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.

You’ll notice that some players on your roster will not have an overall, potential, or other attributes due to the fact that those guys are new. You’ll have to play those guys in the pre-season games to unlock some of their attributes and even then depending on how much playing time those guys get you may still not unlock some attributes. For example, I had a LT on my squad and I put him in first string just to see how he would do and after the first pre-season game it only unlocked his STR (43), which was pretty bad because he was getting beat a lot in that game. You may think at first you’ll have a hard time figuring out who to cut off your roster, as you dwindle down, but EA makes that even easier with the ability to take your team to practice mode. Yes, finally take your team to the practice field! Practice mode in Franchise is a great way to see how players perform and it may be just what you need when it gets down to making the final cuts. Take your team to practice mode and put in a WR you are on the fence about to see how well they catch or run their routes.

So after you’ve made your cuts and you are ready for that week 1 game you’ll want to dive into the all new rookie scouting system. Scouting a player will unlock certain attributes so you have a better understanding of that player when it’s time to invite them to an individual workouts, pro days, or when you scout them at the NFL combine at the end of the season. In week 1 you’ll be able to scout 15 players. You’ll want to watch for players that are consistent throughout the year. If you scout a player in the regular season you will unlock all of his ratings when the offseason starts giving you an advantage of knowing that players strengths and weaknesses.

The last thing I want to touch on is one of my favorite upgrades in the Madden NFL 12 Franchise mode….Free Agent Bidding. So I simulated the 1st season and to my dismay the Dallas Cowboys won the Super Bowl. After the 1st season I needed a RB and a DB and was going to target that in the Free Agency. Free Agent bidding is a lot of fun this year. This year when you go into free agency you can look at the players in the “Free Agent” pool and see who is available. Each player has a timer and all of the NFL teams bid on the players in an eBay type of setup. One of the best things in my eyes is that once you start free agency bidding you can’t pause or go back. The process is very fast and if you don’t go into the process already knowing who you want, you may not get the person you want. For example, in my franchise I targeted Reggie Bush and spent a lot of time outbidding other teams for him. Because I paid so much attention to him, I missed out on other free agents I needed to fill holes on my team.

There are so many other impressive additions to the Franchise mode, like being able to trade future draft picks, user roles, Dynamic Player Performance, and more. The Madden NFL 12 Franchise mode should be just the thing the community is looking for, and what EA SPORTS has been promising the hardcore franchise community.

Shopmaster runs a Madden Fan Site called MyMaddenPad.com and can be found on Twitter @Shopmaster, XBOX Live – Shopmaster, and PSN – MWShop.