I guess the circumferential line around the minimap is the health bar or it might just be a directional help, just speculating. It's good in a way, less menu in the way of the game.
It appears most of you have a display that supports a 16:9 aspect ratio and not 16:10. Ubi sucks on this front. None of their titles support 16:10 aspect ratio and we are greeted with two nice black bars on the top and bottom. Like one of those HD rips!