We’re halfway through Season 4 (like the day after the summer solstice it’s all downhill from here) but if you think we’re getting complacent, thing again: One Life Left #84 is a special episode with a special guest. But who’s the guest? And what’s the occasion?

 

 

It’s Rock Paper Shotgun’s very own Kieron Gillen! And it’s Simon Byron’s birthday, so he has the night off. Consequently this episode of OLL may sound a little bit different (we’ve not had to edit out any slander for a start, and we talk about video games quite a lot) but you can still expect the same quality of Xeroxed news, half-hearted reviews, games industry gossip and improbably brilliant features.

 

Download the episode from here and as always, tell everyone you love to do the same.

 

Crucuially (and you’ll hear this throughout the show) this is the last episode of One Life Left before our Christmas Party. It is HUGELY IMPORTANT you attend, whether this is the first episode you’ve listened to or the last. We’ll be recording a show, live, and an audience will make that better, but the radio part’s only a fraction of the day’s events; there’s our CD launch, live music performances, your chance to make friends / make enemies / make out with some games industry legends. It’s free. And it’ll be brilliant. I have no idea why you aren’t writing it in your diary already.

 

Oh, you are? Sweet! It’s at The Blue Posts on Rupert St, Soho, and it’ll be going on from 2pm until late, late, late. We’ll see you there, and for the after party, and the after-after party, and etc.

Om nom nom nom? What? No! The OTHER kind of troll, the one that resides on the internet and says naughty things to gain a lol-some reaction. That's what OLL's big mouth feels like this week. But who are we trolling, and why?

Oh, no-one, deliberately, obviously. We're nice! We love everyone, even the gaming industry legends we insult. That's why we promise to keep the really salacious anecdotes to the off-air stuff at the OLL party. But the best kind of troll is the accidental one, the off-hand quip you regret later, and while there's no apology section this week we expect we'll need one in #84. Sorry! Sorry.

OLL #83 also contains no less than five separate features, the continuation of some threads from episodes past and some excellent listener-letters. If you want to be on next week's show you're welcome to send us stuff, of course. Otherwise just tune in, silently listening, and enjoy. It is a fun one, we think.

Also, keep an eye on the blog for more BONUS CONTENT from presenters and contributors alike.

Music in #83:

Hello by Uoki-Toki
In the Year 200X by 8-Bit Metal
I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire

Special thanks to Derek, who's struggling through computer problems to maintain his excellent contribution record.

ALSO. RSVP to our party. It is going to be awesome.

No last-minute dramas this week, except that the show before ran on for three minutes into our slot and we were outraged. And which week is this? It's week in which Simon organised one party but mostly One Life Left got excited about another one. It's show #82. And we'll let the actual content of the show reveal itself to you, with all the features, news, reviews and music waiting for you like a girl on stage awkwardly awaiting carnal instruction. No spoilers, except to say we do actually genuinely talk quite a lot about videogames in this one. I know! We were quite surprised too. Especially Ann. Most pertinently, the Facebook party page for people who want to join us at our once-a-year Christmas bash on Saturday 29th of November is here. If you are reading this then you are genuinely invited. We want to see you there. You will have fun. Music in #82: Not a lot, really, but the one chiptune thing we played is worth it... Sexy Synthesizer -- Follow Me Love Machine -- Girls Aloud I'll leave you to guess which one that is. Oh, and two contributions from our friends, of course. No spoilers. See you next week!

No time for a long explanation here because 1/3 of One Life Left is getting a flight to Lyon in a few hours, which leaves precious little time for sleep / lying awake, regretting all the things you said today. But we should explain why there's three minutes missing from this week's show... Public transport. Ste left Brighton in plenty of time to reach the Resonance FM studios but a series of problems on the British rail network (four separate issues, detail fans) left him fighting his way through rush hour as Ann and Simon broke out the emergency CDs. Ste made it with seconds to spare -- the theme was about fifteen seconds in -- but, as a few weeks ago, we weren't set up to record. So that's why the show starts just after Ann's pleas with Simon not to talk about what she got up to on Friday night at Nottingham Game City. Some of our listeners will already know. The rest will have to put together pieces from the fragments of information here, in episode 81 of Europe's favourite tenuously-related-to-videogames show, One Life Left. Music: Spring // Resplendent / Downey Illusional Hop // Anthony Lofton & Joshua Morse Glasgow Mega-Snake // Mogwai That's it. See you next week. Oh, and please come to our party on the 29th of November. It's going to be brilliant and you'll be able to buy a CD! Srsly.

We're One Life Left's parents and we love all our children, but our eightieth (recognised) child was certainly born under a bad sign. Seconds before the show started we were shouted at by our beautiful engineer, Maria, for a crime we didn't commit, so we shouted back; and then, when the show finally started, two of the mics weren't working. The only person who could save us? Maria. Uh oh!

But save us she did and so, beginning with an early hit of mood-music to cover up the tense sounds of an audio caesarian, episode eight of season four pukes and mewls its way into your ears. This episode: Craig, Derek, Mathew and Taliah all entertain with winning contributions, a couple of engagements for you to add to your diaries, some news of some NEW OLL merchandise and a very, very, very special guest.

And gossip, reviews, news, Simon Byron's Memoirs, etc.

Music in #80:

Destiny's Child // Say My Name by Copy
Niji No Kawa by she
Animal Crossing Traveling OC ReMix by Kaijin
Bright Tomorrow by Fuck Buttons

Blogs about contents to come later in the week, hopefully. And OLL at GameCity, of course. See you all on Thursday?

No prizes for naming this week's guest after the first, ooh, three words of the show. No prizes for working out what's up with Ann's voice, either, particularly if you've been reading our blog. And, if you were lucky enough to attend the GMAs last Thursday, no prizes for guessing what most of this week's apology section concerns. Uh oh, it's OLL #79: the post-party regret.

But the show isn't just about red faces, recollection immediately followed by regret. There's also the bits in between, the features and news and jingles and stuff. You know, the good stuff: Craig 'The Rage' McClellan takes on the Nintendo DS, Taliah looks at Ridge Racer and Mathew Kumar recalls Seaman on the Dreamcast.

And, midway through, just after the letters section and essentially out of nowhere, we announce OLL's next public gathering and invite you all. We'll do a proper blog about that this week but for now please accept our audio invite. You should come. It promises to be awesome. There might even be prizes.

We also play some astonishingly good music on #79:

Sun Lights Stars (Covox Remix) by Ram Rider
Earthbound -- Twoson Hits The Road -- OC Remix by djpretzel
Coloris by She.

And, you know, everything else.

Please enjoy -- protest on our forum if you don't, or even if you do -- and we'll see you in a week (and maybe *see* you in ten days). Exciting times!

We've never been afraid of tempting fate -- would we self-herald as Britain's favourite videogame radio show if we were? -- but the news we received this morning might make a weaker team opt for humility and caution over bravado in the future. Still, we wouldn't be One Life Left if we weren't big-mouthed idiots so please enjoy our 78th hour of published regret.

Inside you'll find, amongst other joys, the return of our gambling contributor Odds On O'D and a brand new doyouinverts track inspired by one of One Life Left's favourite websites. There's also five pieces of expertly-stolen gaming news, some new music and Ste talks about how he went to Tokyo by mentioning SHIBUYA a lot.

Also apologies. Genuine apologies.

Please write to us. You'll note midway through the show we make a plea for your help. We will replace that plea later in the week so keep reading for an update on that. For now, enjoy our hour and keep your fingers crossed for us on Thursday.

Music in #78: Sonic the Hedgehog Metamorphic Rock by Darkesword
One Car Family by 240 Interceptor
Monsieur Revee by best-friend-of-One-Life-Left Spencer
and, as mentioned, more from the doyouinverts.

Apologies for the (jetlag-related) delay. See you soon.

This show is sponsored by: www.myspace.com/spencerlikesme

CD prepared? Check. Guests – or co-presenter – in studio? Check. Over-ambitious list of things to chat about? Check. Studio door locked just in case The Man tries to interrupt the maverick broadcast? Check. Memory card inserted into the memory card machine so the show can be recorded and podcast if that’s a verb? Check. Record pushed?

 With Ste away in Japan, good ship One Life Left is left in the (dis)able(d) hands of Simon, Ann and guest co-host Tom BrammersMcBramwell from off of Eurogamer.net.

 

Ste's List Of Things To Do is largely ignored as we ramble our way through radio exclusives such as:

SHOCK PRACTISES OF SCUMBAG HARDWARE MANUFACTURERS WHO WANT YOUR GAMES TO BE BROKEN!
NINTENDO BEING SCUMBAGS!
A PEADOPHILIAC SONG COMPOSED USING A GAME BOY A BIT!
THE FIRST LOOK AT A NEW PIECE OF HARDWARE WHICH IS DIFFICULT TO DO ON THE RADIO!

Then: The Phone! After all, when better to experiment with technology than when the desk is being driven by someone who's only driven a desk once before, and that
went very badly? I know: now.

Still, it seems to go reasonably okay, until the shock twist at the end of the show, when at which point literally – literally – all seems lost.

This episode is bought to you – unedited - thanks to One Life Left best friend Spencer Lee. Who not only provides one of the show's audio high points, but saves this episode. Literally.

Thanks Spencer. OLL salutes you. Thank him here: www.myspace.com/spencerlikesme. Thanks also to Derek, whou would have been there if Spencer wasn’t.

Oh, music:
Knights of Cydonia 8bit (ripped from YouTube)
Agony theme, Psygnosis
Two listener contributions
Lemmings Rap 7inch, SFX
Commando them, Rob Hubbard

In which Simon assumes control of the One Life Left radio bus, Ste cowers in the front seat and peers between his fingers, and Ann makes out with boys on the back seat.

Welcome to #76, in which three important announcements are made. We’ll blog them in detail later in the week but I don’t think it’s a spoiler to those announcements concern:

i)                    The WINNER of One Life Left’s most popular competition ever, to name a Beer at Nottingham Game City

ii)                  One Life Left’s amazing, unique, ill-advised event at Nottingham Game City

iii)                Ste’s absence next week.

Which is why Simon’s driving this week. To learn, you know. It wouldn’t be One Life Left if the preparation wasn’t ill-considered and last-minute.

To alleviate the pressure / add to the complexity, we have a guest for the first time in Season 4. Ellie “Gibbo” Gibson returns to the airwaves to amuse, entertain and talk about videogames. We are lucky to have her. We (abruptly) welcome a new feature, too – ‘The Best Worst Games You’ve Never Played’ by Mathew Kumar. We’re looking for a jingle for that segment so if you can provide, get in touch. And the regulars are all present and correct too – poetry, gambling, chart musings and more.

Music this week:

The Suspense Is Killing Me – Boy 8-Bit
Shempi – Ratatat
Electric Touch (Mighty Mi / Stev1der Mix) – Kanye West v. MGMT
Toejam & Earl Bumpin’ OC Remix

Ok. See you soon!

Ste, Simon and Ann xxx

Yo, gaming tough guys the broadcast / podcast world over, know this: One Life Left has never been afraid of making enemies. Our independence allows us that freedom. We can say what we want about whoever we want and still be sure we'll continue to not receive free things in the post (please send us free things in the post). We're a videogame show with principles. Our main principle is that because we don't have the opportunity to sell out you can be sure that we haven't.

So yeah, we're tough. Last week on the blog, though, we chose to pick on the wrong people. We stepped outside our videogame comfort zone and chose to pick on men with bikes. And this week, The Bike Show acted exactly how you might imagine The Bike Show would: with grace and humour, inviting us on to the last five minutes of their (professionally produced, diligently prepared, also podcast) show. You join us just after our unexpected backie, three presenters giddy from a magical bike ride through Resonance FM.

So, allow us a moment to calm down and then enjoy the news, the features, the music (see below) and the epic, astonishing letters section featuring actual post. And enjoy the post-production too, since this is a recut of Season 4, Episode 3, largely deglitched. If you feel like you're missing out you should really tune in live but actually, this time the podcast listeners get the better deal: the new feature (no spoilers) is here in full, the victim of a dodgy last-minute CD burn in the FM-broadcast show. It is excellent.

With luck we'll have another new feature next show and our first guest of the season. Maybe even the Nottingham announcement we've been teasing you with for some time. Do enter the competition, and write to us using our contact for or at the address in the show -- your letters are consistently brilliant and make us happy.

Music: Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is In Another Castle / the Mountain Goats and Kaki King
PUBLIKUM / Stay Ali
Magical 8bit Tour / YMCK
Street Fighter II Sly Thai Guy OC Remix / Kaijin

All to be added to our music links page imminently. Do let people know about the show if you think they should know about the show and keep checking the blog for irregular / nonsenseical updates. We'll see you in a week.

A rambling preamble in lieu of the one that we can't do now we're back on Resonance: You know, knowing your own mind isn't as easy as it sounds. You need to know something about everything. But there are lots of everythings in the world and you're expected to have something to say about them all. Sometimes you already hold an opinion on something, sometimes the opinion you hold emerges when you begin to speak and sometimes you arrive at the point where you need to have an opinion and you're still none the wiser on what that opinion should be. Like, for example, when you're considering second hand games, or zoo animals, or whether you should go to the park alone.

ENOUGH. Features, music, news, gossip, nonsense, regret, vague attempts to get listeners arrested. The second episode of series two was plagued by technical problems most of which have mysteriously vanished for the podcast. If you are that hot for awkward silences, miscued tracks and giggles I suggest you tune in for the live broadcast (7pm, Monday evenings, Resonance FM). Some things can't be fixed in post: there is no still no telephone guest so if you're tuning in for the promised hot phone chat you'll have to wait until next week. And we still don't talk about games enough.

Songs for #74:

Kickle's Processional -- The Depreciation Guild
Arkanoid 1999 (2000 Remix) -- Chris Abbott
TLC / No Scrubs -- Copy
Breaking Out (Demo) -- The Protomen

Oh, and you only have three days left to vote. We are not going to win this vote without some kind of Titanic effort, so go find a cruiseship and crash it into iceberg. Metaphorically. If you loved us you'd do that. We'd do it for you.

Subscribe on iTunes, write to us, join our Facebook group, all that kind of thing. Thanks!

Kick, punch, you all remember…

Hello. We’re back. It has been too long, except it’s like we’ve never been away.

News. Music. Reviews. Five features. Three overexcited presenters. Gossip and rumour, salacious implication, momentary regret, six shrugged shoulders and quickly on to something different.

Today: new engineers, new babies, new plans, the red ring of death, Atari, Nottingham GameCity, songs to fall in love to and repeated pleas for you all to email gma@intentmedia.co.uk and vote for us in the GMAs. Do that, do that now. We are the rank outsiders but it would be excellent if we beat the BBC, and all that might take is a couple of clicks from you.

Enough. Click to listen, go on iTunes to subscribe, explore the new website, send us an email and join our Facebook. This is One Life Left. We are back, and we will be hanging out with you for a while, if you don’t mind. Tell the world.

It’s the last episode of Season 3 of One Life Left and we have an agenda. That agenda: to tidy up all the loose ends from the other shows in Season 3, to apologise and move on. It’s a departure from our previous (unwritten) agendas which, for Simon at least, mostly involve swearing and libel. But Simon isn’t here. In his place, no-longer-a-mystery-guest Jonathan Smith, who calms Ann’s nerves with a steely gaze and fearless hands. That will make more sense after you’ve heard the news.

The news which, because you demanded it, includes a post-news-section gossip with someone who attended the Rock Band conference. Extra news, only a week late! Fear not, though, because we manage to get through a lot in our final hour-and-five minutes. We have two phone guests. We have four features. We have two incredible WORLD EXCLUSIVE REVIEWS, a scoop so great any other podcast would be issuing press releases right this second: one of Grand Theft Auto IV and one of Lego Indiana Jones. Beat that Major Nelson! Or anyone else we care to pick a fight with, frankly.

And then, at the very end of the episode, something truly awesome: some Other Business. You can wait for that. Do wait. It will be worth it.

Any Other Business could refer to another part of the episode too, which is almost entirely unedited. You will notice the part where it is particularly unedited. It would have been almost effortless to cut it out but we have left that in because we found it funny. It is super indulgent but hey, this is the last show, and perhaps gives those who weren’t ever able to make it to a preamble a taste of what that was like, i.e. surprises, muffled noises, nonsense and giggling.

The sound on #72 might be a little worse than on previous shows. We’ve had a few problems with the desk today, to the extent that for a couple of hours it looked like the show wasn’t going to happen. We’re going to refit studio OLL shortly. We’re looking for way to fund that. We’re thinking of selling t-shirts! Or Ann’s hair.

And that’s it. Thank you to all our guests and contributors, thank you to Resonance FM and to Eurogamer and thank you all so much for putting up with us this season. It has been a genuine pleasure. We’ll see you soon, we hope – if not in Malmo or at the (recently postponed) One Life Left Wrap Party then for Season Four. Keep checking onelifeleft.com, thetriforce.com or our Facebook page for details on that. We’ll let you know as soon as we do.

Love,

The One Life Left Team

xxx

PS: If you didn't know by now, we have a last.fm group! That's new, and a brilliant way to compare notes on awesome music with other listeners. We are very close to the 500 mark on Facebook, so help us surpass that by clicking here, or identify yourself as a fan to others on that same site by clicking here. Our MySpace is here -- clicking around our friends list there is a good way to find out about the bands on the show. The OLL forum is here and if you want to email us with letters or things to play you can do so at the address in the show: team at one life left.com.

Those of you who can think as far back as the start of Season 3 might remember that we often promised to call people and never ever got around to it, mostly because it took about a dozen episodes for Resonance to get around to installing the phone. We make up for that today by using our Skype phone on no less than four occasions! To varying degrees of success, as you'll find out.

What else can we reveal without spoilers? Well, contrary to our hastily penned trailer on Eurogamer there aren't any reviews this week -- blame the fight we had about Riff last week and not wanting to turn Simon's last episode of the season into another row. But to compensate the news section contains actual news, an OLL regular returns to debut new material, Derek's still Derek and Craig 'The Rage' McClelland continues to hurt.

The show is presented almost completely unedited* so you'll please forgive the minor errors. Post production could have fixed them all, e.g. by highlighting the whole One Listener Left section and pressing delete, but we're all about honesty. Also laziness. We do forget to call someone as Simon mentions at the end of the show but perhaps we'll remedy that next week.

By we I mean Ann and Ste, because Simon's off on holiday now. He'll be back for the OLL wrap party which is tentatively scheduled for the 26th of April in London somewhere (we're seeking a venue, so write in if you can help with that). Ann and Ste will return next Tuesday for the OLL Season 3 Finale with a very special copresenter. Please join us then.

Oh, music: It's quite a musical episode. A Lemmings remix by a friend of a listener, a track from ex-OLL-standards Colon Openbracket, a quick blast of a new CFCF remix (vs Sally Shapiro) and a Mega Man II remix by Johan Agebjorn.

Hey! We have a last.fm group! That's new. Also, please join our Facebook Group and help us push on to the 500 mark by clicking here, or identify yourself as a fan to others on that same site by clicking here. Our MySpace is here -- clicking around our friends list there is a good way to find out about the bands on the show. The OLL forum is here and if you want to email us with letters or things to play you can do so at the address in the show: team at one life left.com.

*Of course it doesn't have the half hour preamble in which we checked the mics, Ann made us drinks and Simon called Simon's sister and talked about celebrity conquests. For that sort of thing you'll have to listen live. Sorry!

Maybe you'll have noticed by now but episode 70 of OLL clocks in at well over 63 minutes. That means it's the longest One Life Left ever, assuming you don't count the Christmas Party which you shouldn't because that was essentially unlistenable, if not literally unbroadcastable.

But despite loosening our belts by five whole percent we still didn't manage to squeeze in all the OLL fatness we'd planned. Sure, we got the features done -- three contributors make the most of their spots in the audio sunlight (can you have audio sunlight?) (no.) -- and the news is there as always. There are more reviews than ever, live section One Listener Left, no obvious libel and another game-person hunting mission. Plus there are two important, exciting event announcements, one of which is revealed below so hey, SPOILER WARNING. You might want to listen and then come back.

Spoiler buffer zone for those slow to decelerate. We missed things! It's such a packed show. Sorry about that. We didn't miss them deliberately. We will carry them over to next week, no worries. If you are expecting a better letters section or the best Ann Fic ever you will have to wait a little while. Oh, and we also didn't mention the very special guest coming to our party.

What party? Well, on April the 26th we'll be doing another One Live Left from a pub in London. There'll be live performances from feature contributors, special guests, prizes, music, booze and dancing. Venue to be announced but it will be brilliant and you should come. More details to follow. See you next week.

Join our Facebook Group and help us push on to the 500 mark by clicking here, or identify yourself as a fan to others on that same site by clicking here. Our MySpace is here -- clicking around our friends list there is a good way to find out about the bands on the show. The OLL forum is here and if you want to email us with letters or things to play you can do so at the address in the show: team at one life left.com.

Those of you who tune in live to the preamble might be surprised to hear that actually, all things considered, OLL is pretty well prepared. We have a list of things that we need to get through and a rough schedule detailing how we're going to do it.

So, everything's in order for One Life Left #69, right? We have the news (check), some reviews (check), features from OLL's beloved contributors (check) including a very special never-before-broadcast snippet from the OLL archives (check). We don't have any letters but we'll do an appearl for some midway through the show and I'm sure that'll work out (check).

We do have some music, though (check). And we have a vague plan to track someone down that may or may not come to fruition (check), we're going to talk to a listener and give away a game, phone one of Eurogamer and we're going to say something so unbelievable and irresponsible in the first ten minutes that we'll need to edit it out in post production (check). Wait, what was that last one?

Never mind, I'm sure it's going to be fine.

Two things for you to do over the next week.

1) Write to us, because our Inbox was pretty empty this week.

2) Partake in Simon's Wikipedia challenge, as revealed halfway through the show.

You could combine them. That would be efficient.

Join our Facebook Group and help us push on to the 500 mark by clicking here, or identify yourself as a fan to others on that same site by clicking here. Our MySpace is here -- clicking around our friends list there is a good way to find out about the bands on the show. The OLL forum is here and if you want to email us with letters or things to play you can do so at the address in the show: team at one life left.com.

Like a perfect adventure game it begins with a quest: a listener who wants us to make something happen. And it finishes with... Well, you'll have to listen, won't you?

But while the narrative road that runs through One Life Left #68 is untested and overgrown with hazardous distractions, the journey still takes us to some familar places. There's the palatial, long-standing Casa Derek, of course; the glorious peaks and gloomy valleys of The Rage; Ray Silvergun's bonsai gardens; and Mount Odds On O'D. That's not an imperative. Please don't try.

There's also Ann's adventuorous news, Simon's adventurous backchat, Ste's 'adventurous' handling of the desk* and a genuinely adventurous guest who tries to avoid talking about some super secret game-related stuff and ends up talking about cocks instead. We'll have more of that sort of thing next week. I mean the game-related stuff. Well, either, really.

What else? Oh, just listen. Incidentally, #68 is the 20th episode in Season 3, which means we're truly on the home straight now. There are four more live 'standard' episodes this season. We'll talk about our plans for after that next week, I think. See you then.

Join our Facebook Group and help us push on to the 500 mark by clicking here, or identify yourself as a fan to others on that same site by clicking here. Our MySpace is here -- clicking around our friends list there is a good way to find out about the bands on the show. The OLL forum is here and if you want to email us with letters or things to play you can do so at the address in the show: team at one life left.com.

Present because there are presents, correct because there were no major sound problems this week. Simple.

So simple and trouble free that there are, for the first time ever, two phone guests. In fact there were four but the other two (Simon’s Mum and another listener) were part of the pre-show preamble which we meander through for about half an hour before we hit 8pm and hit record. That’s right: those 30 minutes are lost forever, except in the heads of the 60-odd privileged listeners who were unfortunate enough to tune in a bit early.

In addition to those guests we have all kinds of minifeatures, some reviews that actually almost touch on being actual reviews, lots of game music remixes (though not, you’ll note, Ann’s idea of remixes), an interview with a band who don’t sound very sure they know what videogames are, and a competition that you’re going to have real difficulty winning. Another reason to listen live if you can.

There is no One Life Left next week. Ste’s off to LA, Simon’s off to see Muse and Ann’s going to cram like she’s in a High School movie montage. We’ll return for episode 20 at 8pm on the 19^th of March refreshed and rejuvenated with at least one announcement. Exciting.

Music in 67: My Brain by Mr Glide, Bootstrap by Pluxus, Candy by God knows who ft. some Japanese girls, Zelda 3: A Link To The Piano by Zoola, and that might be it. Actually I’m not CERTAIN we played the Pluxus track but if we didn’t we intended to and we will soon.

Join our Facebook Group and help us push on to the 500 mark by clicking here, or identify yourself as a fan to others on that same site by clicking here. Our MySpace is here -- clicking around our friends list there is a good way to find out about the bands on the show. The OLL forum is here and if you want to email us with letters or things to play you can do so at the address in the show: team at one life left.com.

Welcome to the severely delayed OLL #66. Delayed because the audio quality within is, uhm, what's the technical term for this? Ruined. Let us say ruined. Because something, some technical thing, went wrong two minutes into the show and we're still not exactly sure what it was. Everything seems to be fine now but we'll need you all to be alert next week if it happens again.

So in many ways this episode is actually worse than last week's test but it could have been worse. It has been lovingly stitched back together by OLL engineer James Scott and we offer our unreserved thanks to him. There are many reasons why you should be grateful too. The majority of those are the features, of course: Craig, Derek, Odds on, Taliah and Ray Silvergun producing spectacular work for our Eurogamer debut. There's also a new feature: One Listener Left, in which you can participate if you listen live during the next show.

That will be on Tuesday at 8pm. There will be preamble* and cake before that from around 7.30pm. Visit the website then for a link to the stream as soon as it goes live. Oh! It's probably wise to point out at this point we will be taking a week off after this in order to (try to) fix the studio problem permanently. Good luck with THAT, Ste.

*Thankfully as listeners were quick to point out all the idiotic nonsense before the show was in perfect quality, leading us to believe that Studio One Life Left is sentient and taking delight in taking the piss.

Music in #66: well, it's mostly fucked, isn't it? But Butterfly Kisses by The Depreciation Guild, Rhona by Acrnym (sic), and Pacman (Glass Cage OC Remix) by Israfel.

Join our Facebook Group and help us push on to the 500 mark by clicking here, or identify yourself as a fan to others on that same site by clicking here. Our MySpace is here -- clicking around our friends list there is a good way to find out about the bands on the show. The OLL forum is here and if you want to email us with letters or things to play you can do so at the address in the show: team at one life left.com.

Usual caveats for an OLL special: this is not a typical One Life Left if such a thing exists, and if this is your first time here you should probably go back a few episodes and start listening there. But if you're a veteran...

Presenting, an unexpected 'treat'as part of the build up to Tuesday's First Show On Eurogamer Radio: The OLL Test Transmission we recorded last week. This was really just meant to be a technical test but we decided the best way to do that was by doing the show exactly as we normally would. So we went onto A Popular Gaming Forum and asked them to help us out by listening. They listened! Sweet!

So yeah, it's quite dodgy at the start because we're still trying to find our way round the revamped Studio OLL (and you'll especially enjoy the major hiccup about 20 minutes in, which I've left in for illustrative purposes). But by the end it's fairly standard OLL stuff, mumbling, rambling and off-track discussion over chiptune music and Ann's disinterest. There's also a new live listener count which we expect to prove invaluable over the next few weeks.

Some notes that I'm not sure we mentioned during the show or that are worth repeating:


* The first proper broadcast is at 8pm on Tuesday. Be there. If you have technical problems let us know and we'll ask our new, awesome off-site engineer Mark.

* We're going to have the mics up during show preparation beforehand (perhaps from as early as 7.30PM). This stuff will not be podcast, obviously. We might have a Skype name for you to call in and say hello.

* Same goes for after the show. So if you want to hear all that you'll have to listen live.

* Podcast details stay the same. You don't have to resubscribe.


That's it. See you on Tuesday!

Music in #x04: Whatever I could find on iTunes in the heat of the moment, so: Sponsored by Destiny by Slagsmalsklubben, Machine by Mark Denardo and about half a second of something suitably overwrought by Desaparecidos.

While you're waiting for Tuesday's premiere, join our Facebook Group and help us push on to the 500 mark by clicking here, or identify yourself as a fan to others on that same site by clicking here. Our MySpace is here -- clicking around our friends list there is a good way to find out about the bands on the show. The OLL forum is here and if you want to email us with letters or things to play you can do so at the address in the show: team at one life left.com.

Is this thing on?

OK. You might think you've guessed the news by now. Listen on, listen on. At least as far as Ann's news, and then read on.

...


So. OLL #65, as well as carrying the weight of The Announcement, has all the stuff you'll have learnt to tolerate in the previous sixty-four episodes. There is A Stoic Lack of Interest with Ann Scantlebury. There is Belligerent Shouting with Simon Byron. And there is Panicked Fumbling with Ste Curran. That last sentence is the newspaper pull-quote on the poster of Ste's life.

There's gossip, a phone guest, a top five and an impromptu apology. There is poetry, brilliant, furious poetry. There the return of the doyouinverts. There is Derek! Derek! Derek! And we have news on Simon's Florida summit with Taliah.

It is One Life Left! There is gaming, content, nonsense and conjecture. But really the episode's all about the announcement and we are so goddamned excited about that that it's difficult to play this piece of text distant and cool.

Clarifications (and spoilers for those who'd rather hear us talk about it on the show first): for you, you right there, you, our favourite, it doesn't mean a great deal of change. In fact it barely means any change at all except that a) we're allowed to eat and drink in the studio again, b) guests get to sit on a couch, and c) FM listeners won't be able to pick up OLL but an awful lot more gamers will.

There are other advantages, too. Not least, and there is a hint of the future here, that the idea of live shows outside of our weekly slot on the schedule is no longer a dumb, unattainable dream. If World War III breaks out in a week's time and we want to tell you something live from the OLL studio we can.

Assuming you're still alive. Is it really broadcasting if there's no-one there to receive?

We will find out.

BROADCASTING DETAILS WILL APPEAR HERE THIS WEEKEND. CHECK BACK ON MONDAY TO FIND OUT WHAT'S GOING ON.

Music in #64: Farfar by Hugg & Pepp (for Simon's reaction), Can't Get You Out Of My Shed by Printed Circuit (for Ann), Kom Igen Komissarian by Slagsmalsklubben (for old time's sake) and The End of Radio by the brilliant, brilliant Shellac.

While you're waiting for our Change, join our Facebook Group and help us push on to the 500 mark by clicking here, or identify yourself as a fan to others on that same site by clicking here. Our MySpace is here -- clicking around our friends list there is a good way to find out about the bands on the show. The OLL forum is here and if you want to email us with letters or things to play you can do so at the address in the show: team at one life left.com.

Can it ever be a good sign when you find the three minute apology backing music just isn't long enough?

In One Life Left #63 we try to make the best of it. Apology One is standard enough stuff, backed by our midi-synth version of Nirvana's Hallmark anthem. Apology Two? That occurs in the letters section where One Life Left responds to its first ever piece of hatemail. And Apology Three is the most special apology of all; so special, in fact, that we bring in a phone guest to help us.

We had to turn down our mics for the second part of the phone conversation because we were giggling. I am not sure that helped the sincerity of the apology. There is a relatively interesting point, slightly preachy point here which will probably make more sense after you've heard the show and the context of the third apology, so feel free to skip the next bit.

-

One Life Left is intended for adults. This isn't necessarily because we behave like adults (like Game Theory) or swear very much (like just about every other game podcast). It's because Simon and I speak from the position of two adults who have played and worked with videogames for twenty years and think they're ridiculous and brilliant and terrible; exactly the same things we think about the industry that pays our wages. So a lot of the stuff that we talk about is a naturally adult videogame fan's perspective, loaded with cynicism but still prone to bouts of childish glee.

So based on that we imagine that the bulk of our audience is in the 20-40 age bracket, as are we. That's backed up by the letters we receive and that's who the show's for. We kind of forget that there are other people out there too, forget that our audience isn't just those who explictly decide to download the podcast but that we're actually broadcasting across the whole of London, live, and forget that we probably should warn people who haven't experienced One Life Left before that:

a) Just because games are often for children doesn't mean a show about games is for children,
c) Children probably shouldn't listen to One Life Left, not least because they'll find it boring
b) We try to behave but sometimes, you know, things happen.

-

Anyway. One Life Left #63, like all the One Life Lefts before it, is almost entirely free of swearing (but not quite) and sort of somewhat free of bawdy humour (but, yeah, not really). It has lots of features, a review of the new Advance Wars where Ste tries very hard to do an ACTUAL review while sorting something out in the studio and some excellent new music. It also has a phone guest, as mentioned. This means we can use the phone and will try and use it at least once a week.

Next week: a very special studio guest, at least one new feature and Ann investigates CFCF's name. See you then.

Oh: while you're listening, join our Facebook Group and help us push up to 400 by clicking here, or identify yourself as a fan to others on that same site by clicking here. Our MySpace is here -- clicking around our friends list there is a good way to find out about the bands on the show. The OLL forum is here (and mostly talking about Advance Wars) and if you want to email us you can do so at the address in the show: team at one life left.com.

Speccy because this week's One Life Left is a Spectrum Special, obviously, but eight eyes? Two eyes per person and none of us are wearing glasses which means this week we have a guest. It's One Life Left's resident expert, Dave Green, and he's here to talk Ann through a bit of gaming history. Enjoy the live loading sounds and try and play with the team as they guess what decades-old televisual delights Dave's brought with him in his big sack of retro.

He genuinely does have a big sack of retro. It took him a while to pack up and he made small talk with the Resonance FM show that follows us which is more than we've every managed. Turns out an expert in everything is an expert in smooth, too.

Sorry for the delay to this week's podcast. Straight after the show Ste went to Milan and left the uploading in Simon's more-than-capable hands. Unfortunately hands aren't enough in the modern age and first computers, then internet connection, then God-knows-what else let him down and led to a four-day-delay. If it happens again you'd do well to check the Facebook (you're a member by now, right? Or are you one of the people who left last week?) or One Life Left's sister blog, The Triforce Dot Com, for further updates.

So, listen, struggle past the slightly slow start and into an hour-and-a-minute of news, reviews, features, nostalgia, anecdotes and circuit bending. While you're listening, join our Facebook Group and make up for the leavers by clicking here, or identify yourself as a fan to others on that same slightly-too-ubiquitous-for-comfort-now site by clicking here. Our MySpace is here and clicking around our friends list there is a good way to find out about the bands on the show. The OLL forum is here (and mostly talking about Advance Wars) and if you want to email us you can do so at the address in the show: team at one life left.com.

Coughing: an action that the body takes to get rid of substances that are irritating the air passages. That's what Wikipedia has to say but, as typical with Thinngs Teenagers Know, it's missing the bigger picture. Let One Life Left help out by providing you with an audio example in episode 61. Coughing: an action that masks juicy bits of gossip, allowing the team to indulge in salacious industry rumour whilst keeping its communal throat clear.

Also Coughing: an action everyone gets to hear when Simon's clearing his throat while the mics are up. Oops.

Hey! Enough of Wikipedia, where the One Life Left hosts' profiles are under threat! Welcome to episode 13 of Season 3. Unlucky for some, in this case anyone expecting an Ann Art this week. There isn't any because Ann 'didn't do it'. We've put that in quotes because it's a quote and Ann's learning to be a journalist, as you'll hear in the first half of the show. Besides, we've got plenty to make up for the missing competition: a new feature, several regulars, news (when do we not have news?), reviews (of a sort), and the ever-excellent letters section marred by our muddling. Oh, and some brilliant new music.

And that's it, I think. Really, you might as well hit play (if you haven't already) and make your own mind up. Though it's probably best if you download the show and put it on your personal MP3 player of choice. Then you can listen to us while you walk around town. Everyone will thing you're listening to something hyper-hip and now and choice but you'll know better. And we have cover art these days and everything.

Tune in next week for a special guest, a one of a kind competition prize, a new feature and -- hopefully -- something new from Ann, if only a feigned interest in our subject matter. See you!

Join our Facebook Group and push us past Resonance FM's membership numbers (again -- we've already passed them once and last week we lost a member OMG OMG) by clicking here, or identify yourself as a fan to others on that same slightly-too-ubiquitous-for-comfort-now site by clicking here. Our MySpace is here and clicking around our friends list there is a good way to find out about the bands on the show. The OLL forum is here (and is increasingly rowdy) and if you want to email us you can do so at the address in the show. Altogether now: team at...

Firstly Happy New Year. Enough smalltalk. This will be quite brief for reasons that will soon be obvious.

The podcast is uploading now. It is late and it is late because the podcast has been, um, in post-production for a little while. We've tried not to edit in Season 3, partially because it's a more honest way of living but mostly because we're lazy. But you will hear the problem a few minutes into the show: we forgot half of our backing music. So I've fixed that now (not disguised it, you'll note) but it's taken a while and here we are.

SO, hearing is believing and the episode you're about to listen to has been DIGITALLY RECREATED for your pleasure as if we were a piece of virtual reality software from the early nineties. That's right: One Life Left is officially both in its time and ahead of its time. We are Pixar, using bleeding edge tech to enhance your entertainment experience. We are idiots, using technology to cover up for our incompetence.

Enough! The Christmas break is over and the team are back, back, back again. And with all that's happened having happened (has anything actually happened?) the gang can't possibly avoid talking about videogames for a full hour, right? So here's what happens. SPOILER WARNINGS: four of the regulars from last year return, as do plenty of in-studio features and lots of unexpected asides. Simon presents Ste with a reading from something unexpected, Ste brings in an unexpected toy, and Ann has unexpectedly played two games. Plus Christmas present chat, lots of letters, competition results, reviews reviews reviews, a couple of new songs and plenty more.

Right. Sorry to those who listened live. In another way you're tremendously lucky because you got OLL acoustic. See you next week.

Join our Facebook Group and push us past Resonance FM's membership numbers (again -- we've already passed them once) by clicking here, or identify yourself as a fan to others on that same slightly-too-ubiquitous-for-comfort-now site by clicking here. Our MySpace is here and clicking around our friends list there is a good way to find out about the bands on the show. The OLL forum is here (now populated by users with festive names) and if you want to email us you can do so at the address in the show. Altogether now: team at...

As you might have guessed by now (and those tuning into Resonance on the 23rd will have surmised) our One Life Left Christmas party it was literally unbroadcastable in the end. Fear not! We're sticking it here for you, essentially unedited. Because we said we would.

But why was the show literally unbroadcastable? Well, two reasons, really:

1) Technical!

Actually, thanks to our amazing on-site engineers Martin (whose voice is the first you hear after Ste's apology) and James we managed to overcome most of the problems. If it wasn't for them there wouldn't be anything for us to apologise for. In a good way, because we wouldn't have recorded anything more than the sound of The One Life Left Team sobbing into booze as our best-laid plans collapsed in front of literally dozens of listeners.

Still, despite their best efforts (and because of our dodgy technology) the audio quality here is poor.

Most of the show, particularly the news section, ended up masked by an irritating whine from somewhere in our hastily-rigged system of wires and pulleys. The magic of post-processing has reduced it in most places and all but eliminated it in others, but you'll notice some fluctuations in our voices. There's also some stop-startyness (technical term) mostly confined the song judging part, which is down to some kind of minidisc jutter as far as I can make out.

The most major problem, though, is that the minidisc recorder we were using is super-sensitive; despite our best efforts in pre-show fiddling the volume from our mics peaked throughout and so the show remains cursed with that hideous crackle the moment mics 1 and 2 go above whisper. Since mic 1 is the overly excitable-Ste and mic 2 is the mostly boistrous Simon... Well. You get used to it but it isn't exactly pleasant. Forewarned.

2) Performance-based!

We had an amazing time that afternoon and the atmosphere in the podcast reflects that. Will that raucous humour translate to people who weren't there? Hmm. There are certainly some brilliant bits -- if you find the whole thing too annoying at least skip forward to Craig 'The Rage''s live poetry, make sure you hear Ann's filthy fiction and yeah, you'll be hearing more clips from Derek Williams' four-song set in future OLL's -- but you may find the rest of it leaves you feeling like you're... Well, on the outside of a party looking in. Which you are.

Have I set your expectations low enough yet? It's not ALL bad. But for the technical issues someone better than us at audio editing could probably make an hour of typical OLL-standard radio out of this. Pad it out with music a bit, drop in a few of the pre-recorded features. Actually, probably by taking the 8-bit Peoples back catalogue, copying it over us in Audacity and then deleting our bit entirely. But regardless there's SOMETHING here, if only proof the event actually happened and encouragement for you to come to the next one. So do that. We have plans but we'll talk about them when we make our return for real. See you in January.

Join our Facebook Group and push us past Resonance FM's membership numbers by clicking here, or identify yourself as a fan to others on that same definitely-too-ubiquitous-for-comfort-now site by clicking here. Our MySpace is here and clicking around our friends list there is a good way to find out about the bands on the show. The OLL forum is here (now populated by users with festive names) and if you want to email us you can do so at the address in the show. Altogether now: team at...

It's Christmas Time / There's no need to be afraid. Because Simon isn't here. Why? It doesn't matter. We can't answer questions about oft-inexplicable disappearences of One Life Left staff and family members. No, I'm not sure you understand that statement. We literally can't.

However explanations are completely unnecessary in this instance because the One Life Left Team is bolstered by the entirely explicable arrival of Tom Bramwell from Eurogamer! In a break with OLL's rudest convention he's allowed to contribute almost from the very start, i.e. to the news which is something of a relief as it gives Ste more time to play around with buttons so he can miscue jingles. It also actually adds some, you know, news analysis to the news section.

That's the weirdest thing about OLL59. We talk about videogames! I mean, often it's kind of accidental but Tom keeps drawing us back in -- Guitar Hero, Aquaria, why he's decided to hate Rockstar's Table Tennis without actually playing it. Even Ann take a more forthright and less disinterested role in the actual, you know, videogame bits of the show (and there are some this week). She even goes so far as to ask Tom some actual game-related questions, AND talks about a moment where she considered buying a game on a whim. Go Ann! In another 60 hours she'll be bitching about Smash Brothers mediocrity with the best of us.

The team -- all three of them, promise -- will be back in January. Subscribers (via iTunes or RSS) should expect a festive gift around about the 23rd, assuming it's broadcastable. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We'll see you in 2008.


Join our Facebook Group and push us past Resonance FM's membership numbers by clicking here, or identify yourself as a fan to others on that same slightly-too-ubiquitous-for-comfort-now site by clicking here. Our MySpace is here and clicking around our friends list there is a good way to find out about the bands on the show. The OLL forum is here (now populated by users with festive names) and if you want to email us you can do so at the address in the show. Altogether now: team at...

Hello, welcome to - NO DON'T TOUCH THAT - to One Life Left, Europe's only - THAT'S MY EMAIL ACCOUNT STOP READING IT - videogame radio sho - LEAVE ANN ALONE -- radio show broadcasting on -- SIMON JUST... Oh. The End.

That's right. Goaded by a google (is that our collective noun? Email in please) of One Life Left listeners addressing things to the team 'and Simon', OLL's firey co-presenter is off the rails in OLL #58. And as much as it SOUNDS like the team are generally fractious and flirtatious here the issue came to the fore in the five minutes before the show started. See, Ste asked Simon to watch his levels. As in the levels on the desk which measure how loudly he's going off the rails.

Which means Simon spends the whole show shouting and interrupting and watching his levels, Ste spends the whole show stumbling through half-finished anecdotes all the time feeling he's picking his way down rainbow road and only delaying the moment he plumments, and Ann bats her eyelids a little, smiles so sweetly and considers the ways she could murder a man.

Still, Levelator's hopefully flattened the thing out a bit which means if you can pick your way through the mumbling and amateurish form you'll find Craig 'The Rage''s best poem ever, Taliah, Derek, plenty of letters, the four entries to OLL's PixelH8 competition and much, much more.

Most important thing to remember this week: it's the One Life Left Christmas Party on Saturday so do try and make it -- details on the Facebook but essentially The Blue Posts on Rupert St, Soho, London from 1pm to until we pass out.

That's it. See you in a week for the very last OLL of 2007 (festively broadcastable events not withstanding).

Join our Facebook Group for reasons discussed in this episode by clicking here, or identify yourself as a fan to others on that same slightly-too-ubiquitous-for-comfort-now site by clicking here. Our MySpace is here (poor old MySpace: once it seemed like the world would be theirs, but now it is the new Friendster, which makes Friendster the new actually-meeting-people, which is just so over). The OLL forum is here and if you want to email us you can do so at this address.

There's an informal code of conduct amongst the One Life Left Team to try and avoid doing anything on Tuesday evenings. So Ste's cancelled his weekly buff'n'tuff session at the gym, Ann no longer goes pole dancing at the gym or elsewhere and when Simon needs to break the legs of a games reviewer he makes sure to keep it to a weekend. It's recreation, after all. Essentially a sport.

But sometimes the unavoidable happens and Ste's at the mini-GDC in Lyon right now which means OLL #57 comes to you live (pre-recorded) from the One Life Left bunker, deep in the heart of West London. Recorded over a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon and pieced together over another dozen on Sunday, this is a bitty, peculiar edition of Europe's favourite (only) videogame radio show. It's not the episode you'd take out to meet your friends and family, to prepare them for our long life together. Sorry about that.

All that said it retains the easily imitated essence of One Life Left, notably reviews, news, features and music and lots and lots of inane chat. Actually at one point the chat gets dangerously close to non-inane (ane?) as the chaps discuss GamespotGerstmannGate and Ann sits quietly looping her headphone cable like the special girl she is. But don't worry. Before and after that we're gossiping with initials, doing DS magic tricks and making improptu phonecalls to our favourite PC gamer.

Music, magic, and music as magic. What more could you want?

Notes and queries: A broken cable meant we had to record in mono and several of the features were pasted in afterwards so please excuse the slightly confused reactions in some sections. We'd have apologised for this but when we tried the backing music was so peculiar it was literally unbroadcastable.

In fact the audio levels were messed up throughout the show BUT we've used something called Levelator to even it out. If the whole thing sounds dodgy it's because of that. If it sounds better it's because of that. I know for sure it's louder than usual.

Oh, and I had to cut out eight minutes across the hour so it'd fit in Resonance's broadcast slot. There is an unedited version that'll go on the DVD when we're super famous.

Join our Facebook Group for reasons discussed in this episode by clicking here, or identify yourself as a fan to others on that same slightly-too-ubiquitous-for-comfort-now site by clicking here. Our MySpace is here (poor old MySpace: once it seemed like the world would be theirs, but now it is the new Friendster, which makes Friendster the new actually-meeting-people, which is just so over). The OLL forum is here and if you want to email us you can do so at this address.