Funny story: Follow these instructions and your Continue button will work perfectly. I'm on my third career without one problem on Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit.
1) Open your Device Manager and highlight the Mice and other pointing devices section.
2) Start NFS Pro Street (it will not start with mouse disabled) and get to the Main Menu.
3) Alt+Tab over to the Device Manager and use your mouse to disable the mice listed under Mice and other pointing devices.
4) As soon as your mouse stops working, immediately Alt+Tab over to Need for Speed and play away. Your continue button will work flawlessly.
5) When you're done playing Alt+Tab back over to the Device Manager and your cursor will still be on the mouse option that disabled it.
6) Hit Enter to bring up the Properties window, hit Tab once to move it to the Enable Device button, then hit the space bar three times. Your mouse is back on.
7) Close the game with your mouse (just out of spite) and remember these few easy steps.
*Unplugging the mouse does not work, sadly.
Evidently there is some problem with the mouse on your desktop stealing focus in Windows 8, I noticed it when I had a mouse cursor in the game on my main screen and saw my desktop mouse cursor moving around on my second monitor at the same time. The two are out of sync somehow and it nerfs the works. This is working for me with Autosave on and off, cracked and non-cracked .EXE, with and without cheat codes, no Gameboost or whatever it is. I did it with both a Logitech gamepad and a Logitech steering wheel and pedals, it's all a matter of having the pad and buttons assigned the right way. After doing this twice, it takes less than fifteen seconds total to do and I get to play one of my fave racing games without worry.
Oh, as a sidenote, those of you having the login problems who bought the game cheap from Origin and downloaded it, I suggest a disc copy. I paid very little for mine and I don't have to log in to a thing. I can cancel the "Connecting to EA" message as soon as it pops without issue. Enjoy boys and girls!
