I can't get the game to start at all. I go through the menu, set the video card and textures, and as I launch the game it just goes to a black screen with the windows toolbar at the bottom in what appears to be 640x480 resolution.

I've tried to run it as an administrator, I've tried compatibility modes (XP, ME, 2000...), and a whole lot of resolutions with most of the video card settings. Every time I get the same effect. Seeing as this game is really the main reason I signed up on GoG, I'm not exactly happy with the situation.

The game seems to hang during the opening cinematics, which suggests a missing codec, you might want to get CCCP and install it.

Are you running the game in OpenGL? (D3D can give you a black menu if playing the game on Windows 7) Also, have you tried hitting enter while stuck on this screen? (My copy loads the intro when launched, but only displays a black screen rather than the video. Hitting enter skips this and goes to the menu)

Thanks, this solved it! It was odd though, I'd expected it to have worked as Amran suggested, but the game didn't react at all.