well i played nightfire enterily ntsc and didnt get any freeze and that is the woraround for the pal version...
are you forcing progressive? if so just stop... no need to force pal50 the game works fine with ntsc or auto i bet its becuase of your forced settings.
what nintendont version and what settings are you using? becuase nightfire ntsc has no issue that you need to force pal50.
ok sorry, after your post i went ahead and checked, its european version i have here. but the list says its bugged for all versions anyways. but ill test now and see if it works.