Hi all, my 2 cents here.
Fresh new Windows 8.1 installation, steam and civ 5 (all dlc), 1.0.3.144.
When I first enter the game, just hitting the load game button (single player) crash the game
exactly as decribed by the OP.
After trying to check every driver, configuration etc, with no results, I enabled steam cloud on CIV 5, restarted the game ad all went well!
To test it, I exited and unchecked again the steam cloud checkbox on Civ 5. Reloading the game and no crash.
Please note:
1. fresh new installation means NO savegame on "my games"\ directory. Nothing but the directories and files automatically created by the game itself.
2. fresh new installation means HD formatted and NO restore from backup. All downloaded by steam application.
3. no other games installed. Only steam and Civ5.
4. steam cloud on civ5 was disabled because of the old installation. Steam account remember that this check box was unchecked.
5. I have only 1 civ 5 savegame on steam cloud so old I cannot even remember of it.. just checked it now to inform you
.
I think that Civ5 simply need to test steam cloud contents at last one time, but it cannot handle the exception generated by the combination of:
- steam online
- brand new fresh installataion without copying "my games" contents and .ini files
- steam cloud disabled
After successfully checked the steam cloud, it save it on some .ini file around and all goes well.
Maybe some of you that got the error in a non-new installation had that .ini file corrupted or something?
Hope this help! Merry Xmas!