UK Charts: GTA up in that b*tch

Rockstar North's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is back at the top of the software charts in the UK, with strong sales of the newly released Xbox and PC versions shifting Star Wars Episode III out of the number one position.

The Star Wars titles continue to sell well, however, and Lucasarts' movie-licensed title drops just one place to number two - while Giant Interactive's Lego Star Wars also drops just one place, falling to this week's number three.

San Andreas was last year's best-selling PS2 title in the UK, enjoying one of the biggest opening weeks of all time for a videogame title when it launched six months ago - and this week's Xbox launch also entered the record books, racking up the second largest Xbox launch week ever in the UK after last November's Halo 2.

No other new releases make it into the top ten this week, although Vivendi Universal Games' Cold Winter - developed by UK studio Swordfish, which VU Games is thought to be on the verge of acquiring - climbs ten places to number nine, while NCSoft's critically acclaimed massively multiplayer title Guild Wars is up five places to number ten.

Further down the chart, another massively multiplayer title makes it into the ranking as the Star Wars Galaxies expansion pack Rage of the Wookies clocks in at number 26 for Lucasarts.

Absent from the ranking this week is Konami's incredibly delayed GBA light sensor title Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django, which is a bit of a shame since we're actually getting some sunshine in the UK right now, while Nintendo's Mario Party Advance also fails to dent the chart.

The biggest things to hit shelves next week will be a pair of EA titles, namely Batman Begins, accompanying the apparently-rather-good movie of the same name, and Medal of Honor: European Assault, the latest update in the popular WW2 action series.

THQ's UK-developed racer Juiced is also on shelves next week, as is the PC version of The Bard's Tale courtesy of Ubisoft, and Dragon Ball Advance Adventure on GBA, from Atari.