UK Charts: Silver Medal for European Assault
EA's latest Medal Of Honor can't topple GTA.
The top honours in the UK games chart once again went to Rockstar this week, with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas holding off the multi-format might of Medal Of Honor: European Assault to claim the number one spot for the second straight week.
But with the gap between No.1 and No.2 just 1,846 sales, the fifth in the Medal Of Honor series is a strong contender for the top spot next week - although the EA-published title will have plenty of competition from an unusually strong line of releases this Friday including the stunning God Of War and Tekken 5, among others.
Following closely behind European Assault, THQ's long-delayed multi format street racing entrant Juiced made a strong debut at No.3, pushing the two Star Wars titles down into fourth and fifth in the process, with Episode III down two to No.4, and LEGO Star Wars also down two to No.5.
Electronic Arts managed another Top 10 new entry at No.6 with the movie tie-in Batman Begins, while in the remainder of the Top 10 Midway's excellent Area 51 dropped three to No.7, Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 4 dropped two places to No.8, while Eidos' Championship Manager 5 slid four places to No.9, with EA's FIFA Street propping up the Top Ten, down three places on last week.
Outside of the all-important upper reaches there wasn't a great deal of movement overall, with perhaps the most significant change on last week being Sierra's Cold Winter's dramatic plunge from No.9 to No.26, while fellow Sierra first-person shooter Half-Life 2 dropped 12 places to No.31.
In the remainder of the chart it was a case of old favourites dominating the listings, such as GT4 (No.11), The Simpsons Hit & Run (No.13), Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (No.14), The Sims 2 (No.23), Need For Speed Underground 2 (No.25), Football Manager 2005 (No.27), Simpsons Road Rage (No.30), Sonic Heroes (No.33), Spider-Man 2 (No.34), Full Spectrum Warrior (No.36), and Metal Gear Solid 3 (No.37). Certainly no room for Hideo Kojima's other recent release, Boktai 2.
Next week, though, should see an avalanche of cracking new titles, such as the aforementioned God Of War on PS2, the PS2/Xbox release of Destroy All Humans, Namco's superb Tekken 5 (PS2 only), as well as the hugely anticipated Battlefield 2 on PC, Dynasty Warriors 5, Conker: Live & Uncut, Formula One 2005, amongst others.