Game refuses to start, specs and drivers all up to standard

[shanyi]

The game worked the first time just fine. This is a steam problem...

My other Steam games work fine, and the launcher fires up every time - it just cuts out after a short time. I've verified the game's cache on Steam and it comes up clean. Unless the game is somehow being deliberately cut off - which seems unlikely given how I've tried playing the game in Steam Offline mode, and I got sent here by Steam Support to begin with - I'm pretty certain the issue is with the game.

(Edited for clarity)