Quoted from Pimp77:The big issue is having to start on Miami or NY EVERY game. The latter cities just don't get played as much. If every city was accessible at the start (except west coast) it would be a near perfect game. Add a wizard mode for completing all cities with it and it does become a perfect game.
I'm a huge fan of RS, and I agree with this completely.
RS *is* linear in terms of what is stated above: starting with 1 of 2 cities every time.