It’s working for me with Blender 2.71 (Windows 64 bit version). The first time I downloaded it, it ran but I got an error message about an incorrect sRGB profile.
I first created that file using Blender 2.6x so that might have been the problem. I resaved it using Blender 2.71 and uploaded that to my site (tutorialsforblender3d.com). I don’t get the error message anymore. Try downloading the file again and see if it still crashes.
I don’t know if that is an Windows 8 problem.
I am using the Blender 2.71 32 bit version with Windows 7 64 bit, without problems.
The BGE don’t runs faster if you use the 64 bit version. If you are working with the BGE, it is better to use the 32 bit version, because it is more stable and if you export your game the file will runny on 32 and 64 bit Windows.