Trying my luck, not expecting a lot of people in this forum.

Playing MGS IV for the first time ever and after the Laughing Octopus boss fight (And the Laughing Beauty sequence), there is a Codec call with Drebin where he tells you about FaceCamo and Laughing Octopus' history. It then goes into a loading screen. And never stops loading.

MGS IV is fully installed on the PS3. Decided to quit the game and try again. Did the boss fight again. Same thing. Now loading forever.

Is this a known issue? Any way to get pass this?

This did not happen to me the last time I played through the game. I would have to recommend reinstalling the game, although that probably involves losing save data... maybe there's a memory cache you can clear before you risk a reinstall?

How would I do this? Borrowed a friend's PS3 solely for this as I wanted to play MGS IV before Metal Gear Scanlon 4. Have never used a PS3 in my life.

@zereta: I'll set up my ps3 and look through the menus before I reply to that so as not to spread misinformation. Gimme a few minutes.

@zereta: I'm sending a link to a youtube video that should be easier to follow than me typing it out. Hope this helps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx1rzF0LEME

Edit: The game data is the install, while the save data is the save data.

Meaning to say, I can delete the game data, re-install the game and carry on from the same saves as before?

About to finish my third Laughing Octopus defeat. If it doesn't work again, will try that. Thanks!

Yeah that should hopefully work. Good luck duder!

Thanks so much! In the process of re-installing the game, hope it works!

@angryhobo321: It worked! Re-installed and opted not to install the full game this time and it got me through that. Only needed to defeat Laughing Octopus four times, go online to look for help, accidentally stumble upon Act 4 location spoilers to get it working :/

Thanks so much for the help though! Really appreciate it. Great game so far :)

So it's holding up for you? I haven't played it since it came out.

The one act of the 5 that you don't want to be spoiled on! Ah well, it'll still be fun.

Great success!

@skullpanda1: Only did the boss fight and went till the next save point. Haven't played anymore since. Will report back in this thread if anything goes wrong again. Indications seem to be that its an issue with Patch 2.0 that added the trophies to the game.

Yea, it seems like a big one. But I kinda recall about a quick switcheroo thing with the graphics in that Act just through osmosis and message boards so maybe I wasn't too badly spoiled.

Well, encountered another issue.

Right after the cutscene where Raiden comes in and fucks shit up in Act 2, it dumps Snake back in the marketplace. Immediately, on the top left hand corner of the screen there is an icon of a disc that constantly swaps between being a disc and a question mark. The game freezes here.

Trying to enter the XMB crashes the entire PS3 and eventually, the PS3 reboots.

Tried thrice now.

MGS4 is the Greatest Hits version, disc has no scratches too

Weird. If that symbol's popping up it sounds like a disk issue.

Well, that's a bummer. Read up and some said it might be a system heat type thing. Gonna stop for a long while and try again. If not... Well, I think MGS 4 is a legitimately great game. Might have to buy another copy.

Man, this sucks.

I'm also playing MGS4 greatest hits version right now and am well past that part without a hitch. One thing I've noticed with MGS4 is that it never starts the game up when it's done loading, you always have to press the start button once loading is finished or it just sits on the loading screen (prompting you to press start.) That doesn't sound like your problem here at all, but it's a weird little quirk of the game.

I think that's the same for everyone haha.

Oh man, this really blows. Gonna try deleting the game data and re-installing everything. Nothing stops me playing Metal Gear.

And it didn't work :/ Gonna explore buying another copy of the game. Will probably come back to MGS IV much later though. Kinda frustrated will all the technical shit I've had to go through.

And I have a 50 hour Witcher 3 playthrough that beckons.

Would be awesome if Konami just announced a MGS IV remaster for PS4. Would do that.

If you really want to dive in at the deep end you could format your PS3 and see if that does it. I've had a couple of issues with mine (certain interiors of Yakuza 3 wouldn't load) and a format fixed them.