Also I should mention, since posting this question, I have moved on to another development machine which has a humble 2 versions of Visual Studio installed (2010 & 2013). I was able to compile and run the engine perfectly on this machine.
If you would like to continue debugging this issue for your own knowledge or to create a resource for others who may have this problem down the line, I still have the issue on my original machine, so I can help you in any way I can.
(To be clear, the above response was from the bugged machine)
If not you could just stop and I won’t be upset or anything.
Your call how we proceed 