One Life Left's Podcast

No prizes for naming this week's guest after the first, ooh, three words of the show. No prizes for working out what's up with Ann's voice, either, particularly if you've been reading our blog. And, if you were lucky enough to attend the GMAs last Thursday, no prizes for guessing what most of this week's apology section concerns. Uh oh, it's OLL #79: the post-party regret.But the show isn't just about red faces, recollection immediately followed by regret. There's also the bits in between, the features and news and jingles and stuff. You know, the good stuff: Craig 'The Rage' McClellan takes on the Nintendo DS, Taliah looks at Ridge Racer and Mathew Kumar recalls Seaman on the Dreamcast.And, midway through, just after the letters section and essentially out of nowhere, we announce OLL's next public gathering and invite you all. We'll do a proper blog about that this week but for now please accept our audio invite. You should come. It promises to be awesome. There might even be prizes.We also play some astonis

We've never been afraid of tempting fate -- would we self-herald as Britain's favourite videogame radio show if we were? -- but the news we received this morning might make a weaker team opt for humility and caution over bravado in the future. Still, we wouldn't be One Life Left if we weren't big-mouthed idiots so please enjoy our 78th hour of published regret.Inside you'll find, amongst other joys, the return of our gambling contributor Odds On O'D and a brand new doyouinverts track inspired by one of One Life Left's favourite websites. There's also five pieces of expertly-stolen gaming news, some new music and Ste talks about how he went to Tokyo by mentioning SHIBUYA a lot. Also apologies. Genuine apologies.Please write to us. You'll note midway through the show we make a plea for your help. We will replace that plea later in the week so keep reading for an update on that. For now, enjoy our hour and keep your fingers crossed for us on Thursday. Music in #78: Sonic the Hedgehog Metamorphic Rock by Darkeswo

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In which Simon assumes control of the One Life Left radio bus, Ste cowers in the front seat and peers between his fingers, and Ann makes out with boys on the back seat. Welcome to #76, in which three important announcements are made. We’ll blog them in detail later in the week but I don’t think it’s a spoiler to those announcements concern: i)                    The WINNER of One Life Left’s most popular competition ever, to name a Beer at Nottingham Game City ii)                  One Life Left’s amazing, unique, ill-advised event at Nottingham Game City iii)                Ste’s absence next week. Which is why Simon’s driving this week. To learn, you know. It wouldn’t be One Life Left if the preparation wasn’t ill-considered and last-minute. To alleviate the pressure / add to the complexity, we have a guest for the first time in Season 4. Ellie “Gibbo” Gibson returns to the airwaves to amuse, entertain and talk about videogames. We are lucky to have her. We (abruptly) we

Yo, gaming tough guys the broadcast / podcast world over, know this: One Life Left has never been afraid of making enemies. Our independence allows us that freedom. We can say what we want about whoever we want and still be sure we'll continue to not receive free things in the post (please send us free things in the post). We're a videogame show with principles. Our main principle is that because we don't have the opportunity to sell out you can be sure that we haven't.So yeah, we're tough. Last week on the blog, though, we chose to pick on the wrong people. We stepped outside our videogame comfort zone and chose to pick on men with bikes. And this week, The Bike Show acted exactly how you might imagine The Bike Show would: with grace and humour, inviting us on to the last five minutes of their (professionally produced, diligently prepared, also podcast) show. You join us just after our unexpected backie, three presenters giddy from a magical bike ride through Resonance FM.So, allow us a moment to calm down a

A rambling preamble in lieu of the one that we can't do now we're back on Resonance: You know, knowing your own mind isn't as easy as it sounds. You need to know something about everything. But there are lots of everythings in the world and you're expected to have something to say about them all. Sometimes you already hold an opinion on something, sometimes the opinion you hold emerges when you begin to speak and sometimes you arrive at the point where you need to have an opinion and you're still none the wiser on what that opinion should be. Like, for example, when you're considering second hand games, or zoo animals, or whether you should go to the park alone.ENOUGH. Features, music, news, gossip, nonsense, regret, vague attempts to get listeners arrested. The second episode of series two was plagued by technical problems most of which have mysteriously vanished for the podcast. If you are that hot for awkward silences, miscued tracks and giggles I suggest you tune in for the live broadcast (7pm, Monday eve

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,