One Life Left

Last updated
One Life Left
Olllogo.jpg
Other namesOLL
Genre Video gaming
Running time60 minutes
Country of origin United Kingdom
Home station Resonance FM
Hosted by Ste Curran
Simon Byron
Ann Scantlebury
Original release2006 – present
No. of series8
No. of episodes194 (as of 28 January 2013)
Website http://www.onelifeleft.com/
Podcast http://onelifeleft.libsyn.com/rss

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.

Contents

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]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music video game</span> Video game genre

A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs. Music video games may take a variety of forms and are often grouped with puzzle games due to their common use of "rhythmically generated puzzles".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Bacon (broadcaster)</span> English television and radio presenter

Richard Paul Bacon is an English television and radio presenter. He has worked on television shows including Blue Peter, The Big Breakfast, Good Morning Britain, and on radio stations including Capital FM, Xfm London and BBC Radio Five Live. In 2016, Bacon became the presenter of The National Geographic Channel's reboot of its documentary and panel discussion TV series, Explorer.

<i>Edge</i> (magazine) UK video game magazine

Edge is a multi-format video game magazine published by Future plc. It is a UK-based magazine and publishes 13 issues annually. The magazine was launched by Steve Jarratt. It has also released foreign editions in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

<i>Computer and Video Games</i> UK magazine and website

Computer and Video Games was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website was launched in 1999 and closed in February 2015. CVG was the longest-running video game media brand in the world.

<i>1Up Network</i> American entertainment network

1Up.com was an American entertainment website that focused on video games. Launched in 2003, 1Up.com provided its own original features, news stories, game reviews, and video interviews, and also featured comprehensive PC-focused content. Like a print magazine, 1Up.com also hosted special week-long online cover stories that presented each day a new in-depth feature story, interview with the developers, game screenshot gallery, game video footage, and video of the game studio and creators. On February 21, 2013, Ziff Davis announced it would be winding down the site, along with sister sites GameSpy and UGO.com.

<i>BloodSpell</i>

BloodSpell is a 2006 fantasy film produced by Strange Company. BloodSpell employs filming techniques known as machinima, and is the first feature-length production to use BioWare's Aurora Engine, developed for the role-playing video game Neverwinter Nights, to generate the video portion of the film. The film was serially released in short episodes under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License, which allows for redistribution, modification, and creation of fan fiction. Strange Company have asserted somewhat controversially that, as of 2006, BloodSpell, was the largest machinima production. The series features numerous cameo appearances, including several voice appearances from science fiction author Charles Stross.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aleks Krotoski</span> American broadcaster, journalist and social psychologist

Aleksandra Krystyna Theresa Krotoski is a broadcaster, journalist and social psychologist based in the United States who writes and broadcasts about social aspects of technology and interactivity. She currently presents the BBC Radio 4 series The Digital Human.

The 2000s was the fourth decade of the video game industry. It was a decade that was primarily dominated by Sony, Nintendo, newcomer Microsoft, and their respective systems. Sega, being Nintendo's main rival in the 1980s and 1990s, left the console market in 2002 in favor of returning to third-party development, as they once were. Overall the decade saw the last of the low resolution three-dimensional polygons of the 1990s with the emergence of high definition games, and often focused on developing immersive and interactive environments, implementing realistic physics, and improving artificial intelligence. The sixth and seventh generation of video game consoles went on sale, including the PlayStation 2, Wii, Xbox, PlayStation 3, Game Boy Advance and Xbox 360. Notable games released in the 2000s included Half-Life 2, Wii Sports, Grand Theft Auto III, The Sims, Ikaruga, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Super Mario Galaxy, the Halo trilogy, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Secondfest is a music festival which takes place in the Second Life virtual world. Unlike other musical performances on the web which provide audio through individual web pages for listeners to enjoy by themselves, Secondfest offers an on-line community the ability to experience entertainment together, in a large virtual space.

GameCity is an independent organisation based in Nottingham, UK, which has worked since 2006 with the support of Nottingham Trent University to bring videogames to the widest possible audiences. This has been done through an annual GameCity Festival, described as the "Sundance of the video games world", the GameCity Prize since 2011, and the National Videogame Arcade since 2015. Each year, GameCity hosts talks and presentations from individuals and companies working in the games industry.

<i>Playing Columbine</i> 2008 American film

Playing Columbine is a 2008 American documentary film produced and edited by American independent filmmaker Danny Ledonne. The film follows the video game Super Columbine Massacre RPG! in which players experience the Columbine High School massacre through the eyes of the murderers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.

<i>Destructoid</i> Video game news website

Destructoid is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017, and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022.

<i>Crimeface</i> 2008 British film

Crimeface is an online interactive film thriller / police procedural released in 2008, and directed by Krishna Stott.

<i>Little Atoms</i> Science website, podcast, and magazine

Little Atoms is a website, podcast and magazine dedicated to ideas and culture. The radio show broadcast weekly from London on Resonance FM 104.4. It is hosted by Neil Denny. The website is edited by Padraig Reidy. The first edition of Little Atoms magazine launched in November 2015.

<i>The Virtual Revolution</i> British TV series or programme

The Virtual Revolution is a British television documentary series and interactive web experience presented by Aleks Krotoski, which began airing on BBC Two on 30 January 2010. A co-production between the BBC and the Open University, the series looks at the impact the World Wide Web has had since its inception 20 years ago. The series took a different approach to BBC documentary making by encouraging an open and collaborative production.

<i>Pocket Gamer</i> Website and magazine focused on mobile, portable, and handheld video games

Pocket Gamer is a video game website that focuses on mobile, portable and handheld games. The site launched in 2005 and is published and owned by UK company Steel Media Ltd. The site covers all major portable and mobile gaming formats, including iPhone, iPod, iPad, MacBook, Pokémon go plus watch and others. And including iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Android, Nintendo Switch and others. It was one of the first to cover the iPhone gaming market. The publication also hands out awards for handheld games to recognize them in several categories. The British newspaper The Guardian at one time syndicated a list of recommended mobile games from Pocket Gamer, especially the list of recommended games for each month. In the years since launch, Steel Media Ltd has created many brand spin-offs, including the industry-facing PocketGamer.biz site and a series of conferences called Pocket Gamer Connects.

<i>VG247</i> Video game blog

VG247 is a video game blog published in the United Kingdom, founded in February 2008 by industry veteran Patrick Garratt. In 2009, CNET ranked it as the third best gaming blog in the world.

<i>Polygon</i> (website) Video game website

Polygon is an American entertainment website that publishes blogs, reviews, guides, videos, and news primarily covering video games, as well as movies, comics, television and books. At its October 2012 launch as Vox Media's third property, Polygon sought to distinguish itself from competitors by focusing on the stories of the people behind the games instead of the games themselves. It also produced long-form magazine-style feature articles, invested in video content, and chose to let their review scores be updated as the game changed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kinda Funny</span> Online entertainment company

Kinda Funny is an online entertainment company that produces videos and podcasts on video game culture, film, television, and comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Kate Dale</span> British video game journalist and author

Laura Kate Dale is an English video game journalist, author and activist. She is known for writing about the transgender and autism communities in relation to video games and for her video game industry leaks. Many of her topics tackle accessibility for disabled players and LGBTQ+ representation.

References

  1. 1 2 "One Life Left presents Music To Play Games By". Music 4 Games. 2008-12-02. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
  2. 1 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". MCV. 15 May 2019.
  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.