Played for a bit last night. Quick review:

Bad stuff:
EA has decided that you must be connected to the internet to use this game which is pretty lame when there are only 3 US servers. Sometimes you need to wait to login.

The launch was done very poorly because EA would not allow you to pre-load the game and when it unlocked a million people tried to download it at the same time (good news is it was under a gig in size)

Gameplay:
Thankfully the game is much like the Simcity of old. You put roads in and zone areas to residential/commercial/industrial people quickly come and build. Graphics are good and street level views are pretty interesting. It looks like there isn't quite as much micromanagement as the older versions... you still need to watch your electrical and sewer grids but it seems to auto connect everything you just need to make sure you have enough power plants etc. Once you hit certain milestones like a population amount it will suggest you add a cityhall etc and that makes people happy. Pretty fun so far.

When you start you pick a region map that includes 5 or so starting areas. If you play with friends you can invite them to your region and they can build on one of the starting areas also. The starting areas are actually pretty small compared to the old SimCity and I in 30 minutes of play got to the edge. It looks like the idea is to work with other cities and sell your excess power etc. So I guess you have built in expansion areas for your cities. Overall pretty fun but I haven't played too much.