This is so ridiculous. This exact problem has been an issue since the launch of this game. I've tried every couple months to play it, and I always end up spending an hour trying to get into the game, etc. I've also placed multiple calls to EA, and they escalated my case until I was denied a refund (download version). Please comment here if you are interested in joining a class action suit against EA. It's criminal that they haven't bothered to fix this and probably wasted collectively millions of hours of their supporters time.
