As we start to see more and more racing games hitting the market, it isn't merely enough for a game to be a solid racer in either the arcade or the simulation categories. Apex attempts to differentiate itself from the pack by putting you at the head of a new car manufacturer and challenging you to race your concept cars against similarly powered licensed cars from a handful of real-world carmakers. While this new twist is a welcome one, it isn't nearly as fleshed out as it could have been, and the game's generic approach to the actual driving doesn't pick up the slack terribly well, either. It's still a good all-around arcade-like racer, but it's definitely not one the Xbox's best.

The key portion of Apex is known as the dream mode. It's here in dream mode that you'll name your new carmaker, choose a logo for hood ornaments, and develop your first roadster. "Develop" perhaps isn't the right word here, though. You won't actually be developing anything. Instead you'll be given a choice of three different cars to build, each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses. From there you'll be set into motion in a series of amateur races and other challenges. As you progress, you'll open up new sections in your ever-expanding car manufacturing facility, including an area that shows how many cars you've sold. The number of cars sold is actually tied directly to your race performance, and as you sell more cars, more options will open up, such as the ability to develop one of the remaining roadsters. Or if you'd rather progress forward, you can save up your research points to develop the next class of car, the sports car. Much like in the roadster segment of the game, you're again given three choices of cars. This moves forward through the sports car ranks, through a set of supercars, and all the way up to dream cars. As you win races and progress through the game's events, your company's building expands to include new rooms--but all this really serves to do is to annoyingly spread your existing options out into different spots, making you click through a room or two before actually getting to where you want to go.