[charlie_ps2]

You can read at any speed - if it reads it's 100%. So fasted read is best.

On the burn, I always burn at the fastest speed for the burner using Traxdata or other Ritek media. I never Test/Verify. If that fails the disk's no good anyway and has to be trashed; so you might as well go for the burn only. If it comes to the end, it's fine.

If you have followed the tutorials, then you've prolly got a good copy of the game. Not just prolly - certain.

So it's now down to the interaction between your PS2 laser (which lens might need cleaning) and the lower reflectivity DVD-R. There's a Factoid explaining all this stuff here.

You can prove out your DVD-R by taking it to someone else with a no-swap modchip and see what happens.

What exactly does happen when you boot it?
What modchip?
What PS2 version?
Did you clean the lens?