Game freezes during "Ace up my sleeve"

[Silkke]

Over the years I played this game quite often (500+ hours) and never encountered any real troubles, but today I decided to start again. Now during the mission "Ace up my sleeve" in the cutscene where Leonardo fixes the broken blade and then gives it to Ezio the game freezes exactly in the moment when the weapon wheel explanation for the Hidden Blade pops up. I've now tried it several times and it's always exactly the same moment.

Has anybody encountered this? Any ideas how to progress from here? Is there any way to skip the cutscene?

[BloodyMares]

Sigh...pay attention to messages when they pop-up in the game. Press '2' to select the Hidden Blade. It's the tutorial segment.

[Silkke]

I had actually done that. Or kind of not. I just went back and learned that using the Weapons Wheel and the mouse for selection freezes the cutscene. Only pressing 2 helps. This is stupid tutorial design considering that one of the last things taught was the weapons wheel which I always use since the 2 is too far on my keyboard to be of use during playing.