but at least we'd see if that's the problem.
and the game will be playable without newer patches, it only needs to get up-to-date for the first startup.
(as far as I'm aware? correct me, if I'm wrong)
also, right now we get mostly
really big patches (with one or two hotfixes) every few month,
and you'll see that on the homepage.
don't know if there's anything else to try right now :/
you did try to disable Antivirus and Firewall already, right?
(also, there's an "edit post" button

)