I have to hit the esc key multiple times rapidly to escape from the cut scenes.

Anyone else seeing this?

Could easily be my processor.

For me it just takes one press of the ESC key. Does that happen to you on all cut scenes or certain ones?

With that said, I wouldn't mind seeing the following enhancements.

1) Within the OPTIONS screen, include an option to always skip it for people who don't want to see them at all and not have to manually skip them. They are very nice, but I am primarily a fast simmer and usually skip them anyway.
2) Add the ability to skip them by also being able to just click the mouse button.

If you choose the mute sounds option in the upper left menu then the cut scenes will not play at all

Thanks, had no idea that sound was tied to that. Maybe in the future might be good to have a separate option for the cut scenes since some people might just not want the scenes, but still want the in-game sounds.