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Wednesday 8th March 2006

UK games chart: Street football kicks back 2:15PM, Wednesday 8th March 2006

Not quite jumpers for goal posts - more like urban slum for backdrop - but FIFA Street 2 (for PS2, PSP, Xbox and DS), EA Sports' street football game, goes straight in at the top of this week's ELSPA UK games chart.

Black, EA Games' first-person urban shooter (for PS2 and Xbox), falls down to two, and the top three is completed with a new Sims 2 expansion pack, Open for Business (for PC). This allows you to virtually hire staff, train employees and generally build entrepreneurial empires. Just what you need for relaxation, Human Resource issues, after a hard day at work...

Two other two new entries both have a Tolkien twist. In at five is The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II (for PC), which - according to EA Games - involves operating in a world that looks like the films, but contains characters and environments that come from the books. And in at 16 is Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach (for PC), which attempts to recreate the old pen and paper role-playing game online. The customisable characters, with various skills, explore dungeons with dangerous traps courtesy of Atari.

The final new

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entry is Midway's Arcade Treasures: Extended Play (for PSP), in at 19, which provides a nostalgia trip for arcade lovers, with games such as SpyHunter, Gauntlet, Defender and Joust.

Getting format specific, The Sims 2: Open For Business sits atop the PC pile,
FIFA Street 2 goes straight to the top of the PlayStation 2 charts, Black holds number one for the Xbox, and Call of Duty 2 remains number one for the Xbox 360.

Without more ado, here is the all-format Top 20 in full (number of weeks in chart in brackets), for the week ending 4 March (full-price games):

1 FIFA Street 2 (1)
2 BLACK (2)
3 The Sims 2: Open For Business (1)
4 TOCA Race Driver 3 (2)
5 The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II (1)
6 Need for Speed: Most Wanted (15)
7 FIFA 06 (23)
8 The Sims 2 (69)
9 Pro Evolution Soccer 5 (20)
10 Star Wars: Empire at War (3)
11 Chicken Little (3)
12 Rugby 06 (4)
13 Shadow Of The Colossus (3)
14 Call Of Duty 2 (15)
15 Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (18)
16 Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach (1)
17 Star Wars: Battlefront II (19)
18 Torino 2006 (5)
19 Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play (1)
20 Project Gotham Racing 3 (7)