The game loads, the intro plays, it let's me select the first 3 or 4 responses to the woman Tex is dating I guess.
Then the actual game engine loads, where I'm supposed to be in Tex's office, and as soon as it gets to 100% (takes about 1 second) the game crashes.
I'm using an Nvidia Geforce 9800GTX so it isn't an ATI vid card issue.
Any ideas?

I had the same problem, you have to go to the config menu and change the setting off the "VR engine"! if you don´t get it to work let me know an i´ll post a more detailed plan for you ;)

dual core disable one core & if using also dual video cards also disable one card

Hm... didn't work. I'm guessing you mean you changed it from Hardware to Software? That's what appears to be my options - I have to toggle one of them. Default was Hardware, but it doesn't work with either one for me.
Also, my system as a default was running the game on 1 cpu core. I have only 1 video card as well.

Have you tried mocking about with the other graphic settings? I had the same problem and i fixed it by changing the ingame settings!

Yeah... I've tried tons of variations. Nothing seems to help.