Community Blog: Reaction to Madden NFL 12's Franchise Mode from Shopmaster

[Paakaa10]

EA SPORTS Game Changer Raymond Goode--better known as Shopmaster--has written a blog for the Madden NFL 12 title site reflecting on his time spent with Franchise Mode at the Madden NFL 12 Community Event last week: http://www.ea.com/madden-nfl/blog/franchise-first-look

Hello Madden Fans and Franchise junkies! My name is Shopmaster – an EA SPORTS Game Changer. I was at Tiburon Studios recently to take a look at Franchise mode in Madden NFL 12. Last year, Josh Looman (senior designer) said that they were going to upgrade Franchise mode in Madden NFL 12, and now it’s time to see what the team has accomplished. From jumping into it, I think Looman and the Madden development team has done an awesome job at giving hardcore fans what they asked for. There are so many additions made to this mode this year that it’s hard to talk about everything, so let's just start with what will happen when you take control of your favorite team in Madden NFL 12 Franchise mode.

The first thing you will notice right away is the expanded roster. There are now 75 total guys that can be on your roster when the preseason starts. I chose to take over my beloved Washington Redskins and was immediately burden with the fact that I had some real decisions that needed to be made to get down to a 53 man roster. What’s great is that now there are “Cut Days” to make that process easier. Each week you are forced to cut a certain amount of players off your team to come down to the size needed for that week. Before you play your first pre-season game you will need to cut 3 players by just selecting the players from the “Cut Players” menu option.

Hit the link to read the full write-up and then come back here for discussion of Shopmaster's hands-on impressions of Franchise Mode.

[Paakaa10]

Some sample screenshots from the blog:

[Kingpin32]

This is looking to be pretty good. Maybe next year we can get some of the features from owner mode that was in the last gen games. That stuff was always fun to me.

[skipwondah33]

I liked reading about the gameplay features that the Hardcore crowd will like

Defensive shading, suction removal, yellow zone defenders covering their area and drags better, etc

[jaymo76]

I still don't know how I FEEL ABOUT THE FREE AGENT BIDDING. It just seems so arcadish. I didn't like it in head coach as you really don't have a plan per say. You are just in a mad-dash to bid and only have a few minutes to make a decision.

[JeffHCross]

I disagree. I liked it in Head Coach because you had to have a plan going into it. You lost if you just reacted by the seat of your pants and did it on impulse. While, at the same time, you couldn't figure out the nuts and bolts and scheme a way into signing every free agent, especially for the cheap.

[iBrandon]

I have to say, if all the features would like advertised, Madden may get more play this year than ever before. These improvements sound amazing.

[jaymo76]

Yeah I am pretty excited for this game. NCAA looks good... Madden looks great!

[Kansacity88]

Okay, 75 players on a roster? Alright that brings up a question in my mind. So when we take the graduating players from NCAA over to Madden, will there be MORE players in the draft pool now? Not just the 99-90's but will there be some high to lower 80 rated players in there too? I know this question may get a "Duhhh" type of response, but I just want to know because the current draft pool would NEVER be able to satisfy a 75 man roster for all 32 teams. Hmmmm.....maybe I just answered my own question. But I just wanna be sure. The only reason I ask this is because I have been waiting for EA to finally get some lower rated players in the draft classes because if they wanna be realistic, small school players make NFL rosters all the time AND undrafted players as well. So this seems to be the only way that COULD happen.

[Kwizzy]

I have not played Madden nearly as much in the past couple years as I have in the past, largely due to stale Franchise mode. These additions have really gotten me excited to get into it again!

[fsuprime]

same here kwizzy, i barely touched 10 and did not buy 11, but 12 has been pre-ordered... i have not even pre-ordered ncaa 12 yet.