I'm not sure what happened between 0.5.7.1 and 0.5.8, but my client crashes near or at the end of loading the world (Win 7 Ult. x64) I did encounter one error that required the updates to do a "repair" in the update process as the update failed (I think it was the launcher that failed) But... I'm downloading the torrent(s) for the 0.5.8 to make sure... so I will update if the problem still persists.
(Audio on or off didn't matter in the launcher; audio was on in the client. Attempting to set the graphics to low from the launcher made no difference either.) Meaning, I can sign on, choose my character, hear the background music, and crash in the process of, or at the end of the process of, loading the world.
For those others encountering the same problem, what are the suggestions? Were the patches to 0.5.7, assumed included in 0.5.7.1. incorporated into the 0.5.8 release build?
EDIT: Uninstalling the old and installing the new seems to have worked. It is still a little temperamental, but at least it appears to be working.