One Life Left

One Life Left is Europe's first and only dedicated videogames FM radio show.[1][2] It is presented by Ste Curran, Simon Byron and Ann Scantlebury. Earlier host Robert Howells stopped appearing on the show, to be later replaced by Simon. It includes news, reviews, features, competitions and a weekly studio guest. One Life Left is broadcast on Resonance FM, a London community radio station at 19:00 every Monday, and is available as a podcast.

One Life Left
Other namesOLL
GenreVideo gaming
Running time60 minutes
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Home stationResonance FM
Hosted bySte Curran
Simon Byron
Ann Scantlebury
Original release2006 – present
No. of series8
No. of episodes194 (as of 28 January 2013)
Websitehttp://www.onelifeleft.com/
Podcasthttp://onelifeleft.libsyn.com/rss

Guests and features

One Life Left is presented in a magazine style, with guests and features. Guests have included industry figures such as Jon Hare, Charles Cecil, Paul Rose[3] and comedian and presenter Joe Cornish. Features range from comedy sketches (for example, Craig 'The Rage' McClelland's video game poetry and Ms. Snac-Man's "gaming recipes") to views from the industry (for example, Derek Williams' Free Market Economy, from the perspective of a market stall owner) and game reviews (for example Talia Reviews Nintendo Games Because They Are For Kids). The show briefly featured a segment by Ariel Angelotti during her tenure at Q Games, which highlighted Japanese development culture and popular Japanese phrases.

Since 2009, the show has featured contributions from "Dr. Avatar" who presents an Accident & Emergency segment highlighting the misfortune of classic video game characters. Other additions to the complement of features have been Science Officer's Log which parodies the gaming trope of recorded audio logs, and Lonely Hearts by Cara Ellison which involves the generation of dating website profiles for famous game characters.

One Life Left has also recorded from the Develop Conference and Expo.[4] In 2010, they hosted One Laugh Left as part of Nottingham Gamecity 5.[5] This was billed as a night of stand up comedy about video gaming and included turns from each of the three presenters.

Critical reaction

The video games website Kotaku considered One Life Left to be "a sweet blend of light-hearted discussion, music, interviews and ridiculous features", pointing out its uniqueness in gaming and in radio.[6] Guardian Unlimited's Aleks Krotoski and Keith Stuart have both commented on the quality of the show's podcasts.[7][8]

One Life Left was nominated for the "Best Games Podcast" category both the 2007 and 2008 Games Media Awards,[9] and in 2009, won the GMA "Best Podcast/Broadcast" award.[10]

One Life Left was considered one of the ten best podcasts by thelondonpaper.[11]

Music to Play Games By

In December 2008, One Life Left released Music to Play Games By, a compilation CD of music inspired by video games. It was arranged by Simon Parkin and produced by Andrew Smillie. The album covers various videogame themes and styles,[1] and has been described as "chip-indie".[2] Kotaku considered the album to be an excellent collection of "chiptunes, remixes, even normal songs that are just written about games."[12]

References
  1. "One Life Left presents Music To Play Games By". Music 4 Games. 2008-12-02. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
  2. Keith Stuart (3 December 2008). "Music to play games by..." Guardian.co.uk. London. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
  3. "How Do I Be Goro?". Mr Biffo's Blog. Archived from the original on 2006-10-31. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
  4. French, Michael. "One Life Left steps out in Brighton". developmag.com. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
  5. "Gamecity One Laugh Left".
  6. Plunkett, Luke. "One Life, Many Podcasts Left". kotaku.com. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
  7. Krotoski, Aleks (2007-03-09). "One Life Left podcast". London: Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
  8. Stuart, Keith (2007-10-23). "One Life Left and the art of videogame podcasting". London: Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 2009-08-17. I like One Life Left, because it has character, it is sometimes rude about games and gaming in general and doesn't feature presenters that indulge in thirty minute monotone diatribes about minor control issues or small areas of disappointing deathmatch level designs.
  9. "Games Media Awards finalists announced". MCV. Archived from the original on 2007-09-13. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
  10. "GMAs 2009: One Life Left named Best Games Broadcast".
  11. Holland, Jessica (28 July 2009). "The 10 best podcasts". thelondonpaper. Archived from the original on 31 July 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-04.
  12. Luke Plunkett (December 3, 2008). "Excellent Radio Show Releases Excellent Games Music CD". Kotaku. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
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