@AbellaKellaher After uninstalling TS3, you would have needed to clean the registry, either manually or with a third-party cleaner (the free version of Piriform's CCleaner works well). If you didn't, remnants of the previous install could be interfering with the current one. You'd also probably need to take extra steps to uninstall Origin before reinstalling it.
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/origin/origin/manually-uninstalling-origin/
I don't believe that you can bypass the launcher on patch 1.69, so trying to launch from TS3.exe in program files wouldn't help. If you're on a previous patch, you wouldn't need Origin to be running. If you aren't on 1.69, make sure you've patched with the Super Patch, even if the game thinks it's already up to date.
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/the-sims/the-sims-3/the-sims-3-super-patcher/
If you still have your old game folder, it might help to drag it out of Documents and let the game generate a new one when you launch again. If you can play in this clean folder, you can transfer your saves and other content into it from your old folder.
The other possibility is that the Creator's Update from last summer is interfering with the game. That update didn't play nicely with TS3 when it came out a year ago, although there seem to be fewer problems these days. Here's a guide on how to block its more intrusive features:
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/15902876/#Comment_15902876
There was no registry to clean, I reinstalled my entire OS (Windows 10) as I said and I'm pretty sure the registry is part of the OS, right? So it would have been a completely clean registry I think.
As far as uninstalling, I've uninstalled and reinstalled both Origin and TS3 multiple times. So the registry would have been clean and the installs would have been fresh the first run through.
update, just tried the game mode thing, no dice :/ Thanks for the suggestion though - is there anything else that could be causing this that you can think of? Windows 10 has been nothing but an irritant for me so my first reaction is to think it's related to it *grumble*
@AbellaKellaher You need to active .net framework in programs and features in the control panel. On a fresh install .net framework is not activated.
