Drat. Might be either something with the Dreamcast or the disc in that case, or a little of both. Haven't had problems with my xbox Shenmue II like this (That I remember) although when I think about it I -think- I had a problem with the not-loading of areas with shenmue when I first played through it. But only at the beginning... I'll give it another go after I run through the original .hack series.

Also, this is the main issue I have with multi-game series, especially when they're designed from day one to be multi-game. You never know if the series will be completed, and with some companies *coughSEGAcough* if something isn't a smash hit, it gets cancelled.