In most cases, this error occurs on startup when your display drivers are out of date or incompatible with the game.
The game also defaults to a low 4:3 fullscreen resolution that may not be supported by some monitors, but running the game
in a window will allow you to choose your desired resolution once you get ingame.
Ensure you have the latest version of drivers, from your cards vendor website:
AMD/ATI display drivers can be found here.
NVIDIA display drivers can be found here.
INTEL display drivers can be found here.
If you have recently updated from a driver that did work, try rolling back (downgrading) to the previous version.
If you begin recieving the error after your drivers have crashed, try restarting your computer first.
Check this thread for more solutions, and ask in the support section if you need additional help.