UK Charts: Rising Sun grabs top slot as EA continues to dominate

Medal Of Honor: Rising Sun was the UK's best selling game last week, as EA continued to dominate the pre-Christmas best sellers list, with the top four titles all bearing the publisher's name.

Interestingly, Need For Speed: Underground held its own at number two, outselling even the mighty FIFA 2004 (number three), and Return Of The King (number four), while Quidditch World Cup climbed up the top 10 to number nine. Predictably, EA was strong elsewhere too, and looks certain to score this year's Christmas number one with The Sims: Bustin' Out.

Intense discounting activity helped propel Ubisoft's Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time up from number 33 to number 10 after its disappointing debut two weeks ago, but the French publisher had more bad news with the highly-rated XIII only managing a relatively lowly number 26 in the full price listing. Its other big hope, Rainbow Six III on Xbox fell to number 29 on its fourth week in the chart, while the excellent Beyond Good And Evil has still failed to chart despite blanket high praise.

Microsoft's big hope Project Gotham Racing 2 entered at number one on the Xbox chart, but it was only enough for a number 17 entry in the full price chart - a place behind Nintendo's big Christmas title Mario Kart: Double Dash, which tumbled down to number 16 after just three weeks on the chart, while 1080 Avalanche made a disappointing debut - in at just number 14 on the GameCube listings, and hence nowhere near the All Formats.

Rockstar's Manhunt crept up just one place to number 14, despite its TV ad campaign getting underway, while Codemaster's Xmas number one tip Pop Idol slid to number 20, perhaps ending its chances of making the top spot.

Activision's pair of Tony Hawk's Underground and True Crime managed to hold their own against stiff opposition at numbers five and six respectively, while Vivendi will be pleased that Simpsons Hit & Run is still performing strongly at number eight - and expect big things from Crash Nitro Kart in the coming weeks, despite its rather quiet number 28 debut.

This week's Missing In Action awards category is unusually large, with some truly huge titles all failing miserably. First up is (deep breath) Atari's Terminator 3 (all formats, no listing), followed by LucasArts' Secret Weapons Over Normandy (number 40 all formats), Empire's Ford Racing 2 (number 20, Xbox), Ubisoft's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (PS2, no listing), Microsoft's Links 2004 (Xbox, no listing), Nintendo's Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (number 12, GBA), EA's Total Club Manager 2004 (number nine, PC), Capcom's Breath Of Fire: Dragon Quarter (PS2, no listing), Vivendi's The Hobbit (all formats, no listing), LucasArt's Gladius (PS2, no listing), Microsoft's Dungeon Siege: Legend Of Aranna, and a huge pile of other games that none of you seem remotely interested in. Where were you in the summer when we needed you eh, eh?

Next week is the last big new releases week of the year, with the likes of Max Payne 2 (Xbox, PS2) Ghosthunter (PS2), Counter-Strike (Xbox) and Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, and Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic our tips for the top.