UPDATE!!!!!
New Video card fixed the issue. Its my guess that there is not enough video RAM, texture memory, or whatever on everyone's video card maybe? My 6950 had only 1GB and my new 660Ti (msi) has 3 gb. I have nothing other than my personal experience to back this claim up, however it is something that we can all exchange information on and see if we can help Maxis/EA figure out what is going on. Anyway, as I now have a functioning game in both my old and new regions/maps/servers, I am going to go play!
Best of Luck to all of you, I will check back occasionally to see if there is ever a final resolution.
There's nothing on that in the minium specs, so it should work with 1GB either way
