Note: took the Ubuntu VM, and used a copy of the hard drive files for a VirtualBox vm (with bridged networking set). As soon as the tools were loaded into the vm the bridged NIC worked fine, unlike with Workstation 8/vmware tools. I'm not sure where the problem lies, but am relatively sure it is not with the composition or configuration of either VM at this point (as the internal virtual configuration didn't change between platforms but the functionality did). I assume I need a new version of the Linux x86/64 vmware tools or somesuch to make the NIC more compatible with bridged? But that's entirely speculation. Real answers, or specific things to check, VERY welcome.
Checking the vmware dist, my currently installed tools are:
8.8.5 (VMwareTools-8.8.5-893888.tar.gz)
My workstation build# is:
8.0.5 build-893925
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Paul
Edit: As it's been months, and NO ONE has any suggestions (Particularly disappointed that I can't even swing a SWAG from VMWare associated entities), moving to virtualbox and giving up on the solution I actually paid money for thinking it was a more stable and functional business decision.