UK Charts: Hitman is naaaamber waaan!
(Thanks for that Antonio.) Agent 47 keeps Fight Night off the No.1 spot...
IO Interactive scored its first UK All Formats No.1 today with the release of the third Agent 47 title, Hitman Contracts (No.1 PS2, No.2 Xbox, No.3 PC), which prevented EA scoring yet another chart topper, as Fight Night was forced to settle for a No.2 debut (No.2 PS2, No.3 Xbox). Last week's No.1, TOCA Race Driver, slipped to No.3 after one week at the top.
Despite TOCA losing the top spot, it was another good week for Codemasters, with England International Football 2004 debuting at No.8 (No.6 Xbox, No.8 PS2), while LMA Manager slipped to No.11, making it one of the Britsoft publisher's strongest chart weeks ever.
The games remain the same
The rest of the top 10 remained much the same as recent weeks, with Sonic Heroes falling to No.5, Pandora Tomorrow now No.6, James Bond 007: Everything Or Nothing No.7, World Championship Rugby No.9, and the ubiquitous FIFA 2004 at No.10.
It was yet another quietly dominant week for EA, racking up six titles in the Top 20 alone, also including The Sims (No.12), Need For Speed: Underground (No.16), and Tiger Woods (No.20), while sports as a whole seems to be the nation's most sought after type of game, with no fewer than seven sport-related titles in the Top 20.
There were no other new entries in the Top 40 this week, although Global Star/Take Two's Star Trek: Shattered Universe made an inauspicious debut at No.28 in the All Format budget Top 40, while Serious Sam: The Next Encounter debuted at No.16 on the Cube chart.
In terms of re-entries, Hitman 2 makes an unsurprising reappearance at No.34 (No.10 PS2 budget, No.9 All formats budget), GTA Double Pack bounces back to No.33, as does Eye Toy: Play at No.40.
Missing in ackshun
This week's missing in action, bafflingly, included Ubisoft/Tecmo's excellent survival horror title Project Zero 2: Crimson Butterfly (PS2), while the long delayed Malice failed to chart, as did Sega's Shining Force: Resurrection Of The Dark Dragon (GBA), Beyond Divinity (PC), Dead Man's Hand (Xbox), Manhunt (PC), and even Dance UK: eXtra Trax (PS2, PSone).
Of the recently released titles, Far Cry continues to perform well (No.14, No.2 PC), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles drops to No.21, Scooby Doo: Mystery Mayhem drops to No.30, while Battlefield Vietnam hangs on once again at No.38. Two Norton utilities spoil the gaming party again at No.4 and No.24, but the less said about them the better eh?
Next week's chart looks certain to feature EA's cynical FIFA update UEFA Euro 2004 at No.1, while Atari's PS2 only stormer Transformers is also likely to debut strongly. Apart from that, it's virtual tumbleweed, with the likes of Cy Girls from Konami, Conan from TDK, and, um, American Conquest Gold. Buy Project Zero 2 for gawd's sake. What's the matter with you lot?