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Political Genius!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 26 / 27
Date: August 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is one awesome strategy game that I've been hooked on. Mostly I'm a fan of FPS games and console games, but this is truly a gem of the genre.

The single player is fun and original, and fighting for former presidents in Campaign mode is a quest I'm still working on. The AI for this game seems to act and follow the real life politicans which the game mimics. The TV interviews are also hilarious, and somewhat informative.

If you're worried about the graphics content, don't be. This game looks and feels like a comic book, except that you're playing on one in a Risk-like atmosphere. The pictures of some of the TV Interviewers and our former President can get smirks and at least a smile from anyone. (Check out the screenshots too!)

The kicker however is the multiplayer option. This game is free from the lag and problems of many online games since it only connects to a server to find a game, and once a player finds a game, the host of the game takes over for the connection. This may be a new way for me to settle an argument, since defeating another real person not only requires skill but also brains.

Some of the fun options included are the Fantasy mode, which allows you to randomize settings, and of course developer Stardock's trademark customizable options. One can create his or her own character and play online with it! Also it's possible to include new candidate pictures and add new questions for the TV interviews.

I've been playing the Political Machine since its beta version, and I still can't get enough of it. If I haven't persuaded you, please check out the demo at PoliticalMachine.com. Thanks for reading, and if you're buying it...ENJOY! (I know you will :D )

Fun game - not a simulation

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 30 / 33
Date: September 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Political Machine is a simple, easy to play game of running for President. Since there hasn't been a good one since I boxed up my old 286, this game was a welcome surprise.

Every candidate has strengths and weaknesses. All the usual suspects are here to run in the 2004 campaign. Every candidate has an equal shot at the Gun Lobby and every other special interest group, which is odd, but you get used to it.

The campaign process is simple to get into. Fund raising will take you longer to figure out (hint: fund raise in states nobody campaigns in if they're rich, like NY, CA, TX).

Be sure to check specific issue polling often. You may find that you're down 80-20 on More Jobs (turns out you were against it in your opponent's ads). Also, some issues are more important in some elections (one game abortion was a key, most games it was not). There's a good deal of replayability, though you can' call it realistic. This is not a simulation.

The Campaign mode, ten elections against increasingly strong opponents and AI, is a great way to get you into the game. You really see the ebb and flow of a campaign as you get used to the mechanics of the game.

This is a fun, inexpensive game. If you like politics, then this will keep you busy for quite a while.

Who'da Thunk It???

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 27 / 33
Date: August 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Ubisoft??? The same company that brought you Planet of the Apes, Myst and Prince of Persia??? Yup, it's them. And they knocked my socks off with this one! What a suprise and a good one at that. You don't shoot anyone, there's no fancy 3-D graphics, no dungeons or dragons or spells, nothing blows up...all hail the DOS-yuppie god!

Until yesterday I wasn't aware that gaming companies were still in the business of making PC games for people who had IQ's of over 80. In fact, I haven't seen a strategy game this thoughtful and educational since Civ II. The game's premise is simple enough. You are running for president of the United States and you have to win over each state during a 10 month campaign. You must make a special effort to get the "swing states".

You can play as Bush or Kerry, or even create a character and play through a campaign mode. The game is thoughtful and contemporary; tackling hot current issues. It is realistic as well as you WILL be tempted to lie in certain states on heated topics (ie: war in Iraq) to get the vote. But you WILL be taken to task by the media if you cross up your lies. No bull, you must be clever to win this game.

You can stage smear campaigns and make TV appearances. You must collect endorsement from interest groups based on your political stance. The game is incredibly realistic. However, the real clincher here is that it has tons of educational value as well. If you don't understand political concepts, such as the electoral college or swing-votes, you most certainly will after playing this game. You'll also understand why politicians lie so much!!! It's part of the game, baby!!!

I'd give this one five stars for realism alone. I'd also send it 5 stars for pure unadulterated educational value. The only 3 cons here are a poorly written manual, poor font and an built in element of planned obsolescence. On the first point, the manual really should be better - or the game should have a built in tutorial. With reagrd to the second, I don't know how many times I'll have to say this before I die so here I go again: HEY, SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS - STOP MAKIN THE DARN FONT THAT MAKES YOU GO BLIND!!! (There, I said it - now I feel better).

Finally, with regard to the element of obsolescence. I think whoever designed this game was clever enough to realise that there is a select few people who will want more from Policial Machine. A case in point is that even in fantasy mode, the only two parties allowed are democrat and republican. You can't create your own party. For instance, I know some people who want Michael Moore to run for Prez. Some of you lunkheads will also want to run Nixon again. Of course, JFK or FDR might even make a comeback if theres a Political Machine 2!!

Unfortunatly, I don't think that this will happen. As more and more companies continue to pound out action shooters for X-Box and Playstation 9-year old kids, thoughtful strategy games like the Political Machine are becoming increasingly rare. I can just see this game being discontinued and sold at an Amazon Z-shop 5 years from now at 50 bucks a pop. I think the band Badfinger said it best: "If you want it you better come and get it, but you better hurry cuz it's goin' fast"!!!

-Somewhat Educational

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: October 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

What an excellent idea for a game, but not as many bells and whistles as you might be wishing for.

The Politcal Machine is a game about running for president of the United States. At your disposal is a variety of options from hiring smear campaigners, spin doctors and Press Release people. Along the way you have to watch out for all those politcal Activist who can either help or ruin your campaign. You can raise your poll ratings if you do good on a variety of spin off news shows. There is a hardball show called Hardhitter, a 60 minutes program called 60 Seconds. Last, what good campaign would be complete without speeches, advertisements and winning endorsements from the Religous Right or The Gun association. It's all here in this game!

From what I just explained, any political and news fan would be excited, but when you actually play the game its bland. There is no voice interviews or speeches(everything is read). The questions on the TV shows are very limited. You get 2 or 3 questions and they can be repetitive. Some of the animated faces dont look like the candidates and when you pick a female character, the game refers to you as "HE", not "SHE". The game really isn't bad, but it's not up with todays standards and expectations of what should be in a game.

If you are a political fan like me and you must have the game, then go ahead and buy it. It might not have the bells and whistles that it should, but it's a fun little time waster and somewhat addictive because its challenging.

Graphics=3
Commentary and Music=2.5
Fun Factor=4
Replay value=4

Total=3.4 STARS

A fun intro to politics

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: September 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is a good, albeit a bit tongue-in-cheek, way to introduce yourself to politics. The default candidates, Bush and Kerry, are joined here by a cast of at least 30 others, each with his or her own advantages. Several of these candidates are locked when you first start the game, but a campaign mode allows you to unlock them all. Play as the Democrats to unlock the Republicans and vice versa.

I have a bit of background knowledge so I can say, in all fairness, that the election process in this game is very streamlined but otherwise fairly accurate. In addition to the default campaign and quick modes, there is a fantasy mode where you can run a campaign where you'll see all sorts of issues (Merging with Canada, anyone?) and a multiplayer mode.

Here's my score:

Graphics: 6/10 - Simplistic, nothing that will tax your video card, but otherwise bright and cheery. Note: it can be difficult to discern between assets in different states!
Sound: 6/10 - Minimal sound effects, somewhat repetitive soundtrack. It's an okay effort; it could've been better, but it could've been a lot worse.
Difficulty: 7/10 - Some of the opponents in campaign mode are tough to beat. The game includes a "Masochistic" setting, which is not recommended for first-timers!
Gameplay: 9/10 - Easy to use, intuitive interface. Turn-based. Game gives useful tips at startup.
Story: 4/10 - The only "story" you get is the short blurb about each candidate you beat in Campaign mode.
Characters: 9/10 - A wide range of candidates to choose from. The only glaring omission I noticed was J.F.K.
Overall: 7/10 - In short, a fine game worth checking out.

It's about time!! But I wish it was more complex.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: September 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I've been waiting for a good political campaign simulation to come out for a long time. I'm a political junkie and I've always wanted to run for President...on the computer that is.

This game is a lot of fun to play and it's simple to learn, but that's also it's weak point. It is too simplistic and repetitive once you've played a few times. For instance, there are no debates, the VP picks have no special abilities (they're just like other political consultants) and there is no news to adjust to during the campaign. It's as though the world is in a static vacuum for the 41 weeks of the campaign.

In any case, it's a great start and I'm just really excited to see something that can hopefully be built upon in years to come. It's a shame that you can fight a realistic WWII battle on the computer and build entire cities and create whole families of people, but there is still no really good political simulation, which seems like the perfect computer game to me!

Awesome value for the price

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: August 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I've had this game for a few days and have really enjoyed it. I love playing the campaign mode and at higher levels it can become almost impossible to win. It has enormous replayability by using different cantidates and different strategies.

There are a few things that could be better. It doesn't cost more to advertise in large states so your strategy usually won't include taking a large number of the smaller states. Also election night isn't as good as it could be. It goes from state to state showing how won but it could provide more information and also more suspense by having close states being undecided instead of called right away. Supposedly they are making up update to deal with these issues though.

The bottom line is that the game is really fun AND really cheap. You can't really go wrong for this price. You'll have hours of fun.

Great for news and political junkies.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: August 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The Political Machine is great for those of us that follow the election and understand the nuances within. You hire operatives, choose what to give speeches on, run ads, etc. It is great fun. Also, the candidate combinations may vary. For instance, while playing last night George Bush chose Condi Rice for his V.P. and Wesley Clark ran with John Edwards.

The game keeps track of how well you are doing by assigning states the colors of red (Republican) or blue (Democrat).

Just a reminder, lest ye forget, the goal is to win the Electoral College. The popular vote means squat.

Enjoy.

It's Election Time!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: October 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The first thing that the Political Machine does is to bring to mind Tom Clancy's Politika (remember that game from ages ago?); not so much because of any specific similarities apart from politics and elections (Politika is quite primitive compared to this one), but because there aren't really other games of that genre out there.
Therefore, as a result of a lack of political games it has to be one of the BEST political/strategy games of all time!
It has everything, from real like strategy to all the major American issues, to extraordinary accuracy of the political map of the United States and much, much more!
There is something for everyone as the variety of candidates to choose from is vast indeed; from the meek and insignificant to the political heavyweights like George Bush and Bill Clinton. There are also a few surprises from the distant past...
Could it have been better? Absolutely!
The choice of VP does not seem to have that big of an effect on the electoral campaign.
Moreover, the campaign mode gets very difficult early on, so be prepared to sweat it out as you get pounded over and over again.
The Political Machine may not be perfect, but it is guaranteed to provide many hours of gaming enjoyment provided you are into this kind of stuff.
Strongly recommended to both strategy as well as history/politics enthusiasts.

Childish

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 10 / 16
Date: November 04, 2004
Author: Amazon User

In case you don't know already, this is a game where you manage a US presidential campaign. You're Karl Rove, Bob Shrum, whoever.
Long ago, I enjoyed a game on Apple called "President Elect." I had often wondered why there wasn't some sort of sim for this area. And now there is. Unfortunately, the Apple game from 20 years ago was better, which is sort of unbelievable since the whole file was probably 64K. A game available on the web, "President Forever" (which I heard about from another reviewer) is also better. Details:

1. GRAPHICS: The graphics are childish and cartoony. Kind of like Leisure Suit Larry or Animaniacs (but not as good as Animaniacs). I wonder why. It feels like they were designing the game and then some executive said "Hey, I want you to jazz it up for the 10 year olds! Make Bush and Kerry look kind of wacky, like the Camel ads with the smoking camel -- put some fun into it!" Well, in the end it sets the wrong tone and its hard to get away from. Also, the colors are a bit odd and make navigating around the states just a bit less easy than it should be.

2. PLAYABILITY: The whole advertising system is unrealistic. Also it is a shame that they did not include more potential candidates. No Richard Lugar? No Richard Gephardt? It would be fun to play out races where people other than the actual nominees could run. No such luck (actually they have a few but not many or you could jury rig it by designing your own Gephardt, for instance, but only if you've got a lot of time). Example 3: there are various specialists you can hire. Few feel realistic and they all have childish names like "The Fixer" and "The Smear Merchant." That's really targeted at the Batman audience. Are there a lot of 10 year olds signing up to play this game or something?

3. MULTIPLAYER: This is the game least likely to be a multiplayer hit in the game universe. Again, somebody looked at some auidience research and said "hey, you know what all the kids go for these days -- multiplayer!" Make it multiplayer. It's a minor annoyance but when a window pops up and someone says "Hey!" it's kind of an unpleasant moment.

4. CAMPAIGN PLAY: Again, the appeal of a sim like this is that its semi-realistic. To set it up as a campaign with increasingly difficult opponents is missing the point. Its a generic game development approach that winds up seeming out of place in this context and reinforces the notion that no one had a particularly unique, strong vision for this game.

In sum, this is a good idea for a game but the people who designed it didn't know who they were making the game for and I think they missed their target.

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