President Forever 2004 vs The Political Machine

from PolMach Forums
I am interested in how this game compares to President Forever 2004...I played the demo of President Forever...it was fun in my opinion. I know you have to take into account that PF was made to be an election simulator and PM was made to be more fun. However, overall, which is best?

The exclusion of National Debates, Washington D.C. , 100% custom-made canddidates playable online (and on top of that, a lack of pre-made candidates such as Howard Dean and McCain), the slowness of the Ubisoft QA Team on getting the demo out...has all given me doubts about this game. And the fact that Stardock has not really promised to continue developing some of these basic left-out game features, concerns me the most. The big thing that draws me to this game is its multi-player capabilities, otherwise I would have already chosen President Forever 2004. However...is it lacking so much that the MP does not make up for the "problems"?

Thank you in advance for any opinions.

P.S.

A few more forums should be added in my opinion for more organization (so everything does not have to be mixed up in Game Support):
Suggestions/Ideas
General PM Discussion
9,673 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from PolMach Forums Top
Personally I like this one much better. Stardock has always done the best job ever with continuing support for its games and adding things epople request. Sheesh, just look at Galactic Civilizations and many of the other games that Stardock has done. You WILL NOT find a better company to support its games than Stardock. Keep in mind UBISOFT is just a distributor. I purchased drengin.net which gives me all of Stardock's game,s beta's, alphas, etc. I've never gotten more for my gaming dollar.

I think this game will have more legs than PF 2004. When the mod community kicks in, you'll see.
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Reply #3 from PolMach Forums Top
I think a little further down in forum archives, another post was talking about Power Politics III vs Political Machine...but PP3 is un-released, so would be hard to determine that.
Reply #4 from PolMach Forums Top
I wouldn't buy this game (I already did) until they fix the multi-player issues. There isn't much replayability in Single player mode. Its fun in multiplayer, but the current support for it is poor.

--James
Reply #5 from PolMach Forums Top
I would buy it again. I haven't tried multiplayer, sadly I live in the boonies and broadband isn't avaliable, so single player is my only option. I think the replayability is one of the games strengths. Sure if you play the same character the same way it gets kinda predictable but most games do. And while I would like to see outside influnces pop up to change that part some, playing as different candidates supporting different issues offers a lot of varied outcomes.
Reply #6 from PolMach Forums Top
I would buy it but replayability isn't one of its strengths.

Until they add some more candidates, the replayability is limited unless you like "fantasy" scenarios like Lincoln v. Woodrow Wilson or Nixon v. Thomas Jefferson type races. The sequel to the Doonesbury game, Power Politics 3, is really just an updated Doonesbury using the 2004 demographics. I got the impression from a brief message board chat with the designer that it still be biased towards the Democrats and that the basic Doonesbury engine is essentially unchanged (except it now links with Gallup polls). You can reserve the game and play the pre-release version for only 19.99, but I'd stick with Political Machine.
Reply #7 from PolMach Forums Top
ok so could someone try to compare the three, and rate which is most buyable. it think so far we have

Political Machine - more of a fun game, less playability

President Forever - more of a simulator, also cheaper

Power Politics 3 - Much more in depth, not out yet
Reply #8 from PolMach Forums Top
I am a beta tester for Power Politics 3, and I have President Forever. Of course this games demo has not come out yet so I have been as yet unable to play this game, but based on the experiences I have had so far I would say go with President Forever. It is indepth enough, lets you go multiplayer against other people in your house, but its also not too increadibly complicated, time consuming or challenging. Also they have from what I can tell good support, and I believe that the bias is fairly gone from PP3 but I have just fiddled around with it a bit.
Reply #9 from PolMach Forums Top
I got the impression from a brief message board chat with the designer that it still be biased towards the Democrats


I completely disagree with that assesment, and based on more discussion over at PP3 I beleive you may have changed your opinion of this as well?
Reply #11 from PolMach Forums Top
I agree with JMdenver reply 9 and aaron reply 10
Reply #12 from PolMach Forums Top
I found both this game and President Forver unrealistic and no fun to play after more than 2-3 times. I am still waiting for Power Politics III but I suspect that it will be in beta until 2008 at this rate. What we need is an updated version of President Elect. Nothing has ever come close to it.