UK Charts: Splinter Cell back at No.1

The PS2 version of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow has helped propel the Ubisoft title back up to the number one spot (No.1 PS2, No.4 Xbox, No.10 PC, and No.18 GBA) - almost two months since it dropped from the summit after its initial Xbox and PC launch.

As a result of the Sam Fisher resurgence, Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban dropped to No.2 (No.2 PS2, No.8 Xbox, No.3 Cube, No.1 GBA, and No.6 PC), after a three week stint at the top, while Euro 2004 (No.3, PS2 No.3, and Xbox No.6) swaps places with Red Dead Revolver (No.4, Xbox No.1, and PS2 No.4).

Three new entries took a bow in this week's chart, with Activision/Luxoflux's Shrek 2 debuting at No.5 (No.5 PS2, No.9 Xbox, No.4 Cube, No.3 GBA), Atari's Driv3r made it No.6 on the back of several retailers breaking street date (No.6, No.2 Xbox, No.6 PS2), while the Cube-only Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour entered at No.10 (No.1 Cube).

Two other new titles made an appearance in the Top 40, with Atari's FPS Shadow Ops: Red Mercury in at No.28 (No.5 Xbox), and the GBA-only Sonic Advance 3 debuting at No.39 (No.2 GBA).

The fate of recent new releases varied considerably, with Thief: Deadly Shadows holding onto a Top 10 spot at No.8, Hitman Contracts dropped four places to No.13. Singstar now finds itself in reverse gear, down four places to No.18, as does GT Prologue, down a further nine places to No.20. Galleon failed to improve on its debut last week, and slipped to No.10 on the Xbox chart in its first full week on sale.

Recent movie tie-in Van Helsing, meanwhile, dropped 13 places to No.25, Smash Court Tennis 2 slipped eight places to No.30, Fight Night was down 13 to No.31, Hyper Street Fighter II: Anniversary Edition was down 13 to No.34, Midway's heavily advertised The Suffering dropped some 17 places to No.37, while recent Cube saviour Pokemon Colosseum sank an alarming 19 places to No.38, effectively bringing an end to its Top 40 career in just over a month.

Several old timers continue to sell well, however, with Championship Manager: Season 03/04 propelled back into the Top 40 at No.12 thanks to recent discounting, while stalwarts like Pro Evolution Soccer 3 (No.9), The Sims (No.14), Need For Speed: Underground (No.15), Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (No.16), and FIFA 2004 (No.19) are proving practically unmoveable.

This week's missing in action line up isn't as big as usual thanks to the overall quality of the releases on offer, but Empire's Micro Machines-inspired Mashed failed to show up, annoyingly, while Atari's .hack//Mutation also went AWOL and Namco's EA-distributed Breakdown failed to do the Xbox any favours. No surprises, perhaps, that Astrerix and Obelix XXL didn't make it, however.

Next week is your veritable mixed bag of goodies. Driv3r is officially on sale this week, as is THQ's Full Spectrum Warrior, Donkey Kong Country 2, Crash Bandicoot Fusion, Champions Of Norrath, Ground Control II, Formula Challenge, Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising, Samurai Warriors, Rainbow Six 3 on Cube, Spyro Fusion, World Championship Snooker 2004 to name but a few of the titles publishers are keen to ship to meet this quarter's financials.

Full chart listings can be found on our sister site GamesIndustry.biz.