Just Shut Up and Drive

Game Description: It's a race! Overtake your rivals and finish the race before time runs out.

How to Play Just Shut Up and Drive:

• Besides your blue car, there are two other different types of cars racing on the track. There are numerous red cars, plus nine rival yellow cars. (It is easy to tell a rival car from the other cars. Not only is it yellow, but Just Shut Up and Drive will attach a big screen tag on each rival car as it comes into view).
• For each race, your nine rivals will always get a head start. This means, you begin each race in tenth position. You can always see what place you are running by watching the position indicator located near the upper left corner. Incidentally, the red cars do not hold any postiton. They are simply there to get in everyone's way. Remember, each race is between you and your nine rivals. The red cars don't count.
• Press the UP arrow key to accelerate.
• Press the Down arrow key to brake.
• Press the LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to steer.
• If you would like, you can instead use the w-a-s-d keys to control your car.
• If you should come completely off the track, press the Spacebar to start racing again.
• You can gain extra points for overtaking the other cars or keeping a high speed for a long time.
• Try consecutive overtakings without crashing into anyone for more points.
• For each race you get 320 seconds to complete the race. The clock, which counts off the seconds backwards down to zero, is located near the upper right corner of the screen.
• You can also see how much race distance you have covered by the distance indicator, located just below the clock.
• Your goal is to finish each race ahead of as many of your rivals as possible before time runs out. (Also remember, because your rivals get a head start, if you should make a lot of mistakes in the early part of the race, it is possible that you may never even see your rivals, except at the start of the race as they drive away).
• Just Shut Up and Drive has ten different race tracks that you can play. When you begin playing for the first time, only the first track will be unlocked. The remaining nine tracks will be locked. To unlock each track, all you need to do is to finish a race, within the allotted time, and the next track will become available. Unlike many games, this is not difficult at all. (It did take me three attempts to get through level 4 -- named 'The Island'. For some reason I kept getting stuck in the sand and I found it hard to get back on the track, even with the Spacebar. But, that was the only level I had even the slightest difficulty with. I am really terrible at driving games. Believe me, I wouldn't tell you that if it wasn't true. So, even if you are bad at driving games like I am, you should still be able to open up all of the tracks without hardly any difficulity).
• You may replay any unlocked track, at anytime, to try to better your score.
• Just Shut Up and Drive should save your game progress automatically, as long as you use the same computer. At least, that has been my experience so far.
• For each race you earn points, and the game should keep your total points for all of the races. (That is, the game will add all of your points together, from all of your races, and keep your grand total).

Just Shut Up and Drive Game Options:

• Press the 'p' key to pause and open the options menu where you can drop down the quality in case the game is slow.
• There is a volume control in the upper right corner on the main game screen. However, it does not seem to work, at least not for me. (There are also separate volume controls for the sound and music on the 'Game Paused' screen. But, these also do not seem to work on my computer). Anyway, if all else fails, you can always do it the old-fashioned way and adjust your computer's speakers to set the volume.

Just Shut Up and Drive Playing Tips:

• Try not to crash into other cars or objects, because obviously it will slow you down.
• If you cannot pass a red car cleanly, try hitting it from the side (rather than rear-ending it) and it will promptly disappear from the screen. This is a very easy technique to learn -- and very effective in getting traffic out of your way.
• When you get off the track completely Just Shut Up and Drive will tell you to press your spacebar. While this certainly does work, there is one drawback. Should you press your Spacebar, your car will go back on the track but it will also come to a complete stop and it will take time to build up speed again. If you can spend a second or two and get your car back on the track by yourself, without using the spacebar, you will probably save some time. If you are not able to do so, then of course, use the spacebar to get back into the race.

Richard's Rating: 5 out of 5.

Comments: Just Shut Up and Drive is quite simply one of the best car racing games I have seen. The graphics and sounds are superb. I especially enjoyed level 5 -- named 'The Mist', level 6 -- 'Thunderstorm', level 7 -- 'Iceville', level 8 -- 'Mountain Road', and level 10 -- 'The City'. As far as my driving goes, okay, I admit that I haven't finished higher than tenth (which is last place) but I certainly have had fun trying. I have managed, on occasion, to pass several of my rivals, but because of crashes and mistakes I have yet to finish out of last place. But, I can't wait to try again. It is tons, and tons, of fun! Enjoy!