God of War Ascension

I am having a persistent problem with the game God of War: Ascension on my PS3. After I press "New Game" and select a difficulty level, the screen turns black and the game and my console freezes completely at that point.

I have tried multiple sources for the game files. I have tested various ISO and PKG formats, and all of them are updated to the latest version. However, every single one of them stops at the exact same point (after selecting the difficulty).

My console is running CFW (Custom Firmware) Rebug 4.84.

Thank you.