Galactic Civilizations 3 Freezes when I start a new game

Hey Stardock,

First off, I love this game and its predecessor. they are both among my favorites.  Anyway, I haven't had the time to play the game since its full release and now the game crashes whenever I try to start a new game.  It stays on the loading screen and never continues beyond, the HDD indicator says its active, but I left it loading overnight and after 8 hours of sleep it still has not loaded. 

I have the most recent drivers (As of the 29th of July, 2015) for my computer and I made certain that I exceed all of the requirements.