I'm stuck at the point in the game (*minor spoilers) where you become a slave. The freeze occurs during the battle where you must save the woman from being lashed by the guards. Basically, I approach one of the two guards which engages the battle but then, after the first action is taken (whether it be by me or the enemy) the game freezes but the battle music continues to play. This problem was apparent in the first release of the patch and I've tried to get past the part by attempting many times but i never succeeded. After the new 1.2 release, I decided to start a new game thinking the problem had been solved but the same thing happened once I got to the same point in the game. Everything in this game worked perfectly using Open Ps2 Loader with the exception of slowdown only during the opening cinematic. So, has anyone else experienced this problem using Open Ps2 Loader? Is there a way I can get passed this or maybe even get a hot fix or something? Help appreciated and sorry for the lengthy post.

EDIT: I probably should point out that I'm playing the game via SMB (accessing my computer hard drive by connecting a network cable to my router and ps2). I'm using the newest version of Open Ps2 Loader (0.7) too.

Is there ANYONE who is playing this game using this method that can help me?