Can't play the game; freezes on startup

[SadPanda]

Step 1 resulted in this message: Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 is already a part of this operating system. You do not need to install the .Net Framework 4.5 redistributable.

Steps 2-5 went fine

Steps 6-7 resulted in this message: A newer version of Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable has been detected on the machine.

There was an important Windows update that wasn't installing properly. I ran the troubleshooting and it resolved the issue and installed that as well as an optional update. I went to restart and got this message: The exception unknown software exception (0xe0434352) occurred in the application at location 0x74da4b32

It still restarted just fine, but I'm still having no better luck with the game. I'll keep trying a few combinations of fixes unless you have any other recommendations.