One Life Left

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 be...

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, son...

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...

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...

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 plan...

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 (chec...

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; th...

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:...

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 epi...

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 mea...

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. An...

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...

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 del...

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 r...

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 in...

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 engin...

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 entirel...

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 th...

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 t...

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...

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...

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 c...

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 Troubl...

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 p...

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. It’s half eleven on Tuesday night, just after Episode 3 of Season 3 and as far as we know she’s fine – she’d text if she wasn’t, wouldn’t she? – so let’s assume we’ve continued our slow tramp up the quality mountain and made some definit...