After a reinstall until now, my tilde key wasn't working, hence no console commands can be entered. I switched out my USB keyboard for a conventional keyboard and the keyboard now works. Not that I cheat much, but I like to keep an alien blaster in my back pocket just in case

FYI, after the patch I'm still getting the character stuttering, but no more crashes (fingers crossed), although there are sound anomalies, which almost seem normal now.