I agree with the idea that TS3 was broken upon release. I can't compare to TS2 as I never played that one.

First problem -  I was at Best Buy getting some cables or something and they had it at the register. I failed my saving throw and bought it. The DVD would not read in my computer. Went online and found a bunch of the same complaints. I returned the disk and bought the digital download version. This was a major complaint for the release.

Second problem - Story mode as written didn't work and EAxis admitted it. Once it was on it was always on with no way to turn it off. I lost several friends to move out. I found out about MATY from the BBS, downloaded AwesomeMod, and have never looked back. Without AM I would have stopped playing the game within about a week or so.

Third problem - (alright, not a release issue, just an EAxis one) - I could not update to 1.3 due to the Mac digital download not being available. So, I'm running 1.2 and old AM. When I get home I'll get to see if I can update to 1.4.

Take the "enablescripterror" package out and try the 3-booter.  That is the program that just keeps restarting the game, which hopefully will make it work.  I am using this routinely now and having no problems launching the game.  The other is more for programmers to see what is happening and does not affect launching.

And, if that doesn't work, try the suggestions here: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,16229.0.html