UK Charts: Second week at the top for Rising Sun

Electronic Arts' dominance of the UK software charts continued unabated this week, with Medal of Honor: Rising Sun still at number one and the giant publisher taking all of the top four spots in the full-price chart.

Second, third and fourth places in the chart go to FIFA 2004, Need for Speed Underground and Return of the King respectively, with Fox Interactive's Simpsons: Hit and Run climbing three places this week to occupy the number five position.

The flood of new releases from earlier in the month has slowed down significantly, and only one genuinely new release makes it into the top 40 this week, with Atari's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in at number 28 despite a critical hammering.

Rockstar's Max Payne 2 also re-enters the chart, in at number 19 thanks to being launched on PS2 and Xbox, while the PC release of Lucasarts' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic propels it back into the charts at number 37.

It's probably unsurprising that PS2 software sales are completely trouncing the Xbox and GameCube at this time of year, given the vast difference in installed base figures. The highest ranked GameCube exclusive title this week is Mario Kart Double Dash, which is at number 16 in the chart, maintaining its position from last week; the highest ranked Xbox exclusive, however, is Project Gotham Racing 2, which slips down ten places to number 27.

Another of Microsoft's Christmas hopes has also failed to do the business, with Counter-Strike only entering the Xbox chart at number 13, while over on the Cube, Nintendo's Mario Party 5 pitches up at number five, with 1080 Avalanche slipping out of the Cube Top 20 after only a single week.

The missing in action list this week makes depressing reading for Vivendi, which rolled out a fair number of big hopes last Friday - but SWAT: Global Strike Team, The Hobbit, Contract JACK, Metal Arms and War of the Ring have all failed to enter the Top 40 ranking. Sony will also be disappointed to note that Studio Cambridge's latest, Ghost Hunter, failed to enter the top 20 PS2 chart.

So where does this leave the chart as we enter the run down towards Christmas? EA still has a few titles to launch over the coming fortnight, with the next-gen release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone likely to do fairly decent business, while The Sims: Bustin' Out is out on the 19th and could well grab the number one spot in time for Christmas week.

Although it seems eminently likely that EA will dominate the Christmas top five, a few other titles could yet surprise us. Sony's Eye Toy: Play re-entered the top ten this week, climbing up two places to number nine, and is likely to be high on a lot of Christmas present lists, which could also be a factor for Disney Interactive's Finding Nemo (at number 10 this week).

Reckon you've got the Christmas top five sussed? Make sure you enter the gi.biz Christmas Chart competition - guess the top five correctly, and you could win a case of champagne! Find full details of the competition [here].