UK Charts: Need for Speed races into first

By Paul Loughrey Published 30 November, 2005

Publishers brace themselves for the final stretch in the race for a Christmas No.1

Industry powerhouse Electronic Arts plays the field once again, with a number of titles in the top ten. Multi-format street racer, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, races into first place; knocking Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire down two places to third.

Thanks to the recent PSP release, Konami continues to put the boot in with Pro Evolution Soccer 5, which climbs two places to cling to second place while rival FIFA 06 from EA steps up from fifth place into fourth.

Vivendi's controversial new game, 50 Cent: Bulletproof blasts its way into the chart, debuting in fifth place, whilst the remainder of the top ten shows declining sales for Star Wars: Battlefront, WWE SmackDown! Vs Raw 2006, and PSP Giga pack bundled release, World Tour Soccer.

Activision creeps into the top ten under enemy fire with Call of Duty 2: Big Red One at number nine, and Rockstar's perpetual cash machine continues to prop up the bottom of the top ten with PSP title, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.

Several new releases have failed to make the grade so far, falling outside the top ten and, in some cases, sneaking onto shelves and into the lower regions of the top forty with little or no fanfare.

Wi-Fi wonder, Mario Kart DS stalls on the starting grid in thirteenth position, despite topping the GameCube charts, and True Crime: New York City gets stuck in holiday season traffic at number twenty. The bookies favourite for a Christmas number one, Buena Vista's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe plays the perfect game of hide and seek, entering the charts in thirtieth place.

With the European launch of Microsoft's Xbox 360 just days away, there's still time for associated software sales to make a significant impact on the festive chart line up, and new releases this week include Ubisoft's official King Kong tie-in on DS and Xbox 360, multi-format versions of Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones and, of course, Digital Jesters' annoying amphibian (with odds of 25/1 for the top spot this Christmas), Crazy Frog Racer.

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About Paul Loughrey

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Comments (28) Latest comment 6 years ago

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  • kdsh7 #1 6 years ago

    "Wi-Fi wonder, Mario Kart DS stalls on the starting grid in thirteenth position, despite topping the GameCube charts,"

    heh?

  • Talha #2 6 years ago

    Waiting for the review of NFS MW. Glowing reviews elsewhere, but somehow I think the game is not that great. (Great, in this sense, indicated by 8)

  • kincaide #3 6 years ago

    Where can we make this crazy bets? And what's the odds on NFS - it's going to be no.1 for sure

  • alimokrane #4 6 years ago

    well clearly EA dominates every christmas in the UK ... Dammit ... I hope either KING KONG or PRINCE OF PERSIA 3 will knock NFSMW off the 1st spot ... but I have a feeling this is not gonna happen may be the xbox 360 titles will do it ...
    Edited by 1 at 30/11/05 @ 12:36

  • UncleLou #5 6 years ago

    Waiting for the review of NFS MW. Glowing reviews elsewhere, but somehow I think the game is not that great. (Great, in this sense, indicated by 8)

    It easily is. I am loving it, a real return to the Hot Pursuit roots.

  • Furbs #6 6 years ago

    Its a great game. Its FUN. Which is the main thing right?

  • markypants #7 6 years ago

    I must have played a different copy of NFS:MW on a PS2 in GAME on Oxford street, as it was one of the worst looking, soggy handling, muddy racing games I've played in a while... I guess I'm still spoilt by PGR2? Or maybe there was something wrong with the demo pod?

  • Furbs #8 6 years ago

    You'll be wanting to try the PC version then...
    Xbox version isnt bad, if a little jaggy...sit back and its ok ;)

  • Burton2000 #9 6 years ago

    "Wi-Fi wonder, Mario Kart DS stalls on the starting grid in thirteenth position, despite topping the GameCube charts,"

    How does mario kart ds top gamecube chart?

  • Darth_Flibble #10 6 years ago

    I played the demo of NFS: MW on PC and it looked very nice with all the details turned up to high and looks great but i went for the xbox to play on my tv. I bet EA didn't bother with the xbox version to sell the 360 version.

    According to IGN, the ps2 version is the weakest version, escaping from the police cars is fun. Forget the bland underground games.


    I rented king kong and it's very meh and you can't even stab jack black in his muppet face!

  • Derblington #11 6 years ago

    "Obviously a bit of a marmite game - it's the game of the year bar none for me, even outshining RE4."

    /shock

    How much did you love RE4?

    /is interested more in Kong now

  • UncleLou #12 6 years ago

    I must have played a different copy of NFS:MW on a PS2 in GAME on Oxford street, as it was one of the worst looking, soggy handling, muddy racing games I've played in a while... I guess I'm still spoilt by PGR2? Or maybe there was something wrong with the demo pod?

    NfS:MW on the PC is one of the best-looking games I've ever seen. I haven't played the PS2 version, but they must have seriously ballsed it up.

  • Pho-Zoon #13 6 years ago

    I need some speed. Where can I find this game?

    (Mandatory stupid post)

  • Talha #14 6 years ago

    I have at last played the PC version. People are right about the PS2 version - it looks and feels crap. PC version is great and for once I sense the excitement that was present in HP2. It also looks great with real-time weather effects and an incredibly big racing environment.

    That said, the game suffers from what I call 'dead city syndrome'. The beautiful streets and building are devoid of any human presence. Somehow Burnout manages to look alive even though it does not have people either. The city in NFS is complelety deserted - it is high time racing games livened up their environments.

    Great game though

  • Furbs #15 6 years ago

    Ummm...you did enable traffic didnt you?

  • Liggur #16 6 years ago

    I played one "Quick Race" on the PSP version, the handling blows. Wont be wasting my money on it. Burnout Legends still top racer on the PSP.

  • Talha #17 6 years ago

    @Furbs: I did enable traffic and maximum, at that. Even then there wasn't much, at least in my version (PC).

    Also, i wasn't talking about traffic, but actual people walking around. Don't you agree it is high time this thing was addressed? I mean, Hot Pursuit 2 was largely set in a tropical island, so it didn't look that werid. In this day and age, huge, deserted cities do look a bit eerie.

  • Furbs #18 6 years ago

    Given the choice of more detailed tracksides and a decent framerate, or some immaterial pedistrians who arent need for the game, gimme the former everytime :)

  • Talha #19 6 years ago

    Well when you chose a whole city as the environment, I think presence/absence of people plays a great role in your sense of immersion. Of course if race is the sole focus, setting the game in dedicated race tracks (a la GT and Forza) will do - which ironically show more people than NFS!

  • asphaltcowboy #20 6 years ago

    Been playing Most Wanted the apst few days - it's actually really good. Then again, I did sort of enjoy the Underground games. Sort of. This however, takes the good aspects from Underground and the great stuff from Hot Pursuit and sticks them together into a very nice, complete package. But my god, are the stupid green-screen CG/live action cutscenes super-cheesy :/

  • Talha #21 6 years ago

    @asphaltcowboy: I agree, although I wonder if the Underground games had ANY good aspects. Nevermind though, initially I bought the game, believe it or not, ONLY because of the incredibly cool M3 it features on the conver and in promos (who says ads don't work?).

    For a relief, the game is back in daylight, and at least the PC version shows some nice, if OTT, real-time weather effects. The performance is acceptable at best on my PC, although I don't think any game should stutter on a 6800 GT coupled with a P4 3.0 GHz, at least not on 1024x768. But that is just me.

    Personally I think the best version of the game was Porsche Unleashed - possibly one of the finest PC driving sims around. GT would of course run rings around it, but I am talking about a PC here. Whadya think?

  • asphaltcowboy #22 6 years ago

    I've only played Hot Pursuit, Underground 1 and 2 and Most Wanted. Hot Pursuit was awesome, so it's great to see the police back in it. There are a few niggly things that I'm actually disappointed they cut from the Underground series, such as challenging racers that are just driving around the game world and the level of vinyl complexity has been really dumbed down to "you can only have one vinyl". My main other gripe is the absolutely appalling netcode (nothing new for EA) - it's pretty bad, but you can only have 4 players, there's no traffic and i can't find a pursuit gametype - SURELY they didn't leave it out? SURELY?! Someone please tell me I'm talking out of my arse and point me in the direction of that gametype... because I reaally want it. Now.

  • Talha #23 6 years ago

    You're talking out of your arse and the type is right there in the mode selection menu.

    On Hot Putsuit 2 that is... ;-I

  • asphaltcowboy #24 6 years ago

    It's shocking that they haven't put it in! Even if you have no traffic, at least be able to have 2vs2 or 3vs1 with police cars and the ability to ram them off the road! Perhaps they'll add it in for Most Wanted 2 next Christmas? ;)

  • Talha #25 6 years ago

    @asphaltcowboy: I saw 'Need for Speed Underground 3' in PS3 launch titles on IGN a few months ago. Surely they cannot add much to the original Underground, failing to some extent with U2? So there goes your Christmas!!

  • asphaltcowboy #26 6 years ago

    Hopefully they'll stop with Underground and keep going with most Wanted - assuming the next release actually has enough new stuff warrant purchase

  • Pho-Zoon #27 6 years ago

    PGR3 FTW!

  • Talha #28 6 years ago

    @Pho-Zoon: Actually you are right. PGR3 is what NFS should have become.