UK Charts: Spider-Man 2 makes it five weeks at the top
Top three titles remain unchanged despite sliding sales figures.
Activision's movie licensed Spider-Man 2 has taken the number one spot in the UK software sales charts for a fifth week, making it the title with the longest innings at the top since Need for Speed Underground last Christmas.
However, a quiet week for game sales saw sales of the top three titles - whose positions remained unchanged from last week, with Driv3r at two and Shrek 2 at three - falling by some 34 per cent combined.
The highest new entry in the chart was Play It's bizarre combination first-person shooter and beat 'em up title America's 10 Most Wanted, which entered the charts at number 22 despite being critically panned (and arguably not in particularly good taste in the first place).
However, a number of titles climbed the rankings thanks to budget price points and retailer promotions - EA's Need for Speed: Underground, most notably, is up to number four in this week's chart, displacing Sony's Athens 2004 despite the imminent start of the Olympics in Athens.
Another former number one title, Sega's Sonic Heroes, was also climbing in the chart - it's up to number six from last week's number ten, off the back of retailer promotions. On the other side of the spectrum, Rockstar's Manhunt dropped 15 places to this week's number 38 as the controversy surrounding it died down - although some of that drop may be due to stock shortages reported to us by a number of retailers.
Electronic Arts' Catwoman is the big disappointment of the week; it's nowhere to be seen in the Top 40 Entertainment Software chart, but slinks in at number 28 in the Full-Price Top 40 chart - an inauspicious debut for the UK-developed title.
Another Argonaut developed title also slipped out last Friday, but the Xbox version of Malice doesn't make it into any of the charts, even the Xbox-only ranking; equally there's no sign of Digital Jesters' Chaos League in the main charts, although it did manage to come in at number 12 in the PC charts.
Next week is likely to see the end of Spider-Man's reign at the top, although Activision are unlikely to mind - the likely replacement for it will be the company's long-awaited PC first person shooter, Doom 3, while Vivendi will be hoping for a strong debut for the critically acclaimed Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay on Xbox.