One Life Left's Podcast

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 el

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 dele

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

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 i

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 straigh

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

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 websit

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 whi

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

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). I

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 a

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

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,

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 sys

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 le

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

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

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 reme

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 pron