Edit 2: This got solved in the most bizarre way. I thought my sound just wasn't playing and, whatever, who cares? Well, after messing with every video option I could imagine, I finally started playing with sound on my computer, figuring that I could at least try to learn myself in the testing ground. But I knew I wouldn't get far without sound--I am a very auditory person. I found some option in my sound card that allowed apps to take exclusive control of my sound. I unchecked it on a whim and tried the game again. Well, the sound suddenly worked. And since Captain Adams was actually able to say his spiel to me out loud, the continue button finally ungrayed and I was able to continue. So, yeah, it's working now. How strange that my whole game was being held hostage by sound settings. Oh, well. Thanks for your help everyone. I'll see you out there soon.

I wanted to post this in the Academy Bug Report forum on PGI's site, but it said I couldn't post there even after logging in, so, I don't know where else to turn. I just downloaded the game yesterday and have been trying to run the Academy. Every time, I get a little video of landing in a dropship, then it changes to a screen of Captain Adams telling me that this is my augmented training HUD with a Training Roadmap on the side. Everything else is black. There is a continue button in his dialog box, but it's grayed out. I can't click it, or anything else. The only thing that responds at all is the F1 key that shows my keybindings. It just sits there frozen, and I have to alt-tab and forcibly close the game. I've tried it with identical results half a dozen times, each with different graphical and other game settings, in full screen, full window, and small window mode. Nothing works.

Has anyone seen this happen? Any advice on how to fix it? Can I realistically play this game without the Academy to teach me at all what I'm doing? I am very familiar with both the table top game and the Paradox video game, but I haven't played a Mechwarrior game since whichever one was on Playstation 1.

Edit: Not sure if this is relevant, but I can't get any sound at all to play in this game whatsoever, academy or otherwise, no matter what sound settings I use.