FM6 Forza Motorsport 6: Apex - Coming To Windows 10

[Jack Hunsley]

Forza Motorsport, Microsoft's long time Xbox exclusive sim racing series is about to make its way over to PC gaming in an attempt expand Windows 10 gaming repertoire.

Rumours of the arrival of Forza on PC had been floating around the internet for the last few weeks, however Microsoft confirmed that the re-titled 'Forza Motorsport 6: Apex' will be arriving on Windows 10 this spring.

This will mark the first time that Forza has stepped away from Microsoft's console range, however it is certainly questionable how well Forza would fair against the wider range of racing simulators that PC already has at it's disposal. Add to that the fact that the Windows 10 version will be released as a slimmed down, freeware gaming experience, it's unlikely to make a huge drop in the ocean. While some rumors contest that the game will lack wheel support on launch, we have so far been unable to reach Microsoft for confirmation.

Forza Motorsport 6: Apex will feature 20 different tracks across six locations including Brands Hatch, Spa Francorchamps, Yas Marina, Sebring International Raceway, the Top Gear Test Track and Rio de Janeiro, with night and wet-weather variants also being included. However, there is no word as to how large the range of cars available will be.

Apex also includes a new objective and scoring system, challenging players to compare their scores with friends, as well as introducing a slightly altered career mode known as the 'Showcase Tour', which will feature 12 events.

Certainly those who enjoy the series might have hoped for a straight console to PC port. However confirmation that all future Xbox One releases will also be released on PC will give players hope that they will receive the full Forza experience on the release of Forza Motorsport 7.

 

[thatmotorfreak]

I wouldn't upgrade to Windows 10 just for this honestly. I think I'd rather buy an Xbox One only for the Forza games (I don't give a crap about the other Xbox exclusives) instead once my 360 dies. Besides, I was appreciating Forza 4 already.

Though it's still great to hear Forza is finally coming to the PCs. NFS Shift tried doing the same thing (being able to build, tune, and paint race cars) but failed miserably.

 

[Eugene Abramoff]

I wouldn't upgrade to Windows 10 just for this honestly. I think I'd rather buy an Xbox One only for the Forza games (I don't give a crap about the other Xbox exclusives) instead once my 360 dies. Besides, I was appreciating Forza 4 already.

Though it's still great to hear Forza is finally coming to the PCs. NFS Shift tried doing the same thing (being able to build, tune, and paint race cars) but failed miserably.

Microsoft and Windows 10 is like Will Smith and Jaden.

 

[Eyud]

Pretty excited for this. Forza drives great with a controller and has a lot of polish other sims lack. I'll definitely be playing it when I don't feel like getting serious with the wheel.

 

[John Oliver]

forza works well with an wired 360 game pad yes its not a wheel but ill be grabbing this for sure,no need to use arrow keys on kb lol

 

[xnorb]

MS does quite a few things to push out Win10.

But if Forza comes on the UWP, then i'll pass, not even going to bother with that crap even if it's free.

 

[xnorb]

Forza drives great with a controller and has a lot of polish other sims lack.

That's because it's a racing game and not a sim.
A sim focuses on physics and AI and then graphics are slapped on that.
A game focuses on graphics and stuff like a career mode or satisfies car herders / customizers and adds some very basic physics just because the genre needs it.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Incredible how negative some people are about free products.

If you would think about it for just a few minutes what a HUGE opportunity this is to grow our tiny (toxic?) sim racing niche. It's a triple AAA gaming brand coming to the PC, that alone will guarantee a massive influx of potential new sim racers to...........the PC!

These new people will go crawl through sim racing forums and sites, watch sim racing videos, and learn more about the sim racing game genre and eventually they will see there are actually a great amount of sim racing titles available that they can play.

Really, I can only see very much win with this brand joining PC. It's a great opportunity for sim racing in general.

 

[billymitchell]

no wheel, no point

With no wheel support, what is the point of featuring it on a sim racing website. This just becomes another generic arcade racing game, so leave this disappointing news to PC Gamer or something like that.

Actually it is relevant because of the Impulse Triggers in the XB1 controller.

When you lock up the brakes on entry using one trigger, you feel it directly through that trigger. And when you spin the tires you feel it through the other trigger. Bumps in the road and contact with other cars are delivered through larger vibration motors in the controller.

Read about that here.

For those that are ignorant about how the XB1 controller is perhaps the best handheld input device to be released for a driving game, please continue to plug your ears.

 

[Eyud]

That's because it's a racing game and not a sim.
A sim focuses on physics and AI and then graphics are slapped on that.
A game focuses on graphics and stuff like a career mode or satisfies car herders / customizers and adds some very basic physics just because the genre needs it.

There's always one...

 

[Ghoults]

It will be pretty much a limited pc game. Horrible drm (it's microsoft, they will mess it up), limited gameplay (forced to use borderless windowed mode = lower fps and higher input latency). It will be also locked down as tight as ms can. Meaning no mods. You can't probably even go into edit any settings files to turn off things you don't like (driver view camera movements, graphics settings, control bindings). Probably won't even support your monitor resolition if you use anything that is not 1080p or similarly common. Probably need to buy some win10 special equipment too if you want to play using any special gaming controller. Naturally only products that are ms approved will work. Do you remembers games for windows? It's the same thing but now with exclusive deals only.

At worst the game will be huge consolitis diarrhea thing where you can only play it like microsoft wants it. And when forza will eventually launch you will get all the nasties you get when horrible drm is involved. Can't play unless you can connect to the ms server. And those servers will die at launch like they always do. Always. I bet my hat that for example only way to create skins for the cars will be by using the in-game painter thingy... which might work with mouse if we are really really lucky. No photoshop. Probably can't make any skins because skins are sold with microtransactions. And because free2play it also means you can't host your own servers either. Grind or pay. Which also means gameplay and progression is slowed down to crawl so ms can sell those juicy exp bonus thingies. Pay 5€ to get 200% exp boost for the next race #amazing.

To me it just seems blatantly obvious. The only thing ms wants is to use the forza brand to lure in customers to their windows store and hope people start using it. Releasing this as free2play is just ms hoping lots of people install the store, create account and maybe buy something. But while doing so ms wants to spend the absolute minimal effort for the conversions hoping people start buying xboxes and play the "real game" there. Ms don't want to release anything worthwhile on pc because it will hurt their console sales. So releasing crappy conversions may drive people to buy the consoles. And like I said forza is going to be free2play. How fast can you say cashgrab in 5 seconds? Not as many times as the people making these decisions. After this raceroom may look cheap!

I hope this fails spectaculary.These exclusivity bullshit deals are always horrible deal for the customers. You get worse product and need to pay more. There are so many ways ms can make mistakes here that it is almost scary. Steam needs more competition and not more of these exclusive closed garden systems. I think it is almost comical how out of touch ms is with their store idea. They think they can compete with steam by being more like apple. People who want apple already have apple. People who use windows don't have a choise. At most this is some kind of half assed move against steam's steam operating system. Imagine if you did not need windows anymore to play games?

 

[Metalogic]

Actually it is relevant because of the Impulse Triggers in the XB1 controller.

When you lock up the brakes on entry using one trigger, you feel it directly through that trigger. And when you spin the tires you feel it through the other trigger. Bumps in the road and contact with other cars are delivered through larger vibration motors in the controller.

Read about that here.

For those that are ignorant about how the XB1 controller is perhaps the best handheld input device to be released for a driving game, please continue to plug your ears.

Apart from Forza, which other racing sims (on PC) support this kind of feedback with the XBox One Controller currently? Assetto Corsa maybe?

 

[Eugene Abramoff]

Apart from Forza, which other racing sims (on PC) support this kind of feedback with the XBox One Controller currently? Assetto Corsa maybe?

I wouldn't call Forza a sim, but pCars and Raceroom work with gamepad as well.

 

[Metalogic]

I wouldn't call Forza a sim, but pCars and Raceroom work with gamepad as well.

Yes, but AFAIK they don't support Impulse Trigger feedback for the Xbox One Controller like Forza 6 does on an Xbox... I think F1 2015 does, but then that has lots of problems, and I'm not really into F1...

 

[Kevin Knorpp]

Where to start?

I'll start with subset of content. Why? What's the rush?

DLC doesn't bother me because I never buy it unless able to demo first.

No wheel support on launch. Again, why? What's the rush to launch? (Mind you I can guess at the answers to many of these questions but only Microsoft can answer and answer to these questions would reveal true plans and motivation)

Without ability to mod (not a showstopper but would be amazing) and (more importantly) ability to configure then sorry not for me because there is no way MS is going to account for all variables on PC.

Windows 10 and Store requirement is a non starter. Absolutely no chance of upgrading for FM.

Free = Almost surely not interested. I'd gladly pay for something workable but I'm done with anything "free". It's just such BS and insulting.

Regarding Horizon, I'd prefer that any day over FM for reasons others have stated and TBH I much prefer the ffb in Horizon (out of the box at least).

Back to Windows 10 it's just such a silly idea to think anyone would go through the hassle to upgrade unless they are more interested in tipping new PC purchases toward Win10 or something others would know more about than I.

All in all, though, if some miracle happens and this doesn't become a disaster then I can see this being big competition for pCars/AC (which isn't saying much of course.

Edit - Forgot to mention passion. Without passion success is impossible ; especially on PC. The DiRT Rally team is a perfect example of how passion can get you from non-starter to a very workable game. My guess is that passion has nothing to do with this endeavor.

 

[billymitchell]

Edit - Forgot to mention passion. Without passion success is impossible ; especially on PC. The DiRT Rally team is a perfect example of how passion can get you from non-starter to a very workable game. My guess is that passion has nothing to do with this endeavor.

Have you ever played a Forza title?

The last thing that comes to my mind about Turn 10 (the developer that makes Forza) is that they lack passion about what they do. They are the engineers, artists, and car enthusiasts that have what many of us consider to be a dream job: working on a team to create an enthralling driving experience that many of us will never physical do, like tossing a LMP1 Audi around Spa.

Turn 10 is a team that showed the media a demo of Forza Apex running 4k graphics at 60 FPS. Technical feats aren't new to this developer, on an Xbox 360 they made 60 FPS titles that simultaneously ran physics at hundreds of times a second (and can display real-time telemetry WHILE driving). Feats like this are only possible with passion.

But yes, in the end, Microsoft is making the high-level decisions. And yes, the decisions ultimately are made to help them make money. Welcome to capitalism.

But I think it's unfair, ignorant, and straight up rude to throw Turn 10 under the bus that Microsoft is driving.

 

[Kevin Knorpp]

Have you ever played a Forza title?

Not on PC

Also, one would have to be naive the expect the same degree of passion for a sub-port to PC as the original game

Hope I'm wrong

 

[Tr3voRR]

Have you ever played a Forza title?

The last thing that comes to my mind about Turn 10 (the developer that makes Forza) is that they lack passion about what they do. They are the engineers, artists, and car enthusiasts that have what many of us consider to be a dream job: working on a team to create an enthralling driving experience that many of us will never physical do, like tossing a LMP1 Audi around Spa.

Turn 10 is a team that showed the media a demo of Forza Apex running 4k graphics at 60 FPS. Technical feats aren't new to this developer, on an Xbox 360 they made 60 FPS titles that simultaneously ran physics at hundreds of times a second (and can display real-time telemetry WHILE driving). Feats like this are only possible with passion.

But yes, in the end, Microsoft is making the high-level decisions. And yes, the decisions ultimately are made to help them make money. Welcome to capitalism.

But I think it's unfair, ignorant, and straight up rude to throw Turn 10 under the bus that Microsoft is driving.

Nicely said, Turn 10 just like Kunos are a passionate bunch.

 

[Rob]

however it is certainly questionable how well Forza would fair against the wider range of racing simulators

I'll give you great odds if you want to take the "extremely well" position.

 

[James Cook]

Not interested at this stage.

Give me a fully-featured port of Forza without all the free-to-play nonsense (and the incoming DLC and microtransactions), charge me a standard retail price and I'm sold without question.

But not this.

 

[Brent Mills]

Incredible how negative some people are about free products.

If you would think about it for just a few minutes what a HUGE opportunity this is to grow our tiny (toxic?) sim racing niche. It's a triple AAA gaming brand coming to the PC, that alone will guarantee a massive influx of potential new sim racers to...........the PC!

These new people will go crawl through sim racing forums and sites, watch sim racing videos, and learn more about the sim racing game genre and eventually they will see there are actually a great amount of sim racing titles available that they can play.

Really, I can only see very much win with this brand joining PC. It's a great opportunity for sim racing in general.

well said Bram