All I see is my desktop when the game is running.

[bigchump]

I had that same thing hearing the sounds, etc. while stuck on the desktop.
Upgrading my Nvidia drivers to 270.51 beta fixed the problem.
Hope this helps.

[major_setback]

I will try those solutions in a couple of days, when I get time.
Thanks!

[major_setback]

The graphics driver update didn't help. Now I can't see visuals at all (they worked occasionally before).
I'll try the direct x9 fix later.