So, i just ran the most recent (mid september) packet for a small group last night, and it went really well.
I had no plot in mind beforehand, and due to time constraints it was basically grab-pregens-and-go. Mostly they wanted to test out the combat system anyway, so it was pretty easy to find an excuse to get some action going. I tied it in to each person's background & class somewhat, pretty straightforward stuff.
The players were two vets of 3.5, and one who had never gamed before. We spent about an hour or so, covering the basics for everyone, and got started. At the player's suggestion, we did a single encounter with the Barbarian taking on some goblins and the players of the Ranger and Fighter watching to get the basic idea first. That went well enough with the Barbarian one-shotting the goblins and no hits received in return. Loaner dice for the DM.
Anyway, jumping the other two in against some beefier goblins worked well later and all three had a great time with the mechanics and storytelling. We told a story rather than having it get interrupted by fights or rules lookups, which was great for all concerned. I'm pretty much an improv style DM at this point, and 4E was nice for enabling that. This version worked quite well for that too. Players kept things moving, and we fed off the storytelling angle, rather than mechanical mastery. A couple characters got hit once each, and that was about a 50% of HP type hit. The new guy (Fighter) wisely retreated to use Second Wind, enabling the Barbarian to mop up what was left.
One ruling I made on the fly was to allow the Barbarian (on his turn) to pursue goblins that moved and hid, and destroy the foliage that they were using for cover/hiding. He'd have to spend an action clearing a given "square", but just damage rolls, no attack rolls on bushes. Elf ranger was able to detect the Goblins even through the brush, thanks to Advantage on Perception. Advantage and Disadvantage went over very well. This group had been looking for simple rules in general and this played well with them.
Afterwards the vets and I discussed the other aspects of the system, and they generally liked it very much. New guy had an easy time of it, and I think in this case at this table it was a success for us all. That's my basic report.