It seems there are a few distinct crash-on-load errors occurring. I installed BS2 from Steam earlier today, and I have not been able to get it running. I got the CD key activation prompt upon first trying to run it, and since then I get the crash.

If I launch the Bioshock2Launcher.exe directly, the process runs in taskman for a few seconds then exits. Occasionally Bioshock2.exe can be seen for a split second but it disappears immediately.

If I launch Bioshock2.exe directly, I get the following error message:

Code:
BioShock2.exe - Application Error
The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000005). Click OK to close the application.
Nothing appears in the Event log, dump, etc.

I did a test with the WinDbg tool. My brother was able to successfully install and run the game, so I had him do the same test. On my system, it appears to be crashing upon trying to load c:\windows\syswow64\dsound.dll . Please see WinDbg output below to compare. Loading the EXE into WinDbg, not even running it, generates a firstchance exception:

My Debug Output:
Code:
Microsoft (R) Windows Debugger Version 6.11.0001.404 X86
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

CommandLine: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\bioshock 2\SP\Builds\Binaries\Bioshock2.exe"
Symbol search path is: *** Invalid ***
****************************************************************************
* Symbol loading may be unreliable without a symbol search path.           *
* Use .symfix to have the debugger choose a symbol path.                   *
* After setting your symbol path, use .reload to refresh symbol locations. *
****************************************************************************
Executable search path is: 
ModLoad: 10900000 11bf8000   Bioshock2.exe
ModLoad: 77a10000 77b90000   ntdll.dll
ModLoad: 769e0000 76ae0000   C:\Windows\syswow64\kernel32.dll
ModLoad: 764c0000 76506000   C:\Windows\syswow64\KERNELBASE.dll
ModLoad: 77220000 7729b000   C:\Windows\syswow64\comdlg32.dll
ModLoad: 76340000 763ec000   C:\Windows\syswow64\msvcrt.dll
ModLoad: 76d50000 76da7000   C:\Windows\syswow64\SHLWAPI.dll
ModLoad: 76720000 767b0000   C:\Windows\syswow64\GDI32.dll
ModLoad: 77120000 77220000   C:\Windows\syswow64\USER32.dll
ModLoad: 76910000 769b0000   C:\Windows\syswow64\ADVAPI32.dll
ModLoad: 76e60000 76e79000   C:\Windows\SysWOW64\sechost.dll
ModLoad: 76510000 76600000   C:\Windows\syswow64\RPCRT4.dll
ModLoad: 75580000 755e0000   C:\Windows\syswow64\SspiCli.dll
ModLoad: 75570000 7557c000   C:\Windows\syswow64\CRYPTBASE.dll
ModLoad: 762a0000 762aa000   C:\Windows\syswow64\LPK.dll
ModLoad: 76dc0000 76e5d000   C:\Windows\syswow64\USP10.dll
ModLoad: 76cc0000 76d44000   C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.windows.common-controls_6595b64144ccf1df_5.82.7600.16385_none_ebf82fc36c758ad5\COMCTL32.dll
ModLoad: 755e0000 76229000   C:\Windows\syswow64\SHELL32.dll
ModLoad: 76db0000 76db5000   C:\Windows\syswow64\PSAPI.DLL
ModLoad: 63940000 63b03000   C:\Windows\SysWOW64\d3d9.dll
ModLoad: 752c0000 752c9000   C:\Windows\SysWOW64\VERSION.dll
ModLoad: 69d00000 69d06000   C:\Windows\SysWOW64\d3d8thk.dll
ModLoad: 6dc40000 6dc53000   C:\Windows\SysWOW64\dwmapi.dll
ModLoad: 6db50000 6dc37000   C:\Windows\SysWOW64\DDRAW.dll
ModLoad: 6dd20000 6dd26000   C:\Windows\SysWOW64\DCIMAN32.dll
ModLoad: 77470000 7760d000   C:\Windows\syswow64\SETUPAPI.dll
ModLoad: 769b0000 769d7000   C:\Windows\syswow64\CFGMGR32.dll
ModLoad: 772a0000 7732f000   C:\Windows\syswow64\OLEAUT32.dll
ModLoad: 767b0000 7690c000   C:\Windows\syswow64\ole32.dll
ModLoad: 770b0000 770c2000   C:\Windows\syswow64\DEVOBJ.dll
ModLoad: 18000000 1803b000   C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\bioshock 2\SP\Builds\Binaries\binkw32.dll
ModLoad: 73670000 736a2000   C:\Windows\SysWOW64\WINMM.dll
ModLoad: 6e420000 6e434000   C:\Windows\SysWOW64\MSACM32.dll
ModLoad: 73880000 73907000   C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4927_none_d08a205e442db5b5\MSVCP80.dll
ModLoad: 737e0000 7387b000   C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.4927_none_d08a205e442db5b5\MSVCR80.dll
ModLoad: 752d0000 752d7000   C:\Windows\SysWOW64\WSOCK32.dll
ModLoad: 76260000 76295000   C:\Windows\syswow64\WS2_32.dll
ModLoad: 76ae0000 76ae6000   C:\Windows\syswow64\NSI.dll
ModLoad: 75190000 7527b000   C:\Windows\SysWOW64\dbghelp.dll
ModLoad: 6f220000 6f225000   C:\Windows\SysWOW64\MSIMG32.dll
ModLoad: 76af0000 76b50000   C:\Windows\syswow64\IMM32.dll
ModLoad: 763f0000 764bc000   C:\Windows\syswow64\MSCTF.dll
ModLoad: 00640000 009af000   C:\Windows\SysWOW64\d3dx9_33.dll
*** ERROR: Symbol file could not be found.  Defaulted to export symbols for ntdll.dll - 
(15a4.f84): Access violation - code c0000005 (first chance)
First chance exceptions are reported before any exception handling.
This exception may be expected and handled.
eax=00000000 ebx=00400000 ecx=00640000 edx=00240000 esi=009af000 edi=00000000
eip=77a855a1 esp=0038f648 ebp=0038f65c iopl=0         nv up ei pl nz na pe nc
cs=0023  ss=002b  ds=002b  es=002b  fs=0053  gs=002b             efl=00010206
ntdll!RtlDeleteTimerQueueEx+0x490:
77a855a1 0fb706          movzx   eax,word ptr [esi]       ds:002b:009af000=????