I’ve been constructing PCs for many of my life, so PC Building Simulator was by no means a recreation I actively sought out. I’ve performed it dozens of instances for hours on finish, but it surely was extra a social expertise — a recreation I’d boot up when mates have been over to fiddle or gawk over costly graphics playing cards that we solely want we may afford.
PC Building Simulator 2, now in open beta on the Epic Games Store, isn’t any completely different. It’s Guitar Hero for PC lovers, leaning extra closely on being a recreation than being a device for studying how you can construct a PC. As somebody who tenses up at an excessive amount of thermal paste, I anticipated for PC Building Simulator 2 to disappoint me, but it surely didn’t — regardless of some gamified components getting in the way in which of truly constructing a PC.
Becoming a nerdy rock star
Guitar Hero is the perfect touchstone for PC Building Simulator 2. It provides you the sensation of constructing a PC, with some licensed elements in tow, but it surely glosses over loads of the essential areas relating to assembling a machine. Cable administration? Don’t fear about it, simply click on the highlighted ports. RAM placement? Any slot will do. The record goes on.
I began my preview of the beta with the timed profession mode. If you’ve performed the primary recreation, the deal: Your faceless uncle left you one other decrepit PC store, and it’s your job to usher in orders, full them with competence, and steadiness your price range so you may afford new elements (and most significantly, hire).
My enterprise was beginning to growth, however issues have been slightly too quiet. I began pushing again, malignantly messing up PC builds to see if prospects would get upset. I left PCIe brackets lacking, deliberately put in the GPU and RAM within the fallacious slots, and completely drowned each CPU in thermal paste.
To be clear, that is an excessive amount of thermal paste utilized incorrectly.
But nothing occurred. Every order went out and not using a hitch, regardless of how onerous I attempted to sabotage them. There’s a superb line PC Building Simulator 2 has to stroll between being an pleasurable recreation and being a device for studying how you can construct a PC. There are loads of teachable moments within the recreation which might be simply regarded over, although.
For instance, an early job got here from an aspiring Fortnite streamer whose PC didn’t meet the minimal necessities. The machine simply wanted a CPU improve, however I observed that the 2 RAM sticks have been put in subsequent to one another (most motherboards want them spaced out between slots for full pace). The drawback is that there wasn’t any reward for noticing that drawback, nor was there a consequence for deliberately messing a difficulty like that up on different programs.
The worst problem got here when the sport launched its new bench system. You now have entry to 3 workstation varieties: Building, watercooling, and case modding. The profession mode takes you thru every bench early on, together with filling and putting in a customized liquid cooling loop.
As against the primary recreation, you now should mod the elements you wish to watercool. That includes changing thermal pads on a GPU, taking off warmth sinks on the motherboard, and so forth. It’s an superior system, and I like the pliability of having the ability to select the elements I would like, each within the PC and within the customized loop.
Yeah, that wouldn’t work in actual life.
But it’s not all the time correct. In your introduction to the watercooling bench, for instance, PC Building Simulator 2 instructs you to put in the strains on the identical aspect of the GPU block. This wouldn’t let any liquid into the GPU block, and it’s one of the widespread errors with liquid cooling.
PC Building Simulator 2 doesn’t want to offer full documentation on how you can construct a PC, however addressing small, widespread errors may present some big advantages to gamers taken with constructing their very own PC. It would make PC Building Simulator 2 a greater recreation, too, with a push and pull of penalties and rewards that offers you the sense of operating your individual PC restore enterprise.
Free play for days
Although some widespread profession errors make me cringe, PC Building Simulator 2 is all about free play the place you may construct the rig of your goals, benchmark it, and overclock it. The new bench system is an enormous boon right here, permitting you to go deeper than ever earlier than.
Liquid cooling is a deal with alone, the place you’re given the liberty to make selections that come up when assembling a customized loop. Do you need a monoblock for the total motherboard or only a CPU block? Want the ROG Strix RTX 3090 paired with a sure GPU block? That’s all included. Custom liquid cooling was an possibility within the authentic launch, however PC Building Simulator 2 fleshes it out massively.
The different bench is case modding, which is an easy however highly effective workstation. You can paint instances customized colours and apply stickers, which lets you actually make a construct really feel like your individual. I hope we see extra right here both within the full launch or a future enlargement as a result of I may burn dozens of hours simply modding PC instances.
A worthy sequel
Beyond the brand new benches, PC Building Simulator 2 additionally introduces a pill into the sport, which simply saves you time operating backwards and forwards out of your PC once you wish to order new components or verify your e-mail. It additionally means that you can change the music, and PC Building Simulator 2 has a stacked soundtrack with each style you might think about.
Most importantly, it brings the much-requested room customization the place you may level at a wall or ceiling and immediately swap it with a distinct look. I think about that is an space developer Spiral House will construct on massively in future expansions.
I anticipated PC Building Simulator 2 to depart me disillusioned, wanting for a free replace reasonably than a brand new paid launch. But it’s a worthy sequel, one which expands the unique launch with new elements and options, and dives deeper on issues like overclocking and benchmarking — even when it has some points with precisely representing how PCs are constructed.
PC Building Simulator 2 launches solely on the Epic Games Store later this yr. You can want record it now for entry to the free open beta.
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