Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

UK Charts: Brian Lara not out at 1

Wanted: new cricket puns. Cos we're, er, stumped.

Codemasters has continued its unprecedented run of success with cricket title Brian Lara International Cricket 2005, with the game boosting its sales once more this week to secure the number one place for the fourth time.

Sales of the title rose 35 per cent week on week as England won a highly publicised victory in the 4th test match of the Ashes series, giving Brian Lara a comfortable lead at number one with over twice the sales of the number two title.

The number two title in question was Activision's movie license Madagascar, which has proved to be the licensed hit of the summer - outselling rivals such as Take 2's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Activision's own Fantastic 4.

After a very quiet month for new releases, UK retail finally got some new boxes to put on its shelves last week, and three new games entered the top 40 chart - with the top-ranked being Ubisoft's latest Tom Clancy title, Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike, which entered the chart at number three.

Further down the chart, Capcom's Resident Evil Outbreak File #2 debuted at number 15, while Sega's Super Monkey Ball Deluxe was the other new release to enter the ranking, just behind it at number 16.

Back in the top ten, strong retailer promotion saw THQ's Destroy all Humans and Eidos' Lego Star Wars both climbing strongly, with the THQ title up six places to number four and the Traveller's Tales developed Lego Star Wars up seven places to number five.

This week, of course, sees the launch of the PlayStation Portable across Europe, and the charts for the week are likely to reflect that strongly - with the top launch titles almost certainly set to make a significant dent in the all-formats ranking.

It's not just the PSP hitting shelves, though; Novalogic's Delta Force: Black Hawk Down is out on Xbox and PS2, THQ's MotoGP 3 arrives on Xbox and PC, and Microsoft's Dungeon Siege II is out on PC.