Problems with Gold Version on Steam

[dewarrene]

I bought the Gold version from Steam last Friday. Downloaded and played all the tutorial, English Campaign (Evesham and Falkirk) and started the Conwy mission and saved it. Now when I start the game it freezes at the initial start up picture (the one with the guy on the horse). Task Manager says the programme is not responding. I have downloaded it again, lowered the graphics settings althought it ran fine on ultra as I have a high spec machine. This has altered nothing. Does anyone have any ideas as to what may be wrong?