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A good political simulator, but missing basic promised features.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

After looking at [...], anybody would assume that this game was going to be the hit of the century (at least for politics fans!!). I've seen false advertising before, but this is just wrong. They promised so many features that don't even exist. I'll try to keep things "fair and balanced" by telling you what's really in the game. You can then make your decision about purchasing.

Gameplay
8/10
Basically, you look at a map of the US, click a state, and choose which action to take. There are only 5 actions to take, by the way. The game is very fun to play, don't get me wrong, but it is not the most realistic thing ever. It is super easy to get California to go Republican, and super easy to get Texas to go Democratic. They say each state will have different opinions about the issues, which is kind of true, the Republican states(in real life) care about the war in Iraq, and the Democratic states(in real life) care about the war on terror.... not exactly what I had hoped for. Then a few messed up states care solely about the enviornment (Not that the enviornment isn't important, but they literally ONLY care about the enviornment) . The game is super fun to play the first few times, but once you win a few elections it slowly starts to become more and more boring.

Online
0/10
It is super confusing to connect to the online portion of the game, I had to contact tech support, who had me change settings, which I must change every time I want to play. Then when you do get connected, there are usually no games. If you are on at "prime time" you MIGHT be able to get in a game. If you do, the lag is terrible, even if both players have cable internet.

Replay Value
3/10
Once you play 5 times, the game really loses its fun. They promise to keep things updated, but since its release they have only put out one update, which only fixed a few typos. The campaign is fun, but gets repetitive.

Overall, this is a very fun game, Amazon has it for 10 bucks. This game is worth around 5 bucks, but no more, and that's if you like politics, if you don't, don't bother. If you are looking for something more in depth, check out "President forever," which goes for 12 bucks, but is harder to use. Personally, I prefer The Political Machine.

One of the best, most interesting

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Games Of All Time!!!

First off, let me say that it isn't just a political game, it's a RTS game, with Politics and Presidential elections in it.

It has equal choice between both parties, and plenty of internet downloads/fantasy/ random issues and issue importance to keep the game fresh as awlays, and it's really fun.

I deffinently say one of the best.

Gets old quick. Very quick

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The game starts out as a very quick, lively game involving campaigning to become president. While put out in time for the 2004 Election season, you can choose among a cadre of many different politicians, from modern senators, to ex-presidents, to "legends" such as George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, etc.

The routine is a very fun, turn-based thing in which you must travel across the country, build campaign headquarters, give speeches, pay for ads, hire political operatives (such as smear merchant to lower your candidates approval in the state, or even intimidators who raise your approval by 5% per turn) or political capital to gain the support of organizations such as the NRA, NAACP, Women's groups, environmental groups, etc, and fundraisers.

However, as soon as election night comes around and you either win or lose, that's pretty much the end of the game. There's no replay value in the game, as everything goes exactly the same way and can be fully accomplished within an hour

The Political Machine: Political Thriller that Just Stopped Short of Divine

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: December 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The Political Machine is not like most PC games. It is not a war game. It is not an economic game. It is not about world or european history. It is about American history, about American elections, and about American leaders. It presents a very accurate portrayal of the election process. You can pick from the various 2004 possible Presidential candidates or design one yourself and use it in campaign mode to unlock future possible candidates (Condeleeza Rice) and historical ones (Washington, Roosevelt) You post ads, give speeches, establish campaign HQs, gather endorsements, pick a Vice President, and talk to the media. You do everything which candidates for president in our day and age may do. However, as the game portrays the 2004 election, it will gradually go out of date in terms of modern candidates. It is my personal hope that Ubisoft decides to make a sequel to this game for 2008. The reason I claimed that the game stops just short of divine is because you run for president, but then what? Win or lose, the game ends. You do not experience being the president, nore do you experience losing and going back to being a senator, governor, etc. Though, since I have yet to see such a game, I can hardly fault The Political Machine for lacking these aspects. Some claim that the game has Republican bias by classifying Washington as a Republican when that party did not exist at that point. However, we have had two main ideologies in this country, liberal and conservative, and they have evolved and changed parties several times. Washington was center-right in mindset. He is classified historically as a Federalist along with John Adams, a conservative. The Federalists later became the Whigs, the party of such notable men as Zachary Taylor, which then became the Republicans, the party of Lincoln and Ike. The Democrats evolved from the Democratic Republicans, the party of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, and then became the Democrats, the party of FDR and Jackson. Anyway, I'm getting a little off topic here. I would recommend this game to anyone with political leanings, for it is not so out of date yet.

Republican Propaganda Game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 16 / 50
Date: September 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is ok as a game and midly entertaining but I resent how obvious it is that the creators are republican and are lying about people's attributes in this game.

Such as republicans integrity being higher (almost all) than democrats. Or the media bias being consistantly higher for democrats when studies have proven that there are more positive stories about republicans in the press and more negative stories about democrats.

Also blatant historical inaccuracies such as washington being a republican, the republican party didn't even exist until Lincoln and back then the republicans were the progressive party so in todays terms he would be a democrat.

Worth The Buy, but less than I expected...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: June 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game was good. I like politics and computer games. But this game really just turned into a gag, featuring long-faced Kerry nad monkey Bush. They din't even have Nader. But this game is different every time, and the challengers do get tougher every time. But I feel that you just can't do enough to win an election in the game, besides ads and speeches. You run out of money constantly, and lose "stamina" every time you go to a different state. But the answers on Barry King (Larry King) and other media shows that you give do refer to that of Republican and Democrat. But the one thing that truly brings this game down are the state elections themselves. States like California nad New York, which are profoundly Democrat in real life, are not in this game. Every state starts out at about thirty percent going Democrat, Republican and Independent. You have to give ads and speeches to win that state, every state. You just run out of time.

This game was fun, but the lack of reality in a reality-mocking game brings it down to three stars.

gooses review

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: June 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is a must buy for people who like computer games and politics. You cant beat the price iether. There isn't much that is more rewarding than running a complete smear campaign and running someone such as jimmy carters "good name" into the ground. My favorite method of winning is to say the opponent supports ruining the environment in alaska by drilling for oil and saying the opponent is against public education, freedom of speech, and a coward for being against the war in Iraq and Afganistan. The artwork is very funny and all the written updates to show whare you are in the campaingne time allotement are halarius. The ones to note include the drunken party member saying you can kiss my republican butt and the news add saying that you have busted out of the opening gates like a hungry cougar. The most rewarding part of the game is after a long hard fought campaigne winning every state in the union except maine and road island. This is definatly worth your time.

Fun Game, but sloppy and filled with historical errors

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: February 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First off, let me say that this game is a fun game if you are into this kind of stuff. I have beaten it several times and yet i still play it once in a while because it is kinda fun.

My problem with the game has nothing to do with the gameplay, but rather with the historical accuracy of it. There are several glaring errors which should be corrected for any future versions. Some of these errors include the game saying that Teddy Roosevelt was elected President in 1858 (which would have been before Lincoln) when he was actually elected in 1900. Another is that it lists Woodrow Wilson as from Georgia when he was actually born in Virginia but raised in New Jersey. But perhaps the biggest blunder is that the two "final guys" in the campaign race, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, are listed under the wrong parties. The game has Washington as a Republican and Jefferson as a Democrat. They should be switched. Anyone who knows about colonial politics knows that Washington was a federalist (i.e. strong central government and lots of federal power over the states) and Jefferson was the first Republican president we had (who among other things advocated states rights and was against federal meddling).

Not a big deal, and it doesn't really take away from the gameplay, but I just think that if a game is going to include famous presidents they should at least get the dates they served and their parties correct. And how is JFK, perhaps the most popular president ever, not one of the Democratic candidates?

Good Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: January 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Ammusing game, kind of complicated though, you have to go to every state in order to win every state, and it's really hard to get the big states and enough little states to get you elected, I haven't won once yet.

Pretty Cheesy

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: November 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I am not sure where it gets all 538 electoral votes -- DC is not there. No debates. Unrealistic rules. For example: it should be possible to set up a multi-state advertising campaign without visiting each state indendendantly, and reproducing the same ad. Likewise, the positions are divided in support by Dems, Ind, and Reps, there is no assignment per candidate. -- In other words - no track record on positions. Additionally, it is unclear if any candidate is deemd the incumbant.

I bought the gane before the post election price reduction. I did get enjoyment out of it, but could have gotten more enjoyment out of the same $ with something else.

One review mentioned fun for Democratss, and not for Republicans -- I don't get that analysis. It is pretty easy to win or lose with any candidate and any party.

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