'Forza Motorsport' comes to Windows PCs this spring

Forza Motorsport is one of the precious few realistic racing games to hit the mainstream, but you've had to play it on an Xbox so far. You typically have to try games like Live for Speed or Project Cars to get your fix on a PC. Well, you won't have to make that hard choice for much longer -- Microsoft and Turn 10 are bringing the series to Windows 10 PCs. The upcoming Forza Motorsport 6: Apex is a free, distilled version of FM6 that shows what the previously Xbox One-only title can do with all the brawn of a gaming PC behind it. It makes full use of DirectX 12 to produce convincing visual effects, and it'll run in 4K if you have the monster graphics hardware needed to do the resolution justice.

Don't expect a carbon copy of the full console game when Apex arrives this spring. It "only" has 63 cars (versus 460 in the original) and six locations (versus 26), so this is more akin to Polyphony's Gran Turismo mini games than anything else. Thankfully, the developers aren't just giving you Xbox table scraps. Microsoft says this is really just a teaser for "future Forza experiences" on Windows, a proof-of-concept that shows it can work. You might just see the next title (c'mon, FM7!) arrive on the PC roughly in sync with its living room counterpart.