onelifeleft's Podcast

One Life Left -- s03e24 -- #72 -- Any Other Business

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:50:00 GMT

Itâs 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. Itâs a departure from our previous (unwritten) agendas which, for Simon at least, mostly involve swearing and libel. But Simon isnât here. In his place, no-longer-a-mystery-guest Jonathan Smith, who calms Annâs nerves with a steely gaze and fearless hands. That will make more sense after youâve 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 werenât 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. Weâve had a few problems with the desk today, to the extent that for a couple of hours it looked like the show wasnât going to happen. Weâre going to refit studio OLL shortly. Weâre looking for way to fund that. Weâre thinking of selling t-shirts! Or Annâs hair.

And thatâs 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. Weâll see you soon, we hope â 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. Weâll 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.

One Life Left -- s03e23 -- #71 -- Telephonic Spree

Tue, 8 Apr 2008 23:49:00 GMT

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!

One Life Left -- s03e22 -- #70 -- Event Horizon

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 01:05:00 GMT

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.

One Life Left -- s03e21 -- #69 -- Mistakes and Regrets

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:57:00 GMT

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.

One Life Left -- s03e20 -- #68 -- Dolled Up

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:17:00 GMT

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.

One Life Left -- s03e19 -- #67 -- Present and Correct

Wed, 5 Mar 2008 00:55:00 GMT

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 (Simonâs 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. Thatâs 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, youâll note, Annâs idea of remixes), an interview with a band who donât sound very sure they know what videogames are, and a competition that youâre going to have real difficulty winning. Another reason to listen live if you can.

There is no One Life Left next week. Steâs off to LA, Simonâs off to see Muse and Annâs going to cram like sheâs in a High School movie montage. Weâll 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 Iâm not CERTAIN we played the Pluxus track but if we didnât 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.

One Life Left -- s03e18 -- #66 -- Fuzzy Logic

Sun, 2 Mar 2008 15:02:00 GMT

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.

One Life Left -- x04 -- Eurogamer Test Transmission -- Can You Hear Me Now?

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 20:12:00 GMT

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.

One Life Left -- s03e17 -- #65 -- The End of Radio

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:07:00 GMT

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.

One Life Left -- s03e16 -- #64 -- Out of Memory

Fri, 8 Feb 2008 02:15:00 GMT

The newly 64-bit OLL celebrates with another late episode and a slightly reformatted cast. Simon's gone to charm the ageless Taliah out of premature retirement so Tom Eurogamer returns for a triumphant second appearance on One Life Left, all the more triumphant because he's tag-teaming with Ellie Gibson! Ellie brings the funny remarks, Tom brings the videogame knowledge. In that sense it's just like having Simon in the studio, except with fewer moments involving inappropriate touching.

Consequently OLL #64 is a little less unruly (unexpectedly) brimming with videogame chat, including discussions about what it means to give a game 10/10, how you deal with feisty comments on the internet and even an EXCLUSIVE REVIEW OF THE NEW TOMB RAIDER GAME THAT NO-ONE HAS PLAYED YET. If we had a magazine we would put that on the cover, and then put a silver bag around the cover and put it on the silver bag too. We don't. We have a radio show! And it also includes news stolen from around the internet, features, reader letters / contributions and game-related music (though ann calls into question the validity of one of the songs; judge for yourself here).

So sorry for the slight delay but you'll see why it happened about 60 seconds in. If you want to know exactly what happened you can read about it here at OLL's sister blog (it's usually a good idea to check there if there's been a delay to the podcast; either there or on our Facebook).

Simon will be back next week for a very special episode that'll include a huge One Life Left announcement. If you've ever considered listening live on the Resonance 104.4FM website episode 65 is the one you should try. Exciting times. See you on Tuesday.

Music in #64: Tetris Piano Concerto in A minor by Jeremy Robson, Wizball Transformation by ocean, You Take My Breath Away by The Knife, Game Over by The Lost Levels, and the music from Area 1 / Earth in Rez.

Still here? Make yourself useful and 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.

One Life Left -- s03e15 -- #63 -- The Hardest Word

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:54:00 GMT

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.

One Life Left -- s03e14 -- #62 -- Speccy Eight Eyes

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 18:55:00 GMT

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.

One Life Left -- s03e13 -- #61 -- Hot Coughy

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:49:00 GMT

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...

One Life Left -- s03e12 -- #60 -- Hearing is Believing

Wed, 9 Jan 2008 01:38:00 GMT

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...

One Life Left -- x03 -- Christmas Special '07 -- Festively Unbroadcastable

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 22:01:00 GMT

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...

One Life Left -- s03e11 -- #59 -- Stay

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:54:00 GMT

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...

One Life Left -- s03e10 -- #58 -- Gin and Juice

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 01:28:00 GMT

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.

One Life Left -- s03e09 -- #57 -- Just Like That

Mon, 3 Dec 2007 02:51:00 GMT

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.

One Life Left -- s03e08 -- #56 -- Softcore Romance

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:30:00 GMT

Remember the announcement we promised to make last week and then didn't? The one we said we'd make this week if you read the descriptions, which I assume you do because you're reading this? Well get this: we actually make that announcement this week. It is awesome and concerns how you can participate in a festive One Live Left (sic). Just as awesome is that we remembered to tell you that, and not just that. We remembered to tell you everything.

That's right. Everything. For the first time in Season 3 every single thing we promise both to you and to ourselves actually happens. It's all here, from the announcements we need to make, the jingles we're meant to play and the musical discs we've decided to spin right through to playing every single feature we've got scribbled down in front of us on the running order. We even remember to run a hugely special competition in addition to the rollover Ann Art (that's always special, of course). We almost don't remember to do a Top 5 but Ste pushes it through. And Ann remembers to put her top back on at the end of the show. J/K LOL.

So. What does One Life Left make of the Jade Raymond 'thing'? Find out here. Could people care less that Nintendo have been slagged off by Greenpeace? Find out here. What is the actual difference between the two classical categories of pornography? Find out here. Can Ann play Fur Elise on a Nintendo SP? Find out here. And which apparently-gone ex-contributor makes their unexpected reappearance in episode 56? Find. Out. Here.

Enjoy. The flash player should be back and working this week. Letters on a biblical theme (or whatever, really) to the usual address. Those of you who follow the instructions in the episode should expect some kind of missive on Friday.

If all goes to plan next week's episode will be a special recorded from the OLL bunker so if you've got anything you think we should deal with or apologise for make sure to let us know before we do that, i.e. before Saturday at 2pm. If all doesn't go to plan Simon and Ann will be doing a Ste-less show live next Tuesday as he will be at GDC in Lyon. Bonne chance, Team.

Join our Facebook Group for reasons revealed in the 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).

Music in #56: Virt -- Across Rooftops , Pixelh8 -- Girl Fight and Beats for Beginners -- Lazer Beams For Eyes (Beats vs ZZZ Remix) (and the regular awesome contributions from Iain Cook, Simon Parkin, thedoyouinverts, Uglifruit, Nick Parton and The Lost Levels).

One Life Left -- s03e07 -- #55 -- Poorly Performed

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:38:00 GMT

In One Life Left's experience* there are three sorts of letters that come in card-backed brown paper envelopes.

1) Signed contracts from the BBC offering million pounds to transfer our special brand of broadcast magic to Radio 4,

2) Legal threats from easily offended games industry professionals who we might have erm accidentally defamed or you know whatever,

3) Glossy, black and white spy photos of the team being touched in and / or touching at least four separate places.

Imagine the rush when we arrived at the studio to find a brown, card-backed envelope waiting for us. Real post! Addressed to us c/o Resonance! Without us ever giving out the address! This could be great! Or terrible!

Experience the thrill with us as we bite our lips and open it live on air.

Oh yeah, there's other stuff that's actually games-related too. For example, Dan Griliopoulos, Reviews Editor at Official Xbox Magazine as recently as last week and now A Free Man, breaks his monastic silence on the things that matter. Like how you really pronounce Koch, whether Mass Effect is just one long corridor after another, and what happens when games journalists stop journalising.

Actually, it's something of a reviews special this week as we cover Call of Duty 3, Super Mario Galaxy, that new Metroid one on the Wii which one would assume is exactly like every other 3D Metroid game ie a lifetime of scanning, Zoo Tycoon on the DS (?!) and whatever Ann's been playing. Ann? Ann?

Oh whatever. Ignore her, ane enjoy the two comebacks from people you might have thought gone forever, and the moment when finally, finally, we get someone on the phone.

Important things we forgot to do across the hour of :

1) The Jade Raymond thing. We'll do that next week.

2) The Facebook 'secret' thing. We will probably just announce this on Facebook this week even though we forgot to trail it. But we'll talk about it next week for sure.

3) A 'write to us about this' for the letters section. Jesus Christ, it's not rocket science. Next week, next week.

4) Credit the music. It was CFCF's remix of Justice's D.A.N.C.E. and 6955's awesome 'Museum'.

Thanks for listening. Join us next week for more things we haven't really thought through, including attempted Skype-with-a-Developer nonsense and a non-Ann-art related competition and ANOTHER feature resurrection. See you!

* Imagination

Sort of handy links:
One Life Left Facebook Group
One Life Left Myspace
One Life Left Forum
And email us at team@onelifeleft.com about anything, really.

If Ste sounds angry it's because he had a terrible sandwich in Costa before the show. If Ann sounds angry it's because she's trying to work out what 'bitchkrieg' means. If Simon sounds angry it's because Ste is gesturing. Levels are a bit all over the place again this week, apologies for that.

One Life Left -- s03e06 -- #54 -- Keith and The Girl

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:54:00 GMT

First things first. As mentioned last episode, the One Life Left team is a (wo?)man down in #54. Don't let that put you off. Why?

Bang! A more-than-capable, super hot OLL Substitute who once almost KILLED Simon!

Zip! An interview with new game superstar Keith Chegwin!

Kapow! Exclusive videogame gossip, exclusive to our exclusive show. Exclusively!

Ka-ching! David McCarthy's Reviewing Masterclass continues to blow the secrets behind games reviewing wide open!

Whoosh! Ann visits the Sex Pistols!

Etc! Brilliant music, awesome news, amazing features, acceptable letters, ill-considered competitions and a very special review!

Of course, there's lots more inside the podcast for you to discover. So much so that we actually ended up with three things we didn't play this week because we didn't have time. It'd be a bit of a waste to slot them into the podcast so they'll be part of next week's show.

Which will therefore include the return of two amazing features, our continued attempts to get a guest on the phone, a sweet competition prize and we imagine not a single word about Super Mario Galaxy. We'll all be sick of it by then, right?

Right?

Right?

See you in a week.

Extra links:

Facebook (the race to 300 -- and to exceed our host station's total -- is ON)
Weird Facebook 'Company' thing (it puts an OLL badge on your profile!!!!!!)
MySpace (we really need to update this, don't we? Be our friend anyway)
Forum (for sarcastic game discussion and barely related)
Email Us (with whatever's on your mind -- suggest a theme for thee week after next's letters section)

Tasks:

Tell your friends. Tell your forums. Tell the world. Thank you.

One Life Left -- s03e05 -- #53 -- Take Two

Wed, 7 Nov 2007 01:22:00 GMT

We'll be honest because hey, we're 53 episodes in and we think we've known you long enough to trust you, to call you a friend: you almost didn't get to hear this episode. At 9.05pm on Tuesday the 6th November the OLL team found itself in Trouble and the sort of Trouble which gets a capital to distinguish it from the kind of trouble when Simon tricks Ann into saying rude words. Yes, this was Trouble: One Life Left's precious, intricately constructed show was fast disintegrating in the turbulent wake of the previous studio occupants. Who were still around. And didn't seem in any hurry to leave.

Why wouldn't they leave? Why was the studio covered in lager and wires and coats and... tissues? Why were there tissues on the floor? It wasn't really The Team's fault, not this time, but it was six minutes, seven minutes, eight minutes past nine and things were going badly. Really badly. By nine minutes past they'd degenerated. Broken equipment, curious lights blinking on and off, level needles dancing as if posessed and headphones that didn't so much add clarity as obscure what little sound we were generating. Simon had already uttered the word we've heard too many times already, the word no-one wants to hear -- unbroadcastable -- but we were broadcasting, Oh God we were already broadcasting.

The only thing to do? Take a breath, apologise to the live audience and reboot, reset, restart. You are listening to Resonance 104.4FM. It's... Just after ten past nine. And that means it's time for One Life Left.

Wake up, wake up, podcast listners! It was all just a bad dream, those bad things never happened, those bad people were never here and this is One Life Left, rattled but reinvigorated. News, features, music, bad jokes and bickering. The results and restart of Ann Art. David McCarthy helpfully provides some instructions for would-be games reviewers. Derek, faithful Derek gives us his Firework Market Economy and there's a tribute poem to much-missed Craig 'The Rage' McClellan. Oh, and we get round to reviewing some videogames in an actual reviews section this week, although we're really mostly distracted by repeated attempts to Skype with Broken Sword creator Charles Cecil (we'll pick this up next week).

Apologies once again to those who endured the first ten minutes live. If you were being extremely charitable you could called it 'Exclusive material' and claim it had been 'Released to dedicated live as a show of gratitude'. Actually it was doe-eyed terror reflected in the headlights of an SUV driven by the spirts of selfishness and incompetence. You almost didn't hear this episode. Still more apologies in advance to those of you who'll wish you hadn't. We'll be back to normal (?) in #54, except with one of the team missing for the first time in Season 3. Who? Tune in in a week to find out and enjoy their temporary replacement (though I wouldn't exactly recommend you listen live).

Other things we need to say:

Join our Facebook and help push us up past 200 users and beyond.
Be so 2006 and friend us on Myspace (and look at our friends who are mostly chiptune music)
Look out for Ann at the Sex Pistols press conference
Chat on the OLL forum
Email us, email us, email us
Link us from other places if you can -- your journal, your blog, your favourite forum
Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via the RSS feed
OLL Christmas announcement coming soon...

One Life Left -- s03e04 -- #52 -- SafeSearch Off

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 00:17:00 GMT

Celebrity is a curse: just ask Keeley Hazell, the Page 3 stunnah hired to front (lol) EA's Simpsons game at the London Games Festival. Work's exhausting when you have to keep your top on, which is why One Life Left operates a clothing-optional policy inside the studio; after all, there's precious little chance to catch your breath when you're Europe's only videogame radio show. The One Life Left private jet (the tube) taxis in to the most glamorous part of the capital (London Bridge station) and the team saunter (stumble) into Resonance FM's state-of-the-art studio. They're fresh (?!) from performing One Live Left at Nottingham Gamecity, ready (!!) to deliver a third show in just over a week. Let's see how Ann's news (!!!?!?!?!) stands up to the strain, shall we?

Also: letters, reviews (singular), music, the Top Five (now with its own theme), informal Page 3 gossip, and Odds On OD on the brink. Plus the last ever Craig 'The Rage' McClellan -- at least for now. Oh, and bonus instructions for all our regular Google Image Searchers on how to find a new picture of Ann on the internet. You'll have to listen for that.

If you were lucky enough to hear this episode live when it was originally broadcast you'll have heard Experience Points and Ann Fiction in the left channel only which, as Simon pointed out at the time, is a bit like having the girls lean in and whisper in your ear. It's fixed now but you might notice some glitching, which is a lot like having me fumble around with dodgy audio connections near your ear. Sorry.

Also a bonus Free Market Economy which was missing from the Resonance transmission because of British broadcasting regulations concerning taste and decency*.

If you enjoy One Life Left please tell your friends, your family, your favourite forums. Join our facebook: we're raising a private army and it's going pretty well. But most of all email us to let us know. We thrive on attention, because that's how celebrity works. Just ask Keeley Hazell.

*Because of a bad CD burn. Sorry Derek!

One Life Left -- s03e03 -- #51 -- Nothing Like Tempest

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:07:00 GMT

There is a legend that states that should One Life Left ever produce a radio show that is less professional than the last then the house of Scantlebury will fall. Itâs half eleven on Tuesday night, just after Episode 3 of Season 3 and as far as we know sheâs fine â sheâd text if she wasnât, wouldnât she? â so letâs assume weâve continued our slow tramp up the quality mountain and made some definite improvements. In order:

1) A new âCorrections and Clarificationsâ section designed for us to make amends to you, the listener, for all our lies and half-truths. Please use responsibly.

2) Live gossip from the videogame BAFTAS, text-messaged in from an insider spy

3) Another astonishing secret expert guest who comes with his own theme tune. In all caps: who PLAYS HIS OWN THEME TUNE LIVE.

4) A competition! An actual competition! To win exclusive Ann memorabilia!

5) Intermittent (and unnecessary) barracking of both Jeff Minter and The Hoosiers

6) A curiously-enraged Derek Williams

7) The podcast appearing a record 116 minutes after broadcast.

Plus all the usual stuff: music, letters, inside jokes and highly regarded (or at least regarded) features.

Thanks to Kotaku and The Guardian for the coverage this week. If you have any more places you think OLL should be, please do us the grandest of favours and let them know (and then let us know that they know). Itâs always lovely to hear from you about anything else, too. You should know the email address by now.

What else? This Thursday is OLLâs very special* appearance at Nottingham Gamecity. We have no idea what thatâs going to be like but please, come and say hi and enjoy a drink with us afterwards. Friday is the OLL affiliated curry-evening and Saturday is Steâs talk about his Mum. Sunday weâre doing Handheld of a sort at the London Games Fringe thing at 333; more info on that in the show youâre no doubt already subscribed to.

Subscribers may get a secret gift later in the week. Weâre not sure yet.

Weâll be adding pictures to our Facebook group later this week (Annâs in charge) so if you havenât joined that maybe you should. Our MySpace friends page is a good place to find all that music that Simon hates so much. And the One Life Left Forum has lots of people talking about videogame pants and much more besides. See you there.

One Life Left -- s03e02 -- #50 -- Three Separate Places

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 22:18:00 GMT

It's Episode 50!

Already?

Episode 50!

Where does the time go?

Episode 50!

It seems like only yesterday etc. and so on.

Episode 50. A half century of episodes. If you have made it this far, well done. If you are new, well. Good luck. We'll make it through this together.

Because this is One Life Left and that is how we do things: together, through thick and thin, audio shambles and occasionally otherwise. Episode 50! Or by another way of counting the second episode of series three and we're already into the swing of things with news, music, letters and gossip-based coverage of the Games Media Awards. OLL was nominated, remember! Did we win? Find out inside, where old features return, new features continue and the One Life Left crew stumble through their fiftieth hour of radio nonsense.

Oh! And a very, very special studio guest completes the lineup.

So download, please enjoy, keep listening (subscribe at iTunes to make us especially happy) and email us to let us know your thoughts. Oh, and we would totally appreciate it if you tell a friend or your favourite forum. See you next week.

One Life Left -- s03e01 -- #49 -- Back, Back, Back

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:26:00 GMT

We're back. Oh, how we're back.

How are we back? With a new studio, a new series, a new (post-watershed!) timeslot, and a newly-rejuvenated team back from holidays all over the world and ready for a fresh, super professional start. You'd hope so, at least. In reality we're the same as ever, working with unnervingly unfamilar equipment and full of the giggles. We'll calm down. Well, again, you'd hope so. We are the only videogame show in Europe in the world, after all. Citation needed.

Still, listen: there's new game music and new game jokes and new game features, with more to come over the next few weeks. We're newly award-nominated, too. The only thing we're really lacking is new news. If you want to point Ann in the direction of some, do email her.

We also have a new producer. He is called Robin. If you hear us talking about Robin, that is who we are talking about. We miss and love Patrick and Kristin but they are dead now.

(They are not dead.)

Some minor housekeeping. Shows from this point in will be broadcast wholly unedited. We have a brilliant new solid-state recording device that allows us to do that quickly and easily, so what you hear in this MP3 is exactly what went out at 9pm on Tuesday on London's Resonance FM to the delight / consternation / confusion of literally dozens of listeners.

We need letters for next week. Please email us at the address in the show or with the contact form on this site and say hi. Also: we haven't issued any press releases about the relaunch yet but if you want to tell people about us please do. We'd quite like Season 3 to hit #1 on iTunes again so we can talk about how we hit #1 on iTunes again.

Expect more exciting One Life Left developments over the next few weeks. And don't miss us at Nottingham Game City -- we'll be doing another live broadcast from there, just like the brilliant one we did at Develop except for hopefully literally broadcastable.

One Life Left 48 - 07/07/07

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 23:46:00 GMT

London's under attack and the OLL team have gone into high alert: welcome to the One Life Left Bunker for this very special show recorded on Saturday 7th July 2007.

It's not just the ever-present threat of terrorism that's driven the team underground. Resonance FM is currently moving studio and we're officially on a break which means this is the very first non-broadcast OLL, recorded away from the sweet, helpful hands of their awesome engineers. We hope to get better at the whole 'traditional' podcast thing but it might take us a while. We won't be back on FM until August so until then you're stuck with shows like this one: some features, some guests, but mostly just us giggling about the ridiculous nature of the videogame industry and all who profit from her.

Try and enjoy, then. It might feel like the longest hour of your life, but it's not -- it's actually the longest hour and ten minutes of your life.

Apologies for the tardiness, too. Lack of an in-house engineer (we miss you, Kristin and Patrick) meant some serious audio post production was required. You can blame sound level / quality issues on that. Incompetence issues, as ever, are entirely our own.

The One Life Left Facebook Group
One Life Left's MySpace
One Life Left's Forum
One Life Left's Website
Email us!

Oh, and enter the competition. The Develop conference will be excellent. Join us / support us / drink with us. See you!

One Life Left 47 - 02/07/07

Tue, 3 Jul 2007 12:35:00 GMT

After the real-time / no-features experiment of One Life Left #46, OLL #47 brings back the preparation. Free Market Economy is back! Odds On is back! Guests are back! Inappropriate laughter and somewhat offensive use of language, more clumsy than calculated if we're being honest, are back back back!

And Ann isn't. Listen to the recap at the start to find out why, and then listen a bit more to find out about her replacement. And then keep listening right until the bitter, bitter end because, hey, that's what real friends do, right? We'd listen to your show.

Fine. If that isn't reason enough, listen to the end because OLL #47 is your opportunity to win two passes to the Develop Conference in Brighton where you can see, amongst lots of awesome other things, One Life Left broadcast live. This is a big deal, the biggest prize we've ever given away, and you should definitely enter. If only because judging by the previous competitions we've run you'll probably win.

Next week: Another very special guest (CONFIRMED), at least four more features (CONFIRMED) and more nonsense tenuously related to videogames and the ridiculous industry that creates them (SPECULATIVE, BUT PROBABLE).

Email us at team@onelifeleft.com if you want to write us a letter for OLL #48 or use the contact form on the site. Confessions of gaming crimes in particular, please.

Links:
One Life Left Facebook Group
One Life Left Myspace
One Life Left Forum
8bitpeoples
Overclocked Remix
The full, unedited version of Traveller
Scope
Ofcom

One Life Left 46 - 25/06/07

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 23:56:00 GMT

So, One Life Left #46, then. Itâs always difficult to know exactly who to address the apology to. I mean, some of you are so new. So hi! And sorry.

For what? Well, if you werenât so new and youâd heard One Life Left last summer youâd know thatâs when we went OFF THE RAILS, and then maybe like OFF A CLIFF where we like CRASHED AND BURNED or something. Season two grew like a Deku tree from our compacted ashes and thatâs where we are now, approaching episode fifty and going off the rails all over again.

It is summer, after all.

More pertinently, Resonance FM is the process of dismantling their studio to move somewhere else and everythingâs in chaos. Weâre fairly confident weâll have somewhere to broadcast from while weâre semi-homeless (studio OLL, for a start), and we do have some things planned (see the announcements part of the show, if you can find it) and weâll try different things like todayâs REAL-TIME experiment. But the essence is that right now weâre reluctant to get all of our contributors involved until August when we re-relaunch.

So weâre in a sort of rambling, ramshackle holding pattern at the moment, and One Life Left is that moment when the plane banks again and you hold your breath and wonder if it isnât going to give up on the illusion of flight and come crashing down with a metal sigh of inevitability. Please try to enjoy our airy circles, and do contribute to the show in any way you see fit. I understand after this evening that may mean turning up at the studio and demanding we be hauled off air. The address is on the Resonance FM website.

(But really, please do write us letters / suggestions / etc. in the meantime: team@onelifeleft.com. It is always a pleasure.)

One Life Left 45 - 18/06/07

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:35:00 GMT

On the evening of Monday 19th of June, Resonance FM dutifuly fulfilled its arts council remit by broadcasting the live sounds of a garden shed. Hundreds of thousands of listeners across London wondered to themselves how on Earth the ground-breaking station could follow that. They soon found out: with One Life Left! And an hour of music, features, jokes and partially coherent videogame commentary that's often barely related to videogames at all.

So here's the show, unedited for inappropriateness and exactly as it went out, and here's a guide to some in jokes: the corpsing laughter midway through the Top 5 comes because we heard the production team laugh through the glass screen that seperates us, and the terror and stumbling at the Hong Kong dog reference comes because of something we genuinely can't talk about but precision googling might reveal.

Want to be involved in One Life Left #46? Fancy producing some jingles for various bits of the show? Want to write us a letter (about anything -- though we're currently actively soliciting criminal gaming stories and Xbox Live Lonely Hearts)? Do email us: team@onelifeleft.com, or through the contact form on the site. See you soon.

One Life Left 44 - 11/06/07

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 00:57:00 GMT

Hot on the heels of One Life Left 43, One Life Left 44 brings you all the latest videogame news, nonsense and personal anecdotes. Are Nintendo games for kids? How did Odds On get his voice? Do the Japanese celebrate Christmas? Can you believe we asked that question? Can you believe we didn't answer? Are we being ironic? Do we even know anymore? Jesus Christ; just one of several religious icons whose names are taken in vain this week.

Tune into One Life Left 45 for a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT. Maybe two! Although you might have to call in to remind me to make them because I've forgotten to say things two weeks in a row, now. Want to contribute? Email team @ onelifeleft.com and talk to us.

Thanks to the OLL listeners who caught the 64kbps stream. Our quest for a reliable, hi-fidelity way of recording in the studio continues. I'm thinking of bringing a dictaphone next week.

One Life Left 43 - 21/05/07

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 00:22:00 GMT

Wait. Shh. What's that sound? It's so, so familiar. It's the 128kpbs fuzz of videogame-related radio. It's the hiss and crackle that means more news than ever, a brand new reviewing superstar and a new direction for an old favourite. It's One! Life! Left!

And it's a normal show, on time, right here. Listen and enjoy. Feedback, letters and other contributions to the usual address, or visit the website: www.onelifeleft.com.

Oh! It wouldn't be OLL without a caveat: describing the noise we generate as fuzz is particularly accurate this time because the quality of this recording is poor. We have a better copy on Minidisc but, thanks to a rubbish cable sold by a terrible electronics store, currently lack a way of getting it onto PC. If anyone knows a cheap MP3 recorder we can use to record the show in the studio, do let us know.

One Life Left 42 - 21/05/07

Tue, 29 May 2007 13:25:00 GMT

Doing a show immediately after three days at ATP is always tough. Doing a show with a man down, a broken CD player and a work experience girl in the studio is for the truly hardcore. Enjoy One Life Left: Hyper Fighting Masochist's Edition.

This is One Life Left from the 21st of May, edited at the newly-fashioned Studio OLL to include a bonus preamble explaining our downtime. We'll be back next week with a regenerated show and a new lineup. Why? Listen.

Want to help out with OLL #43 or just to write to us? Send stuff for the show to team@onelifeleft, or go to the contact section at www.onelifeleft.com.

One Life Left 41 - 14/05/07

Tue, 15 May 2007 17:58:00 GMT

Do we still have to announce new features, or have you all complacently come to expect them?

Check out Curran's Affairs, David McCarthy's new direction and an entirely spontaneous offering only on One Life Left 41.

Oh, and we made a band.

Want to help out with OLL #42? Send us stuff for the show to team@onelifeleft, or go to the contact section at www.onelifeleft.com.

One Life Left 40 - 07/05/07 - Fixed

Thu, 10 May 2007 15:26:00 GMT

The full version of episode 40.

Sorry everyone.

Sorry we're late (although it wasn't our fault), sorry the sound quality isn't as good as usual (not our fault) and sorry that the show, now it's here, is so awesome that your commute to work will go really quickly and you'll be bringing the man his tea and pipe before you've had a chance to think (our fault.

Also, we're not sorry.

Also, we're aware not all of you work as butlers/faithful dogs.)

Apologies done. Let's party!

Want to help out with OLL #41? Send us stuff for the show to team@onelifeleft, or go to the contact section at www.onelifeleft.com.

One Life Left 39 - 30/04/07

Tue, 1 May 2007 10:21:00 GMT

Yay! The gang is back together. Hear them giggle, weep and yawn their way through this week's gaming news for the first time in ages.

Plus: Features! Music! Competitions!

Want to help out with OLL #40? Send us stuff for the show to team@onelifeleft, or go to the contact section at www.onelifeleft.com.

One Lfe Left 38.1 - 23/04/07

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 09:33:00 GMT

Robert's back from Japan but due to Resonance's funding crisis, the studio is unable to contain him.

This very special mini episode is brought to you by the letters 'i' and 'diot' and by the number 'exhaustion'.

Want to help out with OLL #39? Send us stuff for the show to team@onelifeleft, or go to the contact section at www.onelifeleft.com.

One Life Left 38 - 16/04/07

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 11:58:00 GMT

Following its unexpected Easter hiatus Resonance FM's bestest videogames show is back, back, back! Well, Scanters and Curran are; no Robert 'extended sabbatical' Howells this week, but as Seen On TV's Simon Byron smoothly slips into Baby H's co-presenting hotseat.

Business as usual, then, assuming the usual is AMAZING: news and chat from the team, features including Raina Lee and Craig 'The Rage' McClelland, game music, letters, competitions and a very special studio guest. Want to help out with OLL #39? Send us stuff for the show to team@onelifeleft, or go to the contact section at www.onelifeleft.com.

One Life Left 37.1 - 09/04/07

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 10:48:00 GMT

Last-minute Easter schedule changes at Resonance FM mean there's no One Life Left this week. By way of apology Scanters and Curran offer you some audible ideas / instructions for the week ahead. Consider it an easter egg hunt of sorts: how many tasks can you tick off before we return next week? Email team@onelifeleft and let us know -- show your working and we'll sort out some kind of One Life Left prize for the best entry / entries.

One Life Left 37 - 02/04/07

Mon, 2 Apr 2007 21:23:00 GMT

No videogames this week, just an hour of barking like dogs.

April fool!

Actually there's loads of videogames coverage, including a new Second Life feature and the return of all your usual favourites. And no barking like dogs.

April fool!

There's some barking like dogs.

Download below or subscribe for free on iTunes music store, keywords 'one life left'.

One Life Left 36 - 26/03/07

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 12:46:00 GMT

"Be the block"

We've all heard those words.

Today we are honoured to have Professor Hans Blauchs joining us from the Tetris Institute. Blauchs' work on Tetris as an art is some of the most respected in the industry. Join us as we discuss his work, his new book and he answers some of our questions about what, to him, is much more than a game about falling blocks.

Download below or subscribe for free on iTunes music store, keywords 'one life left'.

One Life Left 35 - 19/03/07

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:59:00 GMT

From death's door the OLL heroes bring you am hour of videogame joy. All the usual features plus two - yes, two - new ones. I don't know how they manage it.

Download below or subscribe for free on iTunes music store, keywords 'one life left'.

One Life Left 34 - 12/03/07

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 11:45:00 GMT

One solid hour of videogames hootmongering, stylin' and profilin' with the One Life Left boys and sweet Miss Annie Scants.

Plus:

Tom Clancy's big guns!
Rapping!
A quiz!

Download below or subscribe for free on iTunes music store, keywords 'one life left'.

One Life Left 33 - 05/03/07

Tue, 6 Mar 2007 09:57:00 GMT

Another strong show covering the Kotaku/Sony breakup, GTA IV, Crackdown, Ghost Recon 2, time travel and telephones.

Feedback? Want to try your luck at the auctions? www.onelifeleft.com

Download below or subscribe for free on iTunes music store, keywords 'one life left'.

One Life Left 32 - 26/02/07

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 09:16:00 GMT

The PS3 is bad. Or is it? Or is that Nintendo? All this and more is left unanswered in our news section.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy XII, Crackdown and Unspecified Picross Game make up the reviews, Snacman makes Vice City Glories, Ann 'vestigates' yoga and Richard and Judy are hung out to dry by the square eagle eyes of Simon Byron.

Feedback? Want to try your luck at the auctions? www.onelifeleft.com

Download below or subscribe for free on iTunes music store, keywords 'one life left'.