It just happens. Been happening since the last update. In the past, I was able to get around it by restarting my PC (if lucky). Now, it is persistent, and the game is not playable. I have no clue why it happens, it just does. Running Windows 10.
I've noticed that the game appears to work (based on a few tests) if the internet browser is closed. I record my gameplay, and my storage space of choice is an external HDD. I noticed that unplugging the HDD prior to starting the game sometimes prevents the game from loading past 5%. I was able to log a few hours of gameplay after trying some of these measures. Opening the browser and connecting external media to the PC after the game loads works fine afterwards. I'm not yet sure if this is reliable but, will update this thread if I can consistently break past 5% when implementing these measures.
Alright, since the last post, It is now apparent to me that I have been on a lucky streak of the game loading up. The worst that would happen is that to get around this getting stuck at 5% I would restart my PC. Well, today, I tried restarting the PC about 10 times, and the game got stuck at 5% all 10 times. So, the RNG has been graceful until now.
