I HAD the SAME problem.
Here's my solution. Before clicking PLAY - > HOLD the SHIFT Key of your keyboard. And keep it HOLDED until the game launch correctly (I'm not kidding)
Try it out and let me know.
PS: Using Windows 7 for my part.
This is kinda homeopathic levels insane but indeed it did work for me too. WTF??!??
I'm curious for a dev's explanation of that bug.