Some disappointment with The Crew for PC

So, taking part in the "Get The Crew for free on PC" event that I mentioned here, I encountered a big problem, the game just wouldn't load. It was stuck on a "Installing 5/6" screen that never did change, despite verifing the files and downloading both Uplay and The Crew twice (after uninstalling both each time, save for the last and final solution).

I searched the internet, after performing the usual tasks associated with such an error (like making sure Windows, video drivers, DirectX and everything else I could think of was up to date) and came across a very odd, but effective fix.

Turns out the problem is InstHelper.exe located in: \Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\games\The Crew (Worldwide)\Support. The advice given was to rename to InstHelper1.exe and remember to re-rename it back if the game needs to be updated (you would think Ubisoft could just address this issue, but....).

Now, with the game problem remedied, I went through both tutorials (the original brother-gets-killed-and-get-srung-from-jail-after-5-years and the new Calling all Units addition) and race across the countryside to the house I picked in Saint Mary. My son, on the Xbox, was going to meet me there. 

Sadly, that story doesn't have a happy ending and I have only myself to blame for it. Despite the day in age for which we live in, I just took it for granted that The Crew was like quite a few other cross-platform games on the market and have the ability to connect the players in one big communal environment. War Thunder does this, for example. However, The Crew does not.

My son went to the same house in Saint Mary, but it was in another dimension. I didn't even have to ask if he was interested in downloading a PC copy of the game for himself, since he is much further along than I am (he finished the original storyline a mere two weeks after school and weekends).

I don't want to really start over either, but just perhaps, there might be somebody more steady to play with out there, so I will keep this option open. Besides, all the tricks I learned from the Xbox copy applies here, like the ability to level up in a very big hurry.