Can't play the game; freezes on startup

[SadPanda]

I've tried running it as an administrator and also with several different resolutions in windowed and fullscreen mode. My last attempt involved:

- disabling firewall and antivirus
- ending the listed processes
- deleting Amnesia folder
- removing read-only status from all files in common\Amnesia folder
- disabling Steam Overlay
- running both the launcher and the game in compatibility mode for Windows XP (Service Pack 3)
- running both the launcher and the game as an administrator
- launching game with minimum resolution in windowed mode

I got to the main menu, started a new game, and let it run on the loading screen for a few minutes just to see what would happen and got this runtime error message: "This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way."

Then the music stopped, I clicked "ok" and the game closed.

hpl.log remains the same as last time I tried windowed mode.