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”). The 2004 edition of the game was a tremendous success. Using actual demographic data, the 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.

“Political junkies will appreciate many of the political consultants and strategies employed in the game such as the use of smear merchants, spin doctors, intimidators, cheer leaders, movie stars, etc.,” continued Wardell. “Strategy gamers will appreciate the balanced game mechanics that allow players to research new campaign tactics that even novice political observers can see from the current election.”

The Political Machine is both a single and a multiplayer game - players can either compete against the computer or against others online on www.politicalmachine.com. The website also provides an ideologically neutral location for users to discuss the current election.

The Political Machine will be released this June for $19.95.