As Sony and Microsoft both continue to challenge the idea of traditional console experiences, Turn 10 has released the latest batch of info in the latter’s campaign. Forza Motorsport 6: Apex (first officially announced last month) is a cut-down, “curated” version of the expansive Xbox One title launched last year. As it turns out, those looking to get a taste of the game have only one more week to wait, as it will be launching in Open Beta status next Thursday, May 5.
Shorn of many of the 500+ cars available in the console version, Apex will launch with 63 fully-detailed models covering a broad range of eras and disciplines. Six track locations, with over 20 variations, will be a part of the package from day one. A new gameplay mechanic known as Race Points makes its debut, with T10 only saying that players will be rewarded by challenging themselves with higher difficulty settings or fewer assists. In the absence of a more traditional progression system, this may just be a stand-in for the tried-and-true Credits, however.
Sadly, the game will not be launching with wheel support, though Turn 10 remains committed to including it in a future update, after T10 head honcho Dan Greenawalt said as much on Twitter.
In addition to peripheral support, Turn 10 has announced plans to include other features integral to the PC platform over the course of the summer, such as the ability to disable V-sync and an in-game frame rate counter. While the console version runs at a locked 1080p/60fps, Apex supports up to 4K resolution, with no upper value on frame rate announced yet.
Minimum and suggested system specs have been released, requiring pretty beefy hardware to run the highest resolution. Note that all 3 setups require Windows 10, DirectX 12, and 30GB of hard-drive space:
- Minimum System Requirements:
Processor: Intel Core i3-4170 @ 3.7 Ghz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 740 Radeon R7 250X
RAM: 8GB
VRAM: 2GB - Recommended (1080p at 60fps):
Processor: Intel Core i7-3820 @ 3.6 Ghz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 970 Radeon R9 290X
RAM: 12GB
VRAM: 4GB - Ideal (4k @ 60 fps):
Processor: Intel Core i7-6700K @ 4.0 Ghz
GPU: NVIDIEA GeForce GTX 980ti Radeon Fury X
RAM: 16GB
VRAM: 6GB
Unfortunately (and rather confusingly), the game will be launching without online multiplayer, nor the much-vaunted livery editing system. Apex seems more like a small proof-of-concept than a dedicated entry into the crowded and competitive PC racing genre, then: a taster before future entries in the franchise release on both PC and XB1 simultaneously. That will start with Forza Horizon 3, scheduled to appear for the first time at E3 next month.
The reason I don’t have Xbox one is because the T500rs doesn’t work on the platform. If I can use my PC to race then great. If I am asked to use a pad or keyboard I’ll give it an hour of crashes then I am off.
It is free, May 5th I am trying it, nothing to loose. Since wheel support is most likely not going to be there, can anyone suggest a good way to connect and use my PS3 controller on my PC to try this?
Google ScpToolkit and you’ll find a wealth of information on a program you can install. It may be plug and play for you (it was for me) or you may have to tinker a little, but I’ve been using it to play games on Win10 with my DS3 for some time now and it works great.
“Sadly, the game will not be launching with wheel support”.
Forza Motorsport 2 and 3 were the only FM games really supporting steering wheels. #4, #5 and #6 moved to a “pad recommended” logic even if you can still control the cars (more or less) with a steering wheel.
I hope that moving the franchise to PC will make Turn 10 change this.
I’ve read quite a bit of comments similar to yours and never really understood why people say this. I’ve played FM3 and 4 with a Fanatec GT2 and Clubsport pedals and FM5 and now 6 with a Thrustmaster TX and Clubsport pedals. Aside from FM5 that was plagued in the force feedback programming, the rest of them were pretty decent and 6 is actually pretty good.
Playing Project cars and Asseto Corsa is something different (no iRacing experience here…) but saying FM is not wheel supported is stretching it if you ask me.
As much as I want to try this, the lack of wheel support will make me hold off until wheel support arrives. If the game has an arduous progression mechanic to it then I’ll likely just try it for a few laps and put it down anyway as I’m not much interested anymore in starting out with an econobox and slogging through dozens of races I have little interest in just to get access to content. T10 should scrap the whole game economy and progression, open things up like every other sim and let us figure out what we want to do with the game.
This. And @Gtplanet we need a like button for blog comments.
It seems as if it will be able to run at 720P? If it doesn’t, with the forced v-sync I doubt my computer will be able to run this worth a hoot. :(
Nice! First venture into PC racing.
considering the shameful quality of all the microstore based games so far im worried that you will not have very good first impressions.
Considering the utmost concern that they have on performabce, first and foremost, before everything else, even going so far to purposely exclude things to keep said performance, I’d say you shouldn’t be worried in that department.
No wheel support yet? If that’s the case there is no point releasing it on Pc. Just do your homework Turn10 don’t rush things allows Pc sim audience to ROTFL at you.
Maybe it won’t have controller support either ;)
Such an odd thing to not launch with wheel support, given the platform its on. Either way, the good news is that they actually deliver on things they say they will.
Maybe it’s keyboard only to start…lol.
Whoops, I didn’t mention it in the article, but the XB1 controller is in fact supported.
Hope Ultrawide is supported!