Issue Starting Civ V: Gods and Kings

[The Avatar 1,088]

It might seem illogical to you for me to post this here, on a SimCity website, but I trust you all more than strangers on another forum. I recently installed the Gods and Kings expansion for Civilization V, but I am having difficulty starting the game itself. Whenever I start up the game, everything goes fine until it gets to the loading screen. When it does, it will run - still loading - for a while, playing the music, but after some time, the game will crash, and I will get the "Sid Meier's Civilization V has encountered a problem and needs to close" error. The game never loads.

 

I was getting several other error messages earlier, saying that files like "font textures" couldn't load. Whenever I would try to start the task manager to close the program (clicking the red "close" button wouldn't work), I would get various other errors saying stuff to the effect of the task manager can't start. I tried opening other programs, like Chrome, but for every one I got an error that said the program didn't exist or there wasn't enough memory or something like that. I looked up the issue, but didn't find very helpful information. I tried to use Steam's file validation program to see if it would solve anything, and it sort of did. It downloaded something and I had to re-install the game. Now I no longer get any error messages about missing files, but the game still won't load. Also, it doesn't open in fullscreen, and I can't make the window any larger. Here's a pic showing what I'm talking about:

 

 

If you need any more info, which you probably do, please ask, and I will try to post it. I'm not very good with computers, so I don't really know what info will help. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

Update: I got that game to load and I was able to change the settings to fullscreen and start a game, but after about 10 minutes, it randomly crashed. I've had similar issues with SC'13, so I suspect I might need a better graphics card, processor (even though I just got a new, better one), or more RAM. That's odd, though, because I used to be able to run Civ V perfectly fine on the same computer before I got the expansion.

[GeometryMath Algebra 614]

What are your system spec? For reference, here are the system requirements of Civ 5:

 

Operating System: Windows® XP SP3/ Windows® Vista SP2/ Windows® 7

Processor: Dual Core CPU
Memory: 2GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 8 GB Free
DVD-ROM Drive: Required for disc-based installation
Video: 256 MB ATI HD2600 XT or better, 256 MB nVidia 7900 GS or better, or Core i3 or better integrated graphics
Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
DirectX®: DirectX® version 9.0c

 

Try updating your DirectX. If nothing happens, try to upgrade to Windows 7. (it's more compatible and reliable than XP) Better backup your files if you want to upgrade to Windows 7!

[The Avatar 1,088]

OS: Windows XP SP3

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3GHz

Memory: 2GB RAM

HD Space: 355GB free

DVD-ROM Drive: Digital download, but yes, I have it

Video: ATI EAH6570 1GB DDR3

Sound: Realtek HD Audio output 

DirectX: 9.0c

 

I'd love to upgrade to Windows 7, but this is the family computer, and my dad doesn't want to do it. I will try to upgrade DirectX and see if that fixes anything. Thanks for the help!

 

Update: I did a little research, and I cannot upgrade my DX any further because I am using Windows XP. 9.0 is the latest version.

[The Avatar 1,088]

I hate to bump, but does anyone have any suggestions? My PC meets the requirements as far as I'm concerned, but now it's back to freezing at the loading screen.