If you're having problems with it crashing when you try to start a new character, the solution I've found is to play through the prologue. I tried several times to start a new char with skipping the prologue and it would always crash right after you hear "Awaken". And trying to laod the autosave it creates right before that would always result in a crash.
However, when I played through the prologue (rather than skipping it), it kept right on going past that point where it would always crash.
So, if you're constantly crashing with a new character, try playing the prologue.
