Dude, I'm a Madden head for sure. I play in a really serious and well ran online franchise which is incredible. It's really all I do anymore. Ranked games are lame as people generally play incredibly fake and cheesy, and people will just quit in unranked games. It's a SIM league so each team is expected to play just like an actual NFL team would.
If anyone is interested in joining (Xbox 360), let me know and I can get you on the waiting list. Teams open up fairly quickly.
As for the actual game, I have no clue what to expect. I know they took away the "turbo," or speed, button this year. Supposedly more emphasis will be put on the joystick for maneuvers and speed won't be as important. Also, receivers are actually going to have better awareness this year, meaning that they will run past the 1st down marker on a curl route before cutting and won't run a flat route straight out of bonds when they are wide open. Those of you that play a lot know that this is highly annoying. One HUGE disappointment for me is they failed to make any significant upgrades to the online franchise system, such as salary cap, better management controls, etc. etc. =(
Either way, I'll be playing it!