I am having the same problem. The system froze several times during the fight with Saren and once during the first cut sequence when you get him down to half health for the first time.
I uninstalled/reinstalled the game. It froze again during the Saren battle.
I then put the game on Casual mode and turned off the blur etc in the graphic settings. I beat the battle and got all the way to the next load screen with the Mass Relay. Then it froze again!
This issue seriously needs to be fixed. I'm already not looking forward to possibly encountering issues transferring my character from ME1 to ME2.
Please respond to a solution to this problem. I bought the 3 disc trilogy.
I am having the exact same issue as mentioned above. It is incredibly frustrating as I cannot get past this point in the game. As soon as the cutscene triggers by talking to Captain Anderson, dialogue skips and then the screen goes black and freezes up. The only way to get out of this is by pressing the ps3 home button and quitting the game. When you reload the save to try again, the same thing happens. I must've tried this about 20 times to no avail. I really want to play the entire mass effect trilogy and forked out nearly £60 to that effect - and I can't even get past the first mission. I'm sorry but this is unacceptable. It either needs to be fixed or I want a refund.
I have tried deleting the game data and reinstalling it (a lengthy process) and still encounter the exact same issue.
I have downloaded the Mass Effect Trilogy pack for PS3 on the PSN network. Please answer this question / provide a solution for this problem.
THIS IS A GAME-BREAKING ISSUE.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Just to clarify on the above point, I don't know if it will help but going to provide as much detail as possible:
PLEASE PLEASE HELP THIS IS MASSIVELY DISAPPOINTING!
Ok - I have managed to solve the issue! Wooo!!
Basically I reloaded a previous save game file which I luckily had from before I completed any of the side quests (when I first arrived in the citadel). Annoying, but it only took me about an hour to get back to the point where I had the freezing problem.
Ok, read the following carefully:
When you first reach the Citadel, make sure that you go to the Citadel tower and convene with the council BEFORE DOING ANYTHING ELSE. In my initial playthrough, I left this until last - i.e. I completed all the side-quests INCLUDING the story driven side quests (meeting Garrus, Wrex and Tali) BEFORE going to speak to the citadel council. When I did this just now (going to see the council first) it triggered a cutscene with Saren (in holographic form) and the council discussing your accusations against Saren, resulting in them sending you away because you have no proof etc etc.
importantly - I DID NOT SEE THIS CUTSCENE IN MY INITIAL PLAYTHROUGH.
Basically, I think the sequence of events doesn't work properly if you miss this cutscene, and this must be why the second cutscene with the Council (after you receive the evidence from Tali) was going all screwy.
So, I think to solve this issue, make sure you go and see the Citadel Council in the Citadel Tower before you do any other story related mission. I.e. Do not visit Chora's Den and speak to Harkin, do not do the 'Fist' side quests with Wrex, and do not initiate the sequence where you save Tali from the assassins. You can do this all AFTER you have spoken with the council.
I really hope this solves the issue for everyone else who was experiencing this problem. The second cutscene just played for me without a hitch after completing this sequence of events in the correct order. I literally jumped up and down! I never thought being a completionist / explorer would ever backfire on me in such a spectacular fashion.
Little tip for future playthroughs: Manually save your game CONSTANTLY.
