I start up a game get to the "loading map" screen then i crash to desktop. Any ideas?

There are some standard things that *might* fix issues with GOG games. These include installing to a directory other than Program Files, such as C:\GOG\ , try running it as admin, update drivers etc.

I think other people have mentioned this issue, though I don't think there's been a concrete solution. One thing worth trying is dropping your desktop resolution (prior to launching the game) down to whatever resolution you're playing as "in game".

I know this is quite an old post, but for the record, I had this issue also and fixed it by choosing a resolution in-game that was available for my monitor.
The highest resolution I could pick was 1600x1200 (or something close) and my monitor although can reach 1920x1080, can't do 1600x1200, so the game crashed.

Changing the resolution to the 2nd highest did the trick.