UK Charts: PES 3 storms to No.1

Konami scored its first All Formats No.1 for a year this week, following the storming success of Pro Evolution Soccer 3 on PS2 which displaced EA's Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 after its two-week stint at the top.

Most retailers broke the street date embargo on the title last week, and the extra few days on sale undoubtedly helped lift sales in the game - pushing it to become the sixth fastest selling game of all time, according to Chart-Track. At that level, estimates place the game at well over the 120,000 unit mark already.

Given the all conquering performance of PES 3, it was perhaps not surprising that most other new releases fared relatively poorly, with just three other new releases entering the Top 40; Jak II at No.11 (No.9 full price, No.5 PS2 full price), Dance UK at No.25 (No.15 full price, No.2 PSone full price, No.16 PS2 full price) and Judge Dredd Vs. Judge Death at a disappointing No.37 (No.25 full price, No.9 Xbox).

Plenty of new releases missed out, including Super Mario Advance 4 (No.35 full price, No.4 GBA), Bionicle (No.38 full price, No.19 PS2 full price), while the following failed to chart at all; Voodoo Vince, Hunter: The Reckoning - Wayward, Bomberman Kart, Splashdown 2, Vegas Make It Big, Silent Storm, Casino Inc, Naval Ops: Warship Gunner, No Man's Land, and many more, proving the problem of releasing anything but triple A titles this close to Christmas.

Elsewhere in the chart, Codemasters will be pleased to note its Club Football series holding strong at No.3, SCi's Conflict Desert Storm II continues to perform well at No.5, while THQ/Disney's excellent Finding Nemo continues its rise to the surface at No.6.

EA, meanwhile continues to make the most of its budget catalogue ahead of a slew of new releases, with all of last year's Christmas blockbusters still performing incredibly well, holding the No.7, No.9, No.12, No.16, and No.17 overall best seller positions with games released last year, and hogging six out of the top seven All Format budget positions.

EA is also performing exceptionally well with its new releases too, with SoulCalibur II (No.8), Rugby 2004 (No.13), Freedom Fighters (No.18), MOH Breakthrough (No.27), and C&C Zero Hour (No.33) all battling it out.

Elsewhere, it was significant to see Super Mario Sunshine make a belated re-appearance in the All Formats at No.30 (No.12 All Formats budget price), on the back of the recent upsurge in GameCube sales post-price cut. Rogue Leader, meanwhile, also re-appears on the budget priced all formats at No.32.

Nintendo's gain appears to be Microsoft's loss, with not one single Xbox exclusive title to be found in the All Formats, the closest being Knights Of The Old Republic, which has dramatically slipped down the rankings (now at No.30 on the Full Price All Formats chart). Microsoft will also be concerned that Voodoo Vince - an excellent exclusive title by all accounts - failed to dent even the Xbox Top 20.