Isla Paradiso will not load

Hi there, I bought Island Paradise a while back and can't play it because the Isla Paradiso neighborhood won't ever load. The game launches and Sim creation works just fine. I can create a new neighborhood of Isla Paradiso. When it comes time to play a household, it won't load. I have tried selecting an existing family (one of the pre-made, already moved-in ones), I have tried creating a new one, I have tried setting one as active and then going back to map edit and making another one active and it simply will not load the neighborhood.

An example follows:

1. Create new neighborhood on main neighborhood select screen

2. Create new Sims in Sim creation mode

3. Island map loads and asks me to place Sims

4. Select a house and place Sims

5. Screen comes up that says "Play now or go back to world edit", if you click "Play now", the play button goes grey but nothing happens from there. The neighborhood never loads and it never goes into Play mode. (And I have let it run all night just in case it was working slowly, but it NEVER loads).

I have no custom content because I removed it all. I have no save games or saved Sims because I removed them all. I have uninstalled and reinstalled every one of my games and expansions- in order - and patched in between each install. I have tried the mass updated available on the EA support site. It still doesn't work.

Anything else I can try? Should I go to official EA support with this?