Since the latest patch I have noticed an issue with the audio of the game, for some reason the audio device hangs. What tends to happen is that the sound will go haywire (repeating a sound over and over very fast for a second or so, almost like a buzzing noise) then it will cut out and the audio device is no longer seen by the game or the system. Similar issues have happened before the latest patch but it usually crashed the entire game/system and it didn't happen as often. I did once manage to get the audio working again without a restart by lowering the number of voices used in the audio control panel. Logging off my system account and then logging back in again resolves the issue. I am using an XFi Titanium and have the voices set to 96. I am also using Windows 10 so this might be an OS issue rather than a PS2 one but it does seem to be happening more often since the last update.
I have this same problem, but even more bad. After shuttering sound my game crashes to desktop. Can't continue at all. Can't play a single session without this sound crash. Looks like no one cares
