Dude, just return it. There's so many bugs and they're constant. Unless you're playing on the easy setting it's going to be a nightmare.

I've had a similar issue a few times. I got past it by launching the EA app manually and then starting the game rather then letting the EA app try to launch automatically when starting the game. If you haven't already given that a shot then hope it helps.

You need the EA app to play EA games on Steam. Sounds like there is an issue relating to your EA app/account (ie. not signed in, downloaded, updated, etc). As Plastic Age suggested the first thing to try is launching the game from the EA app instead of Steam. If it you can't find the EA app then you need to download it and sign in to be able to play the game.

you don`t need th EA app. I refused to register with EA and the game still starts. There were about three ways I was supposed to log in with an EA account. I cancelled all of them and then the game starts. I just have to disable EA from starting the EA app every time Windows starts.