I've had zero problems with this game so far. The state of the game looks fine to me. A small percentage of people always have issues with every game.
Well, I decided to try one of the suggestions on Ubi's forums: Disable my soundcard. It worked, I could start a new game and start playing. So, I had a theory I wanted to test, I decided NOT to disable my sound card, but turn off the hardware acceleration. That did the trick. Not only can I play the game now, I have sound. So, if anyone has issues starting a new game, do what I did, shut off the hardware acceleration to your sound card. This solution worked for me, I don't if it'll work for anyone else, but it's worth a shot. I don't know how Ubisoft missed this but they really need to patch it.