Been catching up on PS3 games recently. Played through Uncharted1-3 and Tomb Raider no problems. Had a couple of freezes on Red Dead Redemption, but not too bad. Now I have played GOW1, 2, Chains, Ghost, and currently GOW3. Have had loads of freezes, GOW2 I couldn't finish as it kept freezing on Zeus battle. Have tried starting in safe mode and fixing file system many times, and it occasionally helps. Really frustrating, anyone have any advice, is it the game or the console as the discs look ok. Thought the ps3 was supposed to be robust?

Is the disc new or used? I have had some issues with used discs screwing up and I returned them to the store for a different one and it cleared up my issues fine.

I have not had any problems with my PS3 like this that weren't disc related. Uh, unless you count fallout, lol.

Hmm, looking at websites, it appears this game is a glitchy, freeze prone mo'fo, however most people said it was cleared up when they got a new disc, so yay.

Hard drive is dying, had the exact same thing happen to mine until it finally just gave out. Just switched mine out today

Some PS3s are and some aren't (robust, that is). Newer PS3s tend to develop problems but older ones (this is an observation strictly on my part in a general sense) tend to do better. I am not aware of any God of War specific issues but I haven't really played them. From the sound of it it could be your system. I have never had any problems like that on my used '09 PS3. Used games, even if a little rough, work fine and never had an issue with Sony titles.

If I had to take a guess I would agree with pimpmonkey and say it was your hard drive.

Actually had more problems with the fat ps3 models than I have the first slim model.

The PS3 could be the most "robust" system ever made, but there would still be someone out there that has one go kaput at some point. I've never personally investigated PS3 hardware failure rates and symptoms, but stuff breaks. It's no fun when it does, but one flipping out doesn't mean the PS3's are inherently failure prone.

If it keeps needing to fix the file system then it does point at the HD most likely. If that is going then it will go completely at some point (probably soon). It can be something else though. I recently had FS drive issues on my PC and thought it was the drive until the same thing happened on a second physical drive. Instead of replacing the drive I replaced the mother board and things seem to have been ok for the last few days.

The hard drive is still the highest odds winner from the sound of it. HD's don't have the greatest lifespan. The only way to know though is to put a new one in and see what happens.

Thanks, I will stick a new drive in it and see if that helps. I do hope they come out with a decent emulator for it soon.

I was mostly in reference to the newest slims. My fat's been doing alright for me thus far and my friend's second hand one as well. My uncle's slim seems to just be a little slow, but I suppose mileage may vary.

Update, I replaced the HDD. Put a small SSD drive in there. It still seems to be doing it though. GOW3 crashes regularly, in a new save, and it seems to be when it plays a movie/removes control from the user. I thought it might be the disc so I started GOW Accession (its a factory sealed copy), however that crashed on the first movie (the sirens have Kratos chained). It ran through GOS and COO fine (i.e. collection 2), and GOW 1, but not GOW2. Any other thoughts? I am currently trying Dante's Inferno, and that has been running fine. I might try the GOW3 on another machine when I get a chance.

I have played God of War 2 on my PS3 and so far no issues.

I beaten the games 2 times already.

Just guessing, but could it maybe be heat related?
I've never had problems with my own 'phat' PS3 (apart from the atrocious network speeds which I've never been able to solve) but I seem to remember that especially with the earlier models, heat could be a problem to the externt that you could actually buy cooling peripherals with extra fans etc...

Thanks. I suppose it could be, though I keep the vents clear, and there is a bit or room around it. I will try putting it on a clear wire rack out in the middle and see. Mine is a Slim 320gb model, got it second hand, so it may just be age.

Yes, could well be the blue ray. Let me see if it does the same on the other one I have in the house. Very nearly brought a super slim off ebay :o)

Definitely could be the drive, though I had very same things with the HDD of mine, until it would start up, say my HDD is corrupted, go through the rebuilding database, screen would go black for a half hour, then out of nowhere, restart.