Eve Dominion graphics upgrade is tasty
 

In the latest free expansion for Eve, CCP did a big upgrade on planet rendering and starscape. I really like the results. In the third SS, you can see a storm on the dark side.

That looks somewhat excellent, prime minister of dark power. Does it still take at least a year of in-game training for a new player to become able to pilot a Titan?

Probably, but not every player needs to be able to pilot a Titan, especially considering that they cost hundreds of billion ISK and several months to build. You could probably be piloting a battleship, the largest combat vessel that can travel through gates, within your first month if you concentrate just on that, though. Myself, I've put off battleships in favor of Tech II cruisers and stat boosting skills. Bigger is not necessarily better.