While the graphics were intentionally "bad" by today's standards, I'm almost certain that Stardock cannot come up with any excuses for the sound.

For the most part, Stardock has had the strategy that more is not necessarily better, but in The Political Machines 2008, the sound is an irrelevant factor. As a matter of fact, you can easily play the game on mute, or if you desire, just listen to your own mp3s in the background, or just have the radio or television blasting. As I've said, the sound is not a factor in this election.

On the other hand, the graphics are awesomely bad in a good way.

I hope the above sentence confuses you, because I've tried very hard to make it so. There are two ways to look at the graphics for The Political Machines 2008: current technology standards, and game intent.

If you compare the graphics in The Political Machines 2008 to other games, lets say Turok, then you'll be totally disappointed. This game does not include anything that anyone would consider innovative technologies. It is not even up to par by comparison to most other games released in a while, but don't let that factor discourage you.

If you are looking at the game for the intent that the programmers had in mind, The Political Machines 2008 is a total success. The game was designed to look like political cartoons; caricatures. And they succeeded. The game also uses an overabundance of patriotic colors, so get ready for a lot of reds, blues, and whites. Although those are game's main colors, other colors are present from time to time. But don't let that discourage you from playing it. The game looks great and is very patriotic along with it.

Since the sound is not a factor, get ready to do a bunch of reading. Everything you do, interviews, ad campaigns, fundraisers, etc., requires reading on your part. Even the character creation involves reading, adjusting sliders and distributing points. The only time when you don't have to read is when you create the actual physical look of your candidate. As far as the physical look of your candidate, Stardock did an excellent job of allowing us to design our ideal candidate. While the current candidates such as Hillary, McCain and Obama look like the cartoon version of their real selves, for some reason, I failed miserably at creating Willie Nelson. Maybe others could have more luck. But the game looks great, assuming that you don't have a problem with political caricatures.