Try what @Oskool_007 says but then go in and delete your DirectX cache file.
Ok so I tried @Oskool_007 and EKMA49 's suggestions and it did stop it from crashing during the loading process, but after several minutes even doing nothing in the menus my PC seizes up again and forces me to manually reboot. Additionally upon validating the game files it consistently says 3 files failed to validate and will be reacquired but I'm not sure how to tell which ones they are via steam. So slight improvement, main issue is still present, and game is still de facto unplayable.
Schadenfreude45 since the computer is freezing up. I recommend only installing two identical memory sticks into the motherboard and see if the freeze crashing stops.
Running 4 memory sticks puts more strain on the memory controller than only two memory sticks.
Tried removing the sticks of slots 1 & 3 which were 8GB each and left in my 16GB sticks in slots 2 & 4, repeated all previous steps and it crashed earlier in the loading process this time.
