Running os 10.5.5, updater hangs indefinitely at various points in the 9600kb download.

Left it overnight, remained at exactly the same place. Tried three days in a row, same result.

Whatup?

You should first verify that this is not a permissions problem -- VO must be installed in a location where you, the user playing the game, have write access. If you do not have write access to VO, then the updater cannot make changes to the game files and it will hang.

I suggest that you install the game in:
/Users/{you}/Applications/
(Creating an "Applications" folder in your home direrctory, if not present.)

Then, run the updater again by openning the game in that directory.