Do you have what it takes to be the president? Today Stardock announced The Political Machine 2008, a new PC game that puts players in control of the 2008 presidential campaign. Play as the campaign manager for a host of candidates including Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, historical candidates or design one from scratch.
Players then choose their campaign battlegrounds and are off on the campaign trail to face a host of challenges including fundraising, talk show appearances, hiring spin doctors and winning endorsements. The game is won on Election Day by the player who gets the necessary electoral votes to become President.
The Political Machine 2008 is developed and published by Stardock Entertainment. The game uses a brand-new 3D engine designed to give the candidates a unique look (all candidates are presented as bobble heads). Using actual demographic data, the 2004 game accurately predicted the 2004 election months in advance. In June of 2004, Stardock’s CEO and Lead Designer Brad Wardell said that The Political Machine predicted that Ohio, not Florida, would be the key state and that whoever won that state would win the Presidency.
“This is the ultimate game for political junkies and a really fun way for anyone to learn about the election process,” said Wardell. “Once you put yourself in the campaign manager’s shoes, you really get to see how each campaign tactic ultimately affects the outcome of the vote. The whole point is to be fun but part of that means being reasonably accurate.”
Real-world scenarios are mirrored in the game. Players can choose what TV shows to be a guest on and will face tough questions from the hosts of shows like Colvert Report and the O’Malley Factor. In addition, players can choose to play out different historical scenarios as well as fantasy scenarios taking place in the future.
