same here, I have about 10 scratches scattered all over the disk ( all about 1 cm long), and the game freezes when entering west cliff. Now that I have read it, it seems pretty similar.And none of my other games have schratches, though i treat my 360 perfectlystraight surface, vertically positioned, never let the CD while I'm not playing, never ...

Same here, I cant enter west cliff in the main quest where you have to travel along with Hammer.