It should not matter if you use Steam or not. I suspect something else is interfering with the game, maybe an antivirus. Please check if after crash is there anything in the file debug.txt from the game folder.
Try to force run it in windowed mode. To do this, edit user.ini and add the following lines:
[display] resolution = 0 fullscreen = 0
Save and restart.
Other thing to try, open settings.ini and add the following lines at the end:
[debug]
limitfps=0
And finally, try compatibility mode (windows 7) if you haven't already.
Ok thanks.. Happy New Year.
Edit: LibPng seems to be out of date.. http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html