Masterful PC Building....and, Occasionally Cleaning up Spilled Drinks

 I've spent most of my gaming time this past week checking out the newest expansion for one of my favorite simulation games, PC Building Simulator.  The E-Sports Expansion offers the chance for a new, more structured type of gameplay that still hinges on repairing, improving, and building PC's.  My favorite parts of the new expansion are the more character driven, personal/story-based elements that have been added in.

Your cell phone allows players to contact you with their requests.

If you're a fan of the base game you are probably familiar with career mode--you run a PC repair shop, customers e-mail you daily about jobs and then your task is to complete them accurately and in a timely manner.  In the E-Sports expansion you play the role of tech support for a budding e-sports team--your job is to keep the PC's of the team in tip-top/working shape to help the team win matches in different leagues.  Much of the core gameplay is similar--you still get jobs via e-mail, but the addition of a cell phone means that individual players can now (somewhat annoyingly) text you to make special requests....and a big part of the expansion is trying to manage ALL the requests because unlike in normal career mode where you're just trying to fulfill the job request from one customer, now you have to balance the demands of the team managers, the sponsors, and the individual players.  Balancing all these demands is very important because your work gets rated by all of those entities in a system of "likes," and the more likes you get the more opportunities will arise to take a new position with bigger, better teams.

The beginning office space is pretty plain.

The beginning of the expansion sees you taking a job with a one player team competing in the fictional game "Heart of Stone" (described as a competitive card game...hmmm, I wonder what they're referring to--winky face emoji).  You start off in a bare-bones, basic office space that looks like it's tucked away in some sort of storage area.  The good news is that even in your boring starting space you have access to fully upgraded tools and the entire catalog of components in the base game...that doesn't mean you can go bonkers and build amazing, wonder PC's, because each week you have a different budget and if you go over budget you will lose likes.  Teams compete in matches each Saturday, so throughout the week they will e-mail and text you requests.  At the beginning of the week the corporate sponsors also will establish what they would like to see--it could be something like all members on the team using a certain branded type of CPU or more mundane things like changing RGB lighting to reflect brand colors.  Generally the players on the team will want their PC's back relatively quickly so that they can practice.  Sometimes misfortune happens and PC's get damaged, sometimes players decide their PC needs some sort of upgrade or certain type of component or they get a wild hair and decide at the last minute that they want purple cables--the PC's inevitably find their way back and you fulfill the various demands before the end of the week.  Besides dealing with the individual PC's of the players on the team, there is also the opportunity to complete side jobs that appear via e-mail--sometimes the players have other PC's they want you to repair, or PC's of their friends, or the CEO of the team needs you to take a look at their personal PC....sheesh, they're really taking advantage of having a tech support person!  These jobs are generally a boon because you can earn extra money which can help you stay within the weekly budget (which generally isn't too difficult).

Players will send you side jobs to complete for extra cash.

The next new part of the gameplay takes place on competition day--you start backstage at the venue where the players compete.  Players will text you with last minute requests prior to the competition starting and you only have a limited amount of time to get the task done because there is a timer.  Sometimes a part gets broken and you have to quickly replace it; sometimes they decide you should overclock their CPU/GPU; sometimes they just want those damn purple cables...but you have to get it done quickly.  Once you've done whatever fixing/improving you've been assigned, the next task is to setup the PC's on stage which is also done on a timer.  If everything is in working order, the competition begins and you wait backstage--the clock ticks down and either the match ends, or something happens that requires you to complete another timed task--"oh noes, my hard drive crashed!"--*you scamper backstage to order another one and quickly replace it, re-install the needed game and then return to your place backstage.*  Once the match has ended you get a series of texts--each player gives you likes for how well you met their demands through the week (did you forget the purple cables?), the team gives you likes for fulfilling the manager requests, and the sponsors give you likes.  Your likes accumulate on your "LikedIn" app and at the end of the league (which varies throughout the game--the first league is only one week long, but the leagues for other games are longer--2-3 weeks) you can choose which team you want to work for based the number of "likes" you have earned.  You can choose to stick with the same team, but as the game progresses you change leagues to different games.  Each progressive league gets more complex as the number of players on the team increases from one at the beginning to four in the final league.

Moving up the career ladder means a super cool office.

As your record of masterful PC building becomes more recognized your office space gets much swankier.  It also means that the jobs and demands get more complicated--now you have to build the team PC's from scratch, they have to benchmark at high scores, and they need custom water cooling!  It can be a lot to figure out, but the PC's you build are amazing and much cooler than probably anything you will do in normal career mode.

Pros:

+Start the game with the entire catalog of components and upgrades unlocked.

+ New cell phone feature makes balancing demands more complicated.

+ Each team is made up of individual players with their own quirks and personalities and has its own story...and drama!  It is enjoyable to have some personality injected into the game--there is some of that in a few jobs in career mode, but it's a core part of the E-Sports Expansion.  Team drama also plays out through the jobs you do--players get jealous or resentful and want you to make their PC better than the rest of the team or they want a more unified approach.  It's fun to have these more story-based elements in the game.

+ The gameplay gets more complicated as you progress.  You start off with just a one player team and eventually work your way to managing a team of four.  The jobs get more complicated as you progress.

Each office has a special shelf for your collectibles.

+ Collectibles.  At the end of each league your team will send you memorabilia that appears on a special shelf in your office.  It's a fun little feature.

+ Multiple teams and career paths.  After you've finished the first league you can choose to stick with the same team (but in a different league) or to move to a different team.  So far I've played completely through two different teams and am working on a third team.  There's replayability value in the fact that you can restart your e-sports career and continue earning the collectibles for each team--gotta catch em' all!

+Build some wicked awesome PC's!  The jobs in career mode can be fairly bland, but by the time you've earned your way into the final league of the E-Sports Expansion you have a big budget and the ability to create truly powerful (and super expensive) PC's with tons of personal details.  Cheetah-fast CPU's!  Custom watercooled CPU's and GPU's!  Make it raaaaiiiin!

+ Timer adds pressure on competition days and provides some gameplay variety.

Cons:

- Bugs.  There are some documented issues with some of the content.  The one bug I ran into happened when I had a side job that required me to replace an M.2 drive with a specific brand/type of M,2.  The problem was that the requested M.2 drive wouldn't fit into the motherboard in the PC...and you couldn't replace the mobo.  So, I had to fail the job, which was a bit frustrating, but wasn't gamebreaking.  Others have reported issues with timers not appearing on competition days preventing them from progressing.  Some fixes need to occur and most likely will be in the coming weeks (since the game was only released like a week ago).  It's something to be aware of at this point.  It may also be a bug that on some missions it says to repair something and you can't simply replace the same part and the job will only complete if you use an upgraded part (there's one job where I struggled to figure out why it wouldn't complete and finally arrived at that solution after quite a bit of time).

- There is definitely replayability value in the various teams and career paths, but in order to fully access all the teams you have to go back and replay some of the same content over multiple times--there is a certain team that requires a higher number of likes and those can only be acquired by playing through the early leagues.  It gets a bit tedious.

Recommendation:

The E-Sports Expansion provides an improved PC building experience with more personality than the base game.  There are multiple career paths and teams to choose from and there are better opportunities to build works of PC art.  Despite the early bugs, I would heartily recommend the expansion to fans of the base game (you should really play the base game first though because the expansion expects you to use the full range of skills you learn in regular career mode).

Touring Ancient Greece and Building PC's

 I've basically played my most recent summer sale purchases to the point where I'm content and don't really feel the urge to start them up.  Instead, I've found myself merging back into some old familiar territory--namely that of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey and also into the world of virtually building PC's in PC Building Simulator.  These two games are completely different, but I can always find enjoyment in them.

The exact reasons that motivated me to want to dive back into AC: Odyssey are a bit murky--I felt the urge to play something large and complex but still familiar.  My feelings about the AC games are complicated; I like them, but I wouldn't say I love them (not the way I love Mass Effect).  Kassandra is a great character that I really like (and with the recent Ubisoft controversy--should have been the featured character) and  I adore the historically-based worlds that Ubi creates.  On the other hand, the map is completely bloated with locations and I find myself locked in this inner battle about my compulsive need to complete all of them versus the need to just enjoy playing the game and it becomes more about checking off  a list.  Eventually I undoubtedly start to feel bored with the pattern of doing a few story missions and then spending the bulk of my time mindlessly stabbing people to check off a goal.

Tour Ancient Greece as one of many characters.

One addition to Odyssey that has come out since I last played is Discovery Mode.  As a history nerd I enjoy the guided tours around different parts of Ancient Greece and learning about many aspects of life.  There are also little tidbits about the game design embedded in the tour so you can learn about what research and decisions were made about creating the world.  There are tons of locations to explore and many of the tours are themed--I completed one tour that was centered around Greek theater and plays--you can pick topics that interest you and find some cool details in the game world.  Another tour I completed was about the area around the Parthenon--I learned the myth of the founding of Athens and about all the different temples present in complex.  If you like learning about history and want a relaxed mode of play, check out Discovery Mode.

When I get tired of stabbing 10,676 people (that's a real number...sigh) I have inevitably found myself turning to the non-stabby world of PC Building Simulator.  It's always interesting to log back because of the fact that they are regularly adding new components and new companies.  One of the more interesting additions is the ability to create custom water cooling systems.  I also decided to try to knock out some of the achievements that I hadn't managed to snag--I finally landed a 5-star rating, which is something that had been difficult to do.  The jobs at the higher levels of career mode have gotten more complicated and include overclocking.  I am unsure if custom water cooling comes into play in career mode at all (apparently it does at some point, but I haven't received any other than adding AIO coolers).  My little shop now bears my name (thanks to finally being able to own 30% of the company and removing uncle Tim's name) and I have to decide if I want to continue trying to level up my shop (there are still parts to unlock).

In exciting PC Building Simulator news, the first DLC launched earlier this week.  The ESports Expansion adds in a new gameplay mode that takes you out of your shop and into the esports spotlight.  Your new role is managing the many technological needs of a budding esports in team.  The expansion promises to provide variety in gameplay that differs from career mode but that still involves using your PC building skills.  I recently snagged the expansion and am looking forward to taking a turn at the madcap world of esports.

Back in Business

I'm continuing my trend of not playing anything new and wavering about signing up for Xbox Gamepass.  Every time I stare at the massive list of games I have accumulated on Steam I feel a crushing sense of guilt about playing the games I already have.  So, for the time being, I've returned to some of my reliable favorites.  I've quashed an almost overwhelming desire to replay The Witcher 3 for the seventh or eighth (or possibly ninth) time.  Thanks Netflix...

Currently, I've felt a desire to play management games and have decided to give the ever-expanding world of PC Building Simulator another whack.  The game has seen many changes and additions from its early days as a niche simulator game and has really turned into a nice, enjoyable management game.  Career mode has been turned into a more challenging, detail oriented process.  No longer can you just haphazardly slap random components into any job that crosses your threshold, now, you must really delve into the true meaning of the e-mails that present you with PC fixing and building jobs.

Build and repair PC's.  Rule the world.

The customers in your fictional PC shop are much pickier and more demanding.  A new-ish part of the game is the introduction of a review system for the work that you perform.  Your ultimate goal in career mode is to achieve a 5-star rating...which is no easy task.  If you miss one tiny, hidden clue as to what work a customer actually wants done you can lose one or more stars per job.  Some customers vaguely hint at the fact that their system is running slow due to malware (needs a virus scan) while most others are direct with their needs--they only want new parts in their PC or they want you to mod their cables with a specific color.  Cable modding is particularly touchy--if you miss replacing one cable you will get docked a star for that job.  I've struggled to reach 5 stars due to the fact that you have to perform a certain number (I think 25) of jobs in a row at top level.  My goal is to reach this coveted pinnacle.

I feel a special sense of affinity for PC Building Simulator due to the fact that it was a game that spurred me to try something new in real-life.  After spending many hours playing the game, I decided that I would try my hand at building my own PC.  Up until that point I had never had the confidence to imagine building my own PC and had bought all my PC's as pre-built systems.  It was a great experience and I would love to build more PC's--the sense of satisfaction gained from piecing together my own system was very rewarding and I would recommend it to anyone who has been hesitant to try it.  There are tons of great instructional videos that can aid in buying parts, building a PC, and installing software.

The Steam Lunar New Year Sale is currently offering discounts on many games and now would be the perfect time to run your own fictional PC building business.   

I Built a PC!

After months of planning, ordering parts, watching tons of "how-to" videos on YouTube, I finally completed my first PC build!  It was extremely nerve wracking and I was definitely worried about hooking something up wrong or dropping something and damaging it.  Fortunately, that didn't happen and I'm now enjoying my new and improved PC (if you're wondering what exactly I built here is the link).  I didn't go for anything that shiny or extremely high-end but did try to spend a little bit of extra money on a good GPU.  Here is a very unimpressive picture I took with my crappy, old phone:

My Fractal Designs case has great airflow.
I only opted for two RGB components (fan and MoBo).

I had only bought pre-built PC's up until this point (mostly Dell branded products,--my last PC was an Alienware) and didn't think that I would ever have the technical expertise to actually piece together a computer that would actually work.  It turns out that building a PC isn't too terribly technically demanding--it's mostly a matter of following directions and having small enough hands to connect some terrifically tiny connectors.  The piece that intimidated me the most wasn't necessarily the building aspect, but was more on the software side--I had no idea how to do a fresh install of Windows on a brand new PC (spoilers--it's actually very easy).

My interest in building my own PC stemmed from playing PC Building Simulator.  Even though it is a game and there's no handy auto-connect tool in real-life to hook up all those tiny wires, the game made me realize that building a PC was definitely doable.  If you're someone who feels like they have some technical expertise, but are by no means an expert, I can tell you that it's totally possible.  I did it...and so can you!

Now that I've actually completed my first build, I can hand out tips like a pro.  My first tip is to use PCPartPicker to start your research into components and build a list of parts.  PCPartPicker is absolutely awesome and includes user reviews, staff builds of PC's at different price points, user generated builds, and great market analysis tools for tracking prices and sales.  Once you've selected your parts, PCPartPicker will check them for any compatibility issues, which is particularly handy.  Then, it's just a matter of waiting for good prices, ordering your parts, and assembling them into working fashion.

Another great tip is that there are tons of very educational PC building videos on YouTube which are perfect for beginners.  I personally enjoyed this series of videos by Paul's Hardware which covered all the bases of building a PC--from picking the right parts, to installing them, and then to finally setting up the software on your new PC.  There are tons and tons of videos to choose from and you should have no problems finding one that fits your own preferences.

Of course, since now I have a new PC, I also have a few new games that were bundled together with the components that I bought.  As part of various promotions, I've received Tom Clancy's:  The Division 2, World War Z, and Wolfenstein:  Youngblood.  (Youngblood hasn't been released yet and I still haven't received my codes for World War Z).  I decided to give The Division 2 a chance and so far have been enjoying it.  My new graphics card is helping to paint a beautiful picture of a post-apocalyptic Washington D.C. as my SHD agent runs around gunning down baddies.

Prior to building my new PC I had started a new Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey playthrough with my new and improved warrior Kassandra.  I decided that this time around I needed to notch up the difficulty (to hard...not to the highest one yet) and I've noticed the change--there are more guards roaming around and they tend to be "elites" much more often.  Warrior Kassandra can't stealthily one-shot many of the newer, tougher enemies, but she can definitely fight off the massive numbers that swarm as a result of these failed attempts to be stealthy.  This also means that warrior Kassandra attracts quite a bit of mercenary attention.  I've been sitting on the season pass for several months now and I need to finish the new content...it will happen eventually.

One of the major PC building disappointments of my 2018-19 was my earlier decision to buy an upgraded GPU for my older pre-built.  I had an AMD R290 that worked great--no problems at all, but it was just getting a bit dated and was only meeting minimum specs in some games.  I decided to upgrade to an RX580 and went with a brand that I was not familiar with--XFX.  For the first few months it worked great--I had no problems--then, I started to have problems with the card overheating and forcing me to have to manually shutdown my PC.  The really weird part of the overheating is that it would take place while I was playing games that weren't particularly graphically demanding (Slime Rancher).  It was really frustrating to have a brand new card that was not working great and the fact that I was having to turn settings way down to prevent overheating!  I did some research and discovered that there were some well-documented heat issues with RX580's and XFX cards in particular.  I was left with a couple of options--I could RMA the card and get a new one (which would mean sending the card in and waiting an unspecified amount of time for a replacement) or I could try to look up a faster solution.  One of the possible causes of the overheating problem was possibly linked to low-quality thermal paste that wears out after a short amount of time.  I decided that replacing the thermal paste on the GPU would be the best bet (even though by doing that there was a chance that I would be voiding the warranty).  After a thermal paste replacement (that was very simple...there are also good videos on YouTube about that process) my card did start running somewhat cooler.

2019 is the year of PC failures and triumphs (fingers crossed!) for me.  I would recommend building your own PC--it's a lot of fun to see your boxes of parts come together into a working product and you get a great feeling of pride and ownership in your work.  You can also make it very sparkly if you desire...there are RGB components for almost anything!

PC Building Simulator--Updated Review

I've somehow gotten sucked back into the fictional world of PC repair in PC Building Simulator.   My first experience in this world was with the unfinished, early access version of the game.  Even in its unfinished state, it was a bizarrely fun game.  The full release has expanded upon the gameplay from the early access version and made it even better.

Pros:
+ Huge list of officially licensed components.  I was impressed by the number of component manufacturers who signed on to early access, but the list has grown to include many of the major players in the PC component world.  These components are extremely detailed and look exactly like the actual products.

One of the custom jobs--it requires lots of PURPLE.

+ Helpful tutorial that teaches about the the components themselves and how to put it all together into a working PC.  Building a PC from the ground up is a seemingly simple matter of installing the correct parts into the proper location.

+ Two gameplay modes to choose from--Free Build lets you put together any combination of components (that need to be unlocked through career mode) and test them out.  Free Build is the perfect place to play around--want to build an uber-PC the likes of which you could never afford?  Totally possible.  Want to build a magical RGB light factory?  DO IT!

Career mode places you in charge of a PC repair shop.  Customers e-mail you their requests for services and deliver their PC's to you.  Then, it's up to you to deliver the services that they request.  These services start off fairly simple--eliminating viruses, adding more memory, or replacing broken components.  As you complete jobs, you gain experience and the jobs become more complicated.  Customers might request that you figure out what's wrong with their PC's, they might want you to upgrade their PC to a certain benchmark, or, the real payoff, build them a brand new custom PC.

The brilliant thing about career mode is that as you progress you unlock more advanced parts.  There are also some fun, almost storylike, PC's that show up--repeat customers who range from technophobe authors who keep damaging their PC's to wannabe streamers who need you to continually improve their PC.

Your personal PC displays your current background.  A fun feature.

+ Customer feedback system.  The full release added a star rating to your store that serves as your reputation.  As you complete jobs according to customer requests, they can then rate your service--a perfectly completed job will earn you a 5-star rating.  Earning 5 stars requires a lot of attention to the exact requests of a customer--they might request that you use a certain brand of components, that you use only new parts, that you add special cables, or that you provide additional services like virus scanning or benchmarking.  Reaching the 5 star level is the ultimate goal because certain jobs are only available at the highest ranking.  Actually reaching 5 stars is very difficult and requires you to complete 25 jobs in a row at 5 stars (I haven't managed to accomplish this yet).

+ Overclocking.  The full released added jobs that require you to overclock CPU's, GPU's, or RAM.

+ Purchasable upgrades.  As your shop makes more money in career mode, you can unlock tools that make your work easier--auto-cable tools, auto-standoff tools, etc.  These upgrades keep you playing with the goal of unlocking them all.

+ Custom water cooling.  This was also added in the full release.  It unlocks at a high level and requires many hours of play.  It's a fun new feature that further increases the amount of variety and personalization.

+ Numbers game.  One of the most enjoyable challenges is trying to maximize profits.  Each job has a budget, but trying to figure out exactly how you can keep costs low is fun.  You can also sell unneeded components and there's an in-game application with fictional market values that can be tracked.  Gamers who enjoy the economic side of certain games will like this feature.

Cons:
- Certain jobs can be repetitive.  I've noticed that every "diagnose and repair" job that I've gotten means that either the CPU or the mobo are broken.  I wish there was more variety in what parts are broken.

-While there is a tutorial to help learn the basics of building, there aren't any tutorials for other game mechanics like benchmarking or overclocking.  I still don't fully understand how benchmarking scores work.

- You need a note-taking system since there isn't one in-game.  I use a pencil and paper to record the components for my builds and details of jobs.  It would be really great if there was a notepad-like application in the game.  This is something that has been requested for awhile by many players.

- It can be frustrating when you can't figure out why something isn't working correctly.  The game won't tell you, but you can usually Google it and figure it out.

I'm very impressed with how PC Building Simulator has grown from a niche simulator game into a genuinely fun game.  The improved career mode has added challenge and will keep you playing to strive for that coveted 5-star ranking.  There are tons of licensed parts and putting them together into a working PC is strangely enjoyable.

Recommended for:
+ Fans of simulation games
+ Wannabe PC builders
+ Number nerds
+ People looking for a relaxing game

Not Recommended for:
- Adrenaline junkies.  It's a simulation game about building PC's...that's the maximal excitement.
- Extreme realists.  Yes, it's probably not the most realistic depiction of PC building.

Chaos And Calm

Periodically I go through bouts of extreme indecisiveness where I just can't decide what I want to be playing.  Most nights I just want to come home from work and relax, so the thought of something stressful isn't very desirable.  As a result of my own weirdness, I've been bouncing back and forth between two very different games--Guacamelee! 2 and PC Building Simulator.

I recently went back and replayed the very excellent Guacamelee! and had a great time replaying it.  My decision to invest in a controller helped to make it a much more enjoyable experience than the first torturous playthrough using the not-recommended mouse/keyboard combination.  I felt so good about the experience that I even decided to attempt to complete the challenging sequence of tasks to collect the five magical orbs that unlock the "secret" ending (I would recommend that everyone does it.  The secret ending is so much better than the "real" ending.).  Three of the tasks aren't extremely difficult, but two of them are downright devious, and I spent several hours trying to master the difficulty of leaping across disappearing platforms and mastering the horrid Tule tree obstacle course.  It's not for the faint of heart, and I almost gave up, but in the end, I did manage to complete it and earn the coveted "El Savior" achievement.

Tostada, Juan, and chickens!

Feeling good about completing the orb challenges, I decided to invest in Guacamelee! 2.  Navigating the extremely challenging obstacles gave me useful insight into the controls--it was the perfect time to continue playing the next game; while the controls were fresh in my consciousness.  The main problem with this is that I don't necessarily always want to play something intense/challenging everyday.  It's arguable that it's very "intense," but I just wasn't feeling it despite the fact that the second game seems to be just as good as the first game.

So far, Guacamelee! 2 seems to have kept many of the core gameplay features of the first game--the fighting and platforming is basically identical.  The core mechanic of swapping between dimensions is still very much present (and can still be challenging).  There are a couple of notable changes though; Juan's Pollo Powers (chicken form) has been vastly improved--many platforming moves remain usable in chicken form and you can also use wrestling grabs/moves.  A new addition to the game are special "chicken dungeons" that provide challenging puzzle-like scenarios, but that can contain special powers usable in chicken form.  I'm also enjoying the fact that Juan meets special trainers throughout the game who unlock talent tree-like options that can be used to beef up Juan's stats or abilities.  I'm enjoying what I've played so far.

Building PC's is oddly relaxing.

When I'm not feeling the intensity of fighting/platforming, I'm spending time running my own PC repair shop in PC Building Simulator.  Back in January, PC Building Simulator exited early access with the promise of new features in the full release.  I decided to check it out and see the new changes.  Since my old career save was rendered invalid by the full release, I decided to start a new career.  One of the first things I noticed is that jobs have many more variables than they did in early access--jobs come with a budget that should be followed (you don't have to, but there are negative consequences) and customers can make very specific requests for things like no used parts or a preference for certain component brands. There are also secondary objectives that aren't directly shown on the job panel when you're working on a PC--closely reading customer e-mails is essential as many will request special touches like a certain color of cables or benchmarking their new components.  Now, there is a customer review system that impacts the type of jobs you can access.  Doing a good job, and following all their special requests, means you will earn a higher review and earn more reputation for your shop.  Certain jobs, like building custom PC's, unlock with higher star ratings.  There's much more attention to detail required.

PC Building Simulator has continued to add to its list of sponsored in-game components and now sports a lot of the major players in the component world.  There are new achievements and trading cards, if that is your thing.  I would highly encourage anyone who hasn't played the full release to check it out--it's much improved! 

The Grandma Exploit

Career mode in PC Building Simulator is usually very straightforward--every day you get e-mails from desperate people with a variety of computer issues.  "Help, I clicked on something I shouldn't have!"  "I accidentally spilled a Cup-O'Noodles on my PC."  "I need you to upgrade my PC."  Then, it's a simple matter of trying to figure out exactly which parts are broken or will help customers attain their desired results.  For me, the best part of PC Building Simulator is building PC's from scratch.  Once you've hit a certain level, you will start getting requests to build new PC's.  Each request for a new PC is also accompanied by an explanation or request for what it should be capable of.  Some people want certain games to run at certain specs; others are on a budget and can only spend so much money; and others want a mega-PC capable of 4K resolution magic.

Of all the builds that I've done so far, one has really stood out in my mind for its clever deviousness.  It started off with a funny, innocent request from a grandma who needed a new PC so that she could chat with her grandson; how cute!  The e-mail was also sent in stereotypical grandma form--in all caps.  Grandma Jean stated that she didn't need anything fancy and set a budget of $450.  I threw together all the cheap components I could find and the total came up to $360.  Jean had the perfect bargain computer for chatting with her grandson.

One of the things that you will learn from completing builds is that there are usually complications and that you will end up seeing that same PC in your shop several more times.  The stories that follow these PC's can be quite funny and the game manages to create a cast of interesting people who are horrible with computers.  I wasn't surprised when I received another all caps, subject line only request from Jean to upgrade her computer.  I was surprised that Grandma was requesting 32 gigabytes of memory.  What kind of chatting is she getting up to?  The pay was good, so I ordered 4 sticks of 8g memory and souped up her cheap PC into a fabulous chatting machine.

The next day I received another e-mail from Jean.  She still didn't feel like her computer was fast enough and wanted a brand new, top of the line CPU.  I had a feeling that she really wasn't using her PC for chatting...  I replaced the bargain basement CPU with a shiny, new i7-7700K processor.

But Jean wasn't content, she needed more!  Now, she wanted me to upgrade her graphics card to a top of the line NVIDIA GeForce 1080 Ti.  Unfortunately, this was a part that I had to wait to unlock, but there wasn't a time limit, so Jean finally got her fancy new card.  She had the specs to be able to play all the best games in beautiful definition...  Maybe she was secretly into PUBG?  In 4k, nonetheless.

I got a more grandma-esque request the next day to figure out what was making her uber-machine run slowly.  She thought she had accidentally run into some malware.  I would gladly accept the $110 to install and run a simple virus program.  I had a theory about her odd computer upgrades....

And it turned out to be true.  All along, her grandson had been urging her to get upgrades so that he could convince her to swap PC's!  Talk about taking advantage of grandma...

I'm still enjoying the simple pleasures of PC Building Simulator and have enjoyed all the interesting characters who need PC's--the nutty author who secretly detests technology; the LARP nerd who needs a computer for their LARP group; the novice streamer who is trying to impress a girl.  It's entertaining to see these little stories unfold and I hope there are more to come.

PC Building Simulator: All the Magic and None of the Anxiety

For some strange reason I am oddly drawn to simulation games.  I've played and enjoyed EuroTruck Simulator 2, American Truck Simulator, Farm Simulator 17, and Viscera Cleanup Detail.  As a result of my vast simulator experience, I've picked up a number of virtual skills--I'm pretty good at driving semi's (just don't ask me to back them up), planting and harvesting crops, and cleaning up human and alien body parts.  It's really no surprise that when I saw a new simulation game popping up on the Steam bestseller's chart, that I jumped at the chance to expand my virtual resumé.  PC Building Simulator has given me the fake skills to diagnose and repair a wide range of computers.  Playing it has given me a completely false sense of feeling that I could actually build my own PC--something that I know is well beyond my level of technical expertise.

PC Building Simulator gives players the chance to build PC's and to run their own PC repair shop.  After a brief tutorial that teaches players all the parts that go into a working PC and how to assemble them into a working fashion, players can choose between two modes; free build, which gives players access to a wide range of various parts to build their own dream PC's; or career mode where they are in charge of running a PC repair business.

In career mode, players start by checking their e-mail to open up new jobs.  Each day poor, unwitting souls seek out your professional help in repairing or upgrading their PC's.  If you choose to accept a job, the PC's are delivered to your shop.  After they've been delivered, you can use your workstation to diagnose and fix them--this is usually a straightforward issue of hooking up cables, attempting to boot the computer and then seeing what errors pop up.  Once you've figured out the cause of the problems, you order the correct parts from your PC and wait for them to arrive (usually the next day if you're willing to pay the extra shipping).  Then, it's usually a simple matter of removing the broken piece of hardware and replacing it with the new one, booting it up, and then collecting the reward.

It sounds fairly easy, but there is some attention to detail required.  Several times I failed to pay attention to the type of motherboard when ordering new CPU's and ended up wasting time and money.  Or I ordered the wrong type of RAM, or not enough RAM, and had to go back and re-order.  These issues aren't a big deal, but as you gain levels some jobs are time sensitive and must be completed within a certain number of days.  Messing up can cost you entire jobs!

As you complete jobs you earn experience and gain levels.  Each job you complete will unlock new, improved parts.  As gain levels, the jobs you are asked to complete get more complicated--customers want you to benchmark their PC's at a certain score or, at around level 4-5, they want you to build them a completely new PC that falls within their given specifications.  Completing these more complicated jobs will earn more money and allow you to unlock new workstations and storage areas.

Completing jobs, especially builds from scratch, is oddly satisfying.  It's fun to start off with just an empty case and end with a PC that can perform the tasks that the customer wants.  There are several jobs where you build a PC and then the customer wants you to upgrade or has a string of problems and you get to see that same PC back in the shop and can make it even better.

Since PC Building Simulator is in early access there are some minor (possibly) bugs that need to be worked out.  I'm not sure if this is intentional, but every once in awhile you get a job where someone wants you to benchmark their PC and the cost of the improvements are more than the amount they are willing to pay you.  Maybe this situation is designed to make you be more business savvy?  The nice part is that you can simply quit the job and take a new one.

There is an aspect of management as you have certain bills that must be paid.  Rent and electricity payments roll around once a month and require budgeting enough to make sure that both can be covered and that you will still have enough left over to buy parts for any jobs.  You also have to manage an inventory of parts that are amassed from repairing and upgrading various PC's.  Why buy a new part if you can utilize a used one?

In my own experience, repairing and upgrading PC's is much, much more difficult.  This is especially true when you have a low level of technical expertise.  Once, the hard drive on my computer went kaput--I booted it up, heard a strange popping noise, and couldn't get anything to happen.  I bought a brand new HDD, managed to do all the requisite installation tasks, and it actually worked.  My next experience wasn't so great--I tried to upgrade the graphics card and failed miserably (it turned out that my motherboard was so old that it couldn't support the card I bought--replacing a motherboard is well beyond me).  My last success was installing new RAM--something that requires simply removing and popping in the new sticks.  This is the full extent of my real life PC repair and upgrade abilities and they were all anxiety filled affairs that cost a lot of time and money.

PC Building Simulator lets you experience these same moments in a much more engaging and less anxiety filled format.  I've been surprised at how much I've enjoy the simple repetition of diagnosing, fixing, ordering, and building that is the core of the game.  One of the best features of the game in its current state is the number of actual component companies that have allowed their licensed parts to be used.  Companies like Corsair, MSI, Intel, AMD, and many others!  I'm not sure that everyone will find it as enjoyable as I have and would caution anyone who isn't a fan of simulation games.

I'm excited to see how PC Building Simulator improves through early access and to see the number of licensed component companies increase.