Looks like you can use several ways to play online.
http://www.moddb.com/games/swat-4/tutorials/swat-4-multiplayer-tutorial
It is an old article but there are several posts telling people to still use it so I think it still works.
Edit - Gary wins lol
Frostbite is new for Madden, and that seems to be part of the story mode push. FIFA did the same thing when it went to Frostbite.
Edit - Lol at the Youtube guy dying trying to talk about the new NFS.
Looks like UbiSoft are trying out a preview version of UPlay on PC that introduces group chat functions. I set up a group for us but am not sure if it will work if you aren't in the preview. Not a huge deal since we don't use it often but still good to see.