Done some more trial and error testing to try and get around this but it seems I'm screwed.

I have uninstalled GC2 including using the "remove all save games" etc option in SDC.
I have then manually deleted to total games directory that GC2 was installed in.
I have rebooted my computer as prompted by SDC.
I have downloaded a fresh installation.
Attempting to create a new game still results in a CTD when accpting the map options.

I did not install multimedia.

Now here is the strange part. The last game I created before this problem started was using the 'Batle of the Gods' scenario. Despite completely removing my old installation (remember that I have now uninstalled 3-4 times) and manually deleting GC2's directory, the map options screen loads with the 'Battle of the Gods' scenario selected. Surely it should be using the default 'normal' scenario?

I'm wondering if GC2 stores settings somewhere else on my Hardisk that I don't know about and is recovering corrupted settings from somewhere.

Whatever it is I really want to play a game or three at the moment and can't!

Did you look for clues in your debug.err file? Did you get an Smart Exception report?

GC2 stores saved games, prefs.ini and a bunch of other stuff in your documents folder under "my games\GC2".

Excellent news, deleting the mygames folder did the trick, I can now play GC2 again!

Wonder if it was a dodgy pref.ini in there restoring the last used settings and knackering it all up. Was very annoying anyway. Nice one Lucky Jack.