Forza Motorsport 6: Apex is going into open beta on May 5, which is next week. For those of you in the slow lane, this is the free-to-play version of the previously Xbox One-only racer that was announced for Windows 10 in March. Microsoft said the game will give racing fans “a focused and curated single-player tour of Forza Motorsport’s best content,” with 63 cars, 20 track configurations, a new Career Mode featuring a 12-race Showcase Tour, and regularly updated “Spotlight Series” events.
The beta will be updated throughout the summer with the usual array of fixes and tweaks, as well as new features including wheel support (what kind of racing game doesn't have that out of the box, I do not know, but never mind), selectable vsync, and a built-in framerate counter. But one thing it doesn't support is online multiplayer.
“Forza Motorsport 6: Apex utilizes the cloud-based Drivatars of your Xbox Live Friends and the Xbox One community, as well as asynchronous leaderboards for comparing your Race Points, but the game will not feature online multiplayer or the livery design editor,” Forza Motorsport Community Manager Brian Ekberg wrote. “However, in an early beta update, we will be adding a selection of curated livery designs from the Forza painting community to the car select flow.”
It's an odd omission, isn't it? The Xbox One release of the game offers it, after all—Turn 10 Creative Director Dan Greenawalt spoke at length about the game's multiplayer leagues with IGN—and it seems like a natural fit, at least in some limited capacity (since the Xbox version isn't free) for some kind of cross-platform play. And if there's a genre that's a more natural fit for competitive multiplayer than racing, I sure can't think of it.
In any event, the beta announcement also includes the system requirements:
Minimum:
OS: Windows 10 64-bit version 1511
CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 @ 3.7 Ghz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 740 or Radeon R7 250X
HDD: 30 GB
RAM: 8 GB
VRAM: 2 GB
Recommended (1080p at 60 fps):
OS: Windows 10 64-bit version 1511
CPU: Intel Core i7-3820 @3.6 Ghz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 970 or Radeon R9 290X
HDD: 30 GB
RAM: 12 GB
VRAM: 4 GB
Ideal (4K at 60 fps):
OS: Windows 10 64-bit version 1511 CPU: Intel Core i7-6700k @ 4 Ghz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980ti or Radeon Fury X
HDD: SSD + 30 GB
RAM: 16 GB
VRAM: 6+ GB
More information about the game and the beta may be had at forzamotorsports.net.
Update: Turn 10 has issued the following statement regarding the absence of online multiplayer in Forza 6 Apex:
"Forza Motorsport 6: Apex is the first step in bringing the Forza franchise and the Forzatech engine to Windows PC. We are introducing Forza to a new audience and for this experience, the team wanted to highlight Forza’s signature Drivatar opponents. This technology delivers a level of asynchronous competition and challenge not found in traditional opponent AI systems. Also, using point based leaderboards we’ll provide other opportunities for you to one-up your friends. Whenever you race in an event, your friends are automatically challenged to beat your score the next time they play. Your Windows 10 PC will alert you via a pop-up notification when your friend has beaten your score, so you can hop back into 'Forza Motorsport 6: Apex' to set a new record.”
