The Political Machine returns for '08 election

by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 26th 2008 at 11:00PM }

Stardock's political strategy game returns for this year's election with The Political Machine 2008. The full retail product puts players in charge of a national campaign for President of the United States; tasking them to control their candidate, raise cash, hire spin doctors and win endorsements. TPM 08 releases in June for $20.

The game is the follow up to 2004's The Political Machine, but with a whole new engine and style -- the candidates are depicted as "bobble head" dolls now. Stardock says the game mirrors real-world events like answering questions on "Colvert Report" and "O'Malley Factor." Players can also play a campaign from history or create their own future election. Publisher Stardock has really upped its game the last couple years; bringing us solid expansions to Galactic Civilizations II and the exceptional Sins of a Solar Empire.

Tags: political-machine, stardock, the-political-machine

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Sam @ Mar 26th 2008 11:09PM

oh man. I bought the 04 version back in..04. It was fun, but not that indepth. This game is probably just as mediocre. And they could have just made a patch for the 04 game..

Damian G. @ Mar 26th 2008 11:11PM

I really liked the 2004 edition, but I hope that they make the issues more accurate this time round (Arizona voters SUPPORT illegal immigration, REALLY?). And they need to add political conventions and/or debates. Those are what make or break a candidate.

Jonah5678 @ Mar 27th 2008 9:29AM

Damian G., the country is a lot more diverse than one would think. Arizona has a strong libertarian population, who generally are okay with illegal immigration (particularly geo-libertarians). That coupled with a large amount of immigrants (both legal and illegal) makes Arizona support of illegal immigration very possible.

It's not always as simple as North vs South, Red State vs Blue State. If this game mirrors that, then kudos.

Damian G. @ Mar 27th 2008 4:36PM

I know about their libertarian tendencies. But in 2006, Arizonans overwhelmingly supported anti-illegal immigration measures. Most Arizonans do NOT support illegal immigration, period; the game was flat-out wrong.

Jake11 @ Mar 26th 2008 11:12PM

nice! edu-tainment at its finest.

Jeremy White @ Mar 26th 2008 11:22PM

Can't wait.

ApolloIV @ Mar 26th 2008 11:27PM

Covert report huh

ApolloIV @ Mar 26th 2008 11:27PM

Colvert me and my damn ways

Shmil (Brawl Code 2621-2310-1994) @ Mar 26th 2008 11:34PM

can i play as ex-candidates such as Ron Paul?

Maverick Saturn @ Mar 26th 2008 11:47PM

You have to buy them seperately :) Remember, the devs have to make money.

HighFiveJesus @ Mar 26th 2008 11:58PM

yeah, actually it looks like he's on the box too. its a very ron paul looking guy on the right. http://images.stardock.com/tgn/boxes/pm2k8box.png

You can also create your own characters too apparently. I hope there are different endings for each candidate, like if you play with guilanni, you alienate yourself from the rest of the world and get attacked by godzilla or something

HighFiveJesus @ Mar 27th 2008 12:00AM

though i don't know why people even put him in their games, even ol' ron beat him in most of the states, and failed horribly in "rudy country" florida.

Damian G. @ Mar 27th 2008 12:10AM

I would think that all of the 2008 major party candidates would be included in addition to past and fantasy candidates. The 2004 edition included all of the Democrats even though it featured Kerry on the box art since he had locked up the nomination months before the game's release.