UK Charts: Need for Speed Underground 2 still leads the field

Electronic Arts' street racing title Need for Speed Underground 2 looks set to become the UK's Christmas Number One software title, maintaining its lead at the top of the charts with only one week left to go.

Although sales of Need for Speed Underground 2 across its five platforms dropped by 17 per cent this week, it still maintained a comfortable lead over Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which remained in second place with sales down by 20 per cent.

Activision's Call of Duty: Finest Hour climbed from number five to this week's number three, with the first console outing for the WW2 FPS franchise getting a major sales boost from its first full week on sale - while similarly, the first full week at retail for Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: Warrior Within sees it climbing from number 13 to number six.

Elsewhere in the top ten, EA's FIFA 2005 continues to sell strongly, although it's down two places to number five, while the firm's other top ten title, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, holds steady at number seven in the chart.

Sony's The Getaway: Black Monday is up two places this week to number eight, swapping positions with Microsoft's Halo 2 which drops a further two places to number ten, while Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 4 is also still in the chart, down three places to number nine.

The only new entry in the charts this week is EA's Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth, with the PC real-time strategy title debuting at number 18 in the chart - although stablemate RTS title Armies of Exigo is nowhere to be seen in the top 40 ranking.

Indeed, several relatively major titles appear to have sunk without a trace in the past week - the charts also have no place for the PC version of the critically acclaimed Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, nor for the Xbox version of Tron 2.0 Killer App.

GBA title Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls is also nowhere to be seen, and also missing in action are the likes of Atari Anthology (Xbox), Fight Club (PS2, Xbox), Godzilla: Save the Earth (PS2, Xbox) and Guilty Gear X2 #Reload (PS2).

With only one more Friday to go before Christmas, the line-up of titles for this week looks unsurprisingly thin - the only confirmed titles on our release list for the week are Metal Slug Advance (GBA), Miami Vice (Xbox), Racing Gears Advance (GBA), Blowout (PC) and Konami's extraordinary WWX: Rumble Rose (PS2) - none of which are liable to trouble Need for Speed Underground 2's almost inevitable march into the Christmas number one spot next week.