So I bit Civilization IV and even with the tutorial I found the game too complicated any did not know what to do.

How does Civilization V help out new players?

Thanks.

Watch the Quick Look.  Ryan seems to think it is incredibly approachable for people new to the Civ franchise.

There's a quick look that gives a good little glance. According to Ryan Davis, it can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be.

it takes anyone who hasn't played a civ game out in the back and violates your civil rights

also, Ryan's review:  
 

 Firaxis offers a hardcore turn-based strategy experience that nearly anyone can approach, without sacrificing any of its wildly addictive appeal    

All I know is, I played a game for about 8 hours today, thought I was doing really well (controlled half the map and had decent relations with everyone, and was micromanaging all of my cities for the best possible outputs). Then all the sudden, England declares war, and 432423424 enemy troops came into my area and destroyed. everything. 
 
First time playing. It was.. interesting.  
 
Now to try again..

My only exposure to the Civ series is probably 25 full matches of CivRev. And I had zero trouble following Ryan's quicklook. Does that say anything? :X

I've never played a Civ game before now. It has a lot of depth (and breadth) and along with that comes a steep learning curve, but I'm having fun with it. Played about five hours tonight and things are just starting to click, and I feel like I've made a lot of mistakes. There are still a lot of things I don't quite understand, but I'll figure it out eventually.
 
Don't buy this game if you're not prepared to sink a lot of time into it. A LOT of time.

I'd say the game does a good job at explaining as much as it can to new players.  After a game or two you should have the idea.  

Dude, I play a lot of SC2...and I mean a lot of SC2.   
 
I picked this up and can't put it down.  I never played a game like this before and it eases you into it. 

As stated by others Ryan was spot on. This game is the love child of Civ IV and Revolution.
 
Is has the streamlining of Rev but maintain alot of the depth of CIV IV. Very user friendly. This game is more of a turn based strategy game whereas CIV IV was an empire mangement game

I'm new to Civ and when i first played Civ V I was kind of lost, as Vinny said in the quick look it doesn't have a good tutorial program per-say. the interface is easy enough to understand but I didn't know the order I was supposed to be working in. However after watching the quick look I jumped back in and started doing great. sometimes you just need to see someone playing a game right to understand it.

My first Civ game and I'm loving it. It's pretty easy to pick up and learn.

Since I'm almost as old as the dinosaurs (28) I've played Civ since the first game, so I can't say much really. However, I really like the option to set your advisors between different levels, such as "New to Civ", "New to Civ 5", and stuff like that. And while changes seem towards making the game easier for the masses, I in fact feel many changes are towards hardcore players as well, such as only one unit per tile.

This is my first Civ, I had no difficulty getting into it.

Settler difficulty is basically a sandbox mode, so you can learn as you play, but Civilization V also has special tutorial missions if you want to play them.

I thought the same thing about Civ IV and still get confused when I play that game, but now playing Civ V, I understand everything that is going on. It is way way more fun, just an overall better game.

" The tutorial did nothing for me. I didn't even know where to click and when I did click stuff I had no idea what I was making happen. How is to to Civ noobs? A failure, for me at least. "

Considering civ 5 is so dumbed down and the menu icons are huge like grade school flash cards you shouldn't have any trouble understanding what is going on.  play the game on a harder difficulty the way its meant to be played.  all the problems youll find with the AI on lower levels aren't as bad when you crank up the difficulty.

Civ V is the one I understand.  I tried before with Civ 4 and Civ Rev but still didn't quite get it.  Now though I'm picking up the subtle nuances and starting to optimize how I'm playing.  Very accessible, I want to try multi-player games soon.

I played maybe a handful of hours with civ 4 and I felt that it hated me and bullied me until I stopped hanging around it.  Then I met civ 5 and it was easy to talk to and knew I wasn't sure of myself.  It had the patience to let me go at my own pace.  Civ 5 suggested a couple of things that I should do to get started and listed a few reasons why I should do those things; Civ 4 told me that I should do this and I could do some of the other things listed but, it recommended that I do what it says and that if I didn't, it wasn't going to hold back the punishment of not listening. 
 
I guess what I'm saying is that Civ 5 feels like you're in more of a healthy relationship while I felt like Civ 4 treated me like a whore.

I'm going to nuke the city of Boston in the year 1690. 
 
That is all. 
 
I LOVE THIS GAME.