And finally, after procrastinating A LOT, I present to you my Yunmeng Shuangjie fanmix!
I do truly hope you enjoy! And as in ye olden days, I will include under cut the lyrics that reminded me of them! But in the meantime you can listen to the playlist here:
TRACKLIST:
1 - Regina Spektor - Call them brothers
That's it, it's split - it won't recover
Just frame the halves and call them brothers
Find your fathers and your mothers
If you remember who they are
2 - Kodaline - Brother
If I was dying on my knees
You would be the one to rescue me
And if you were drowned at sea
I'd give you my lungs so you could breathe
3 - Imagine Dragons - I bet my life
Now remember when I told you
That's the last you'll see of me?
Remember when I broke you down to tears?
(Woo-oooo-ooh, I bet, I bet my life)
I know I took the path
That you would never want for me
I gave you hell through all the years
4 - Alkaline Trio - I found a way
I found away over the fear and through the flames
I'm diving in, don't follow me
Stay right here, I'll be back for you someday
I found away, it'd be best if you just stayed
It's not safe, don't follow me
I found away, I found away
5 - Spineshank - Beginning of the end
The irritation we're pretending not to show
Has replaced the motivation that I had not long ago
[…]
Interrogation has replaced the trust we had
Your misguided accusations helping me to turn my back
6 - P!nk - So what
What if this song's on the radio?
Then somebody's gonna die
I'm gonna get in trouble
My ex'll start a fight
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na, he's gonna start a fight (Huh)
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na, we're all gonna get in a fight
7 - Of monsters and men - Hunger
And for the longest time I knew, there was nothing left for us to do
But I tried, oh, I try
And in this quiet company, there is nothing staring back at me
I'm in need of a sound
8 - Linea 77 - The sharp sound of blades
The sharp sound of blades
The deep wounds of hate
My fingers tap on the wall
The silent mess of your thoughts
How long can it take ?
How long before we break
The fragile truce that will bring
This bleeding love to the dawn?
9 - Tiromancino - Due destini
Perché siamo due destini che si uniscono
Stretti in un istante solo
Che segnano un percorso profondissimo dentro di loro
Superando quegli ostacoli
Se la vita ci confonde
Solo per cercare di essere migliori
Per guardare ancora fuori
Per non sentirci soli
Translation:
Because we are two destinies that unite together
Closed in a single moment
That marks a path deep within them
Overcoming these obstacles
Whether life confuses us
Just to try to be better
To still look outside
To not feel alone
10 - Subsonica - Nuvole Rapide
Su tutto ciò che ora parla di noi:
Rabbia, illusioni e speranze che so
Detonazioni di un attimo che
Passerà
E rimarrà forse il vuoto di noi
A disarmare I rimpianti che so
Per ricordarci in un attimo che
Passerà
Translation:
On everything that now talks about us
Anger, illusions and hopes I am aware of
Detonations of a moment that
It will pass
And perhaps the void of us will remain
To disarm the regrets I am aware of
To remember us in a moment that
It will pass
11 - Gotye ft. Kimbra - Somebody that I used to know
But you didn't have to cut me off;
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger, and that feels so rough
12 - Tiromancino - Amore impossibile
È amore impossibile quello che mi chiedi
Sentire ciò che tu sola senti e vedere ciò che vedi
Chiudere la realtà dentro la tua isola
Ma non perdere la voglia di volare
Perché l'amore è amore impossibile
Quando non riesce a inseguire, è irraggiungibile
Senso di libertà, oltre le stelle e il cielo
Che è nascosto sul fondo dell'anima
Translation:
it's an impossible love what you're asking for,
to hear what you alone can hear,
and see what only you see
Shutting reality in your island
and yet not losing the will to fly
because this love is an impossible love
when it can't chase it is unreachable
A sense of freedom, beyond the stars and the sky,
that is hidden at the bottom of the soul
13 - AFI - Bleed black
(If you listen) Listen, listen
(Listen close) Beat by beat
(You can hear when the heart stops) I saved the pieces
(When it broke) And ground them all to dust
I know what died that night, it can never be brought back to life
Once again, I know
14 - Noir Désir - Le vent nous portera
Ce parfum de nos années mortes
Ceux qui peuvent frapper à ta porte
Infinité de destins
On en pose un, qu'est-ce qu'on en retient?
Le vent l'emportera
Translation:
This scent of our dead years
Those that can knock on your door
Infinity of destinies
We put one down, what do we hold on to?
The wind will carry it away
15 - Green Day - 21 guns
Do you know what's worth fightin' for
When it's not worth dyin' for?
Does it take your breath away
And you feel yourself suffocatin'?
Does the pain weigh out the pride
And you look for a place to hide?
Did someone break your heart inside?
You're in ruins
I made a fanmade episode soundtrack based off monkey wrench!! Come check it out on youtube!
This is not official music! This is inspired off of zeurelart indie series and the original composer ockeroid
I think an underappreciated aspect of Tour's city track design is their atmosphere. They don't just tour recognisable landmarks in a believable layout, they really capture the city's character! From New York's dazzling nightlife to LA's casual appeal, Singapore's extreme extravagance to Sydney's energetic simplicity, Vancouver's splashes of colour and natural beauty, Amsterdam's effortless harmony with canals and nature alike, Rome's ancient architecture with comfortable life on top, Madrid's modern bustle with impressive history underneath, Athens' proud (and hilly) past and Bangkok's humble yet hopeful future, and Berlin's seamless integration of all eras: they're all accurate as far as I can surmise. There's only a few that I think don't quite hit the mark. Paris’ modernity is smothered in quaint romanticism, though what else could one expect, Tokyo has little of its maximalist flair, but perhaps the graphics limited that, and then… London.
I'm certainly biased, it being my home country and the only city on the list I've seen for more than a day, but it seems to only hit the beats of its most recognisable icons: laudably no doubt, but the city isn't just its imposing imperial riches! What strikes me about London is its fast-paced mishmash of cultures that fill in all the gaps between the great British statements like water running over cobbled streets: history and novelty around every corner! The course gives me the impression of the former but not the latter.
I'm not sure I'm qualified to rectify this, but I can make up for it with another English icon! My hometown has its history, but not enough to base a tour around. My current homestead, however, is undeniably culturally significant, and it's not just that. I hope I did well to convey the place as storied and not just interesting, but inviting, a genuinely fun place to stay for a day or a year. That's how I feel about it at least.
HERE WE GO
1: Our foray begins on the left side of the picturesque High Street, between Queen’s College and the Examination Schools. It’s a noticeably wide street (and a noticeably wide gothic limestone starting gate with a waving chequered flag to boot), with a cobbled dividing strip, and plenty of buses to crowd the way! As the road narrows and items are collected, there’s a right turn into the Covered Market, which has three narrow lanes to choose from, and a few opportunities to weave between.
Out of the market is a sharp right turn down a walled alley, with the lovely Exeter and Lincoln colleges adjoining. This is before a huge 180 turn with another item set around the Radcliffe Camera, an impressive dome in the middle of a big communal square. Having lost its fence, at that, so if you’ve got a mushroom and are prepared to miss out on items, the shortcut is worth it! Racers continue north past All Souls College and the Bodleian Library to reach the roundabout connecting Broad Street and Holywell Street. Remember the Bridge of Sighs to your right.
The route continues up Parks Road, a leafy avenue with plenty of boost panels, before splitting around Keble College! If you continue straight forwards, you get an easy wide road, and a view of both the Natural History Museum and University Parks. However, if you take that subtle sharp left, you can find a potentially faster cut-through that’s a bit tougher to navigate. I didn’t even have to design this one!
Both options reconvene at the apex of St Giles, where a patch of off-road leads to an optional ramp, and the road broadens to quite a degree, leaving room for a ridiculous row of coins. The abbreviated straight ends at the Martyr’s Memorial, which now has just a humble patch of grass behind it instead of an entire church, just to improve the flow.
A quick left turn introduces Broad Street, which, you guessed it, also widens out, somewhat narrowed by some of the city’s numerous bike racks. However, this one has its right half covered in short wooden ramps, for the first half! These can be useful for some trick boosts, but more coins lay the other way. Items are given at the halfway point. Before reaching the roundabout at the end, there is a conspicuous diversion past the Sheldonian Theatre (which has no fence, to make way for the race) and through the library complex towards the Bridge of Sighs. Racers may either run straight through the gate (tricking as they go) or take the grated glider ramps to make it over the bridge!
The return to the start line via New College Lane and Queen’s Lane is a winding, narrow path, walled in by the historic namesake colleges. You’ll have to forgive them for not having karts running through their grounds. Nonetheless, navigate those chicanes and a final left turn (with a sneaky cut over the pavement) brings you back to the line. It’s a long one alright!
2: As in track 1, we begin on the High Street, though this time we forge ahead past the Covered Market, the traffic turning off before the Carfax Tower, until the course swerves into the Westgate Centre. In a strikingly similar manner to Coconut Mall, the route has two walkways either side of an optional drop with escalators, before a right turn into a more open area where the drop and escalators are forced. I swear it’s coincidental! The decor is distinct at least.
After grabbing items wherever you may encounter them, exit the mall via another sharp right turn onto open road. Make use of its breadth before you have to navigate the Castle & Prison, which is exactly what it sounds like! A couple of narrow turns later, there is a brief anti-grav uphill to wind up the Castle Mound to a big glider ramp, from which one must avoid the dreaming spires of Nuffield College and St Peter’s College some random church, or grab some of the revolving coins if you’re daring…
Though you could just drop onto the street, the Ashmolean’s grand ionic forum is a perfect landing place, where one can drift around to jump down the stairs and find themselves heading onto Broad Street once again! This time, the route heads past the theatre and turns at the roundabout, so the other lot of ramps, this time occupying the left half, can be made useful. The lap ends the way you’d expect after turning at the roundabout.
3: Unlike both 2 and 1, we start our race on Cornmarket Street (under a long hanging sign of oil paints on wood, the closest I can get to putting a pub in a kids’ game), a place I would be remiss not to include, along with its clutter of bicycle parking. If there’s one thing you notice about transit in Oxford, it’s how many bicycles are in the way. However, if you can dodge around the racks, you may find some coins or even dash panels…
Anyway, Cornmarket is a simple, if not uninterrupted, straight, which racers take south, spying once again the Carfax Tower and then the Town Hall and impressive Christ Church. You know, the big one. The road continues down St Aldates with all its traffic, but soon turns left through the open gates of Christ Church Meadow! The next half of the lap takes place in greener pastures, first down a puddle-ridden southward straightaway with sparse items and Moo Moos spectating, then when the course meets the Thames and Folly Bridge, a more wide open snaking route with grass shortcuts abound! The riverside path remains intact, but still off-road.
After doing this eastward a while, the course drastically narrows as it winds its way northward strictly following the meanders of the Cherwell. Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from driving through the river itself, but the bumpy terrain and drag force balances any advantage of breadth. A wiser path is found by jumping onto a series of punts, which can be quite hard to aim for, but offer a trick each time. They’re not hard to come by in Oxford. This continues all the way to the Botanic Gardens, which can themselves be snuck through via a gap in the fence. Those wishing for a complete row of item boxes and, of course, the exquisite surroundings, can find themselves jumping over the pond in the south section before reaching the north, where a quick right around the fountain directs you between the greenhouses to reenter the river. The river, of course, does continue past the gardens, but who would want to miss out? Especially when that part of the bed gets so muddy…
When you’ve finally made it to Magdalen Bridge, you need only drive under it to find a wide slope up to the roundabout, which is drifted around before crossing the bridge to witness the lovely Magdalen Tower! We then cross the line - the line from the other versions, that is - before sneaking past the University Church to reach the road past the Radcliffe Camera. The Bodleian Library can now be dashed through for a guaranteed double box, if you can find the narrow entry! The rest is obvious: take Broad Street one last time, westward now, to reach the top of Cornmarket Street.
So how might these all fit together if they were given the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe treatment? Honestly, probably better than the individual courses! Lap 1 takes version 1, of course, but stops short of Broad Street, instead cutting through via Cornmarket to start lap 2, with version 2 taking over by way of a right turn at Carfax Tower. Lap 3 simply commences from the High Street and doesn’t bother with the whole Broad Street diversion: we’ve already seen it!
Oh right, I also made the music for it! You'll have to forgive Musescore's playback engine, they try, bless 'em.
It too had to be truly emblematic of Oxford, and besides the obvious historical, academic, fancy vibes, no sound reminds me more of this place than the echoing of church bells! And there are choirs in every college. So I ended up with a rather baroque piece, arpeggiated bass, change ringing, suspensions and all, which certainly suits the locale, but does NOT typically suit Mario Kart's encouraging energy. Heck, they almost always rely on synths, too, let alone their melody-first composition style that is entirely unfamiliar. How did I fit the mould? By focusing on intensity of Biblical proportions! If there's one thing choirs and organs can do, it's a ramp-up of DRAMA. With enough build and release, it's got the natural energy. Slap on a drum-beat and it ends up shockingly fitting. With all the zero inspiration I had to go on, I seriously surprised myself with this one. Judge for yourself!
Oxford is quite a convenient place to work with: most cities are so massive that you have to smush all the landmarks together and the layout doesn’t quite come naturally. But this place is already so compact, and packed with unmistakable buildings! Also, I know they’re trying to be flattering, but can you believe London saw not a drop of rain?! I think Oxford should be partially cloudy by contrast, providing a gentle rainfall, but with enough streams of sunlight to pierce the depressing grey… it could make the meadow look positively angelic!
Perhaps one day I’ll try my hand at Hong Kong Hustle to address Tokyo’s plight… or Shanghai Streets, I can’t decide! And then there’s one that is so easy to make that it’d be kind of funny just to do for the sake of it. We’ll see.
If anyone wants to take the names Rio de Janeiro Jaunt, New Delhi Journey, Moscow Scoot, Stockholm Swing, Cairo Cruise, Geneva Chase, or best of all, Brussels Bout, be my guest. And if any modders feel like 3d-modelling most of Oxford for me, I would love to give it a look :D
For Lore, if you’re interested- the game is a F A S T FPS shooter where you play as a Robot that feeds on blood, and has to invade Hell to get it. The Archangel Gabriel is there. He says Fuck. Also, God is AWOL.
Fun stuff.
Thoughts?
You can't say to me "Jesus as schrodinger's Christ" and don't elaborate what does that mean?? Like he is both the son of god and not??? Janusfranc Fifteen share your thoughts.
Also ty for the song recommendation I'm checking it now and it sounds SICK. Puto temazo as we say in Spain. I love it.
I suck at FPS shooters, the only one I played like that is Mass Effect for the story, in the easiest difficulty and instead of shooting I just punched people 🙈
My hyperfixation came back and here I am updating my SD playlist - the other ones were a bit old :D
In any case, here I am! With a new playlist!
TRACKLIST:
Placebo - Every you every me
Of Verona - Breathe
Blanco, Mahmood - Brividi
Ben Woodward - Say my name
Samuele Bersani - Spaccacuore
Louis Garrel - J'ai cru entendre
OneRepublic - Stop and stare
Marina Rei - Il giorno della mia festa
Florence + the Machine - No light no light
Hoobastank - Crawling in the dark
Death Cab For Cutie - Brothers on a hotel bed
Anne Marie, Shania Twain - Unhealthy
Ligabue - L'amore conta
Guano Apes - Quietly
Coldplay - The Scientist
PS: pls DO NOT crucify me, the SD pics I used came from a folder saved in my own computer and it is full of SD pics I collected 11 years ago and whilst this is not an excuse, I did not know better at the time. I was indeed young and stupid.
I could find the first on Zerochan: https://www.zerochan.net/484145
The second one I am quite sure it came from Pixiv, but I can't find the original to save my life.
my sister once told me we tend to like the same things in general, from shows, movies, books, cartoons and whatnot. but what differentiates us is how I always like things so much more than she does. I always take it another level. and that for me, just put in perspective what kind of person I am.