Game not loading on steam to host, crashes upon loading

[aa244]

I've attempted multiple times to load/host my shared game on steam. It lets me set a lobby, but then crashes when the game is loading, so I'm unable to play the game. Friends are not online right now, so I can't ask them to host right now. I've never had this problem before. Is everyone on steam having this issue right now, or just me?

[BigSto]

Nearly identical issue, I cant even load the game from the Steam client...at all. Hit play, it turns blue to run, and moments later back to green. I'm really struggling with this.

Win11, 3070rtx i7 12700k 

Here are the things I've done:

1. verified all files

2. uninstalled the game (several times)

3. erased all local saves of the game.

4. turned off family mode/sharing and revoked other machine/user.

5. checked for all updates and optional updates - OS/system/gpu

6. power cycled my desktop

7. tried to run the app as admin (produces an error that states: "system32 x3daudio1_7.dll is either not designed..."

8. input the direct x line, from within Steam