be triggered. [Confirmation required.]

This entity is functionally very similar to the game_text entity. Rather than being externally defined, with a game_text entity the message and all of the parameters applied to it are all defined within the entity itself. The game_text entity also lacks the ability to play a sound effect, but this can be supplemented by an ambient_generic entity if required.
Due to the titles.txt file being a generic file (not map specific), editing this file is not recommended unless you are creating a custom mod. You should use a game_text entity if you require custom messages outside of a custom mod.
If creating a custom mod, whether to use env_message or game_text is simply a matter of preference. If you intend to display many custom messages, using env_message and using a custom titles.txt file may be preferable simply to keep all of the messages and their parameters in one place, and to allow defining one set of parameters for many messages. If using very few messages, game_text may be simpler. Another advantage of using titles.txt over game_text in the context of mods is that you can benefit from localization (easier to have your mod translated in french, german, russian...)