Video Games

The Political Machine 2008

B For PC. Rated for ages 10 and up. $19

MY FELLOW AMERICANS: Do you cringe every time your favorite presidential candidate makes a stupid blunder or fails to support your pet cause? Well, now you can shape the message by taking the helm of the campaigns of Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton and various other historical candidates and presidents in The Political Machine 2008. But while this strategy game is a lot of fun in short doses, hardcore political junkies will want more.

CLAWING TO THE TOP: In the campaign mode, you select a candidate from either party and face off against a computer-controlled adversary. The game is set on a map of the United States, and you have to decide where your candidate is going to travel, what issues he (or she) is going to support or oppose, buy ads, raise funds and deploy political operatives, of both the professional and thuggish variety.

TRACK THE RATINGS: As in real life, the goal is winning the electoral vote, not the popular vote. So you have to track the polls in key states while not wasting resources on unwinnable states. For example, if you're playing as a Republican, there's no reason to build a ground operation in California. But the state is very lucrative for fundraising, so you can't ignore it entirely. Likewise for Democrats and Texas.

BOTTOM LINE: Winning a campaign can be tense and exciting, as you sprint across battleground states and slug it out with your foe. But the surprise announcements and gaffes and news events that define real-world campaigns are almost nonexistent. Also, the game is a bit buggy, and downloading updates is annoyingly complicated. Still, this is a fun, sleek game that would also work great for high school civics classes.

Victor Godinez

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