Serious problem tech help needed

I don't want to moan about SI or anything like that. I think it's quite clear most of us are having problems playing what was a much anticipated game. I simply want some help from the form of a polite request. Let me explain my situation because I haven't seen this on other threads and any help would be much appreciated after 12 hours of trying to figure it out.

I had no problems installing initially. put the cd in, was asked for no activation code and it installed fine until I went to play and it said it couldn't initialize.

So i clicked on the icon via My Computer and installed through STEAM and the activation code etc. What annoyed me was buying the game on CD then still having to download off the internet. Why couldn't it have been a simple install and play like previous years??

I had problems with the STEAM server but now it says it's installed and everything, yet there is no evidence, no files on my laptop and now it won't launch from STEAM

It also won't auto run or load from the CD icon. This is infuriating now. Please can someone with a technical mind give me an insight, or something to brighten up a truly awful day.

Please help guys, thanks