1. The fire/smoke - I got the chance to see this feature this morning. It was cute. This is about on par with the 'battle animations' that are enticing to beginner players or for creating game advertisements. It serves no utility for current players. It CAN be turned off in the options. (Thank GODs and Heros)
2. Activity banner - the green scroll that appears on the screen whenever you ship resources, cancel commands, do virtually anything. This is useful for new players. It sticks to the screen if you are hovering anywhere near it - which of course you are if you are in a complete hurry to do something else quickly. This encourages the player to furiously moving the pointer far away from the banner and move in a frenetic circular motion while cursing to make it fade. Unlike the Smoke/Fire - this cannot be turned off.
3. Highlight Options - when I go into strategic view now, there is now a Highlight Options box. This is to let you change city colors - your own, a players or an Alliances. This cannot be turned off in settings.
Keeping in mind many new features (enhanced images of troops/ships, bigger Zeus with muscle definition) are to enhance the appeal of the game to prospective gamers I don't ask them to turn the features off. What would be of greater value however, is more options to customize or streamline (turn off) these features, as most will want to do so when they are no longer brand spanking new to the game.