The game launches fine for me, and I am able to navigate the menu and create a new character.
However as soon as I begin a new game or select "continue" the loading screen appears and then the game crashes after a few seconds.
I am using the latest patch (1.03 121)
I have tried this five times today in both online and offline mode but every time the result is the same.
open game>new game>loading screen>crash

I don't want to seem impatient as I am aware that the devs are probably busy patching bugs right now but I would appreciate it if I could actually play the game I paid for.

Do you keep watching the loading screen or do you change window during the loading? I have a similar bug, when I do change window during the loading I stay stuck in it, I don't crash tho, but try to stay in it, it could work.

so far i have never changed windows while the game was loading.
I don't have a short enough attention span to be alt-tabbing out of a game I literally just installed.
Thank you for the suggestion anyway.