Gears, Small Arms Top X360 Most-Played Charts

Via the weblog of staffer Larry 'Major Nelson' Hryb, Microsoft has announced the top ten Xbox 360 games currently being played over Xbox Live for the week of November 20, 2006, as well as the top titles for the the original Xbox being played over (or while connected to) the online service. As expected, the popularity of Microsoft's Epic-developed action shooter Gears of War shows no sign of waning, and once again was found to be the most played Xbox 360 title over the online service for the week. Activision's World War II shooter Call Of Duty 3 ranked second on the Xbox Live chart, followed by the demo for the forthcoming Superman Returns: The Videogame. Making a respectable debut at number four this week is Gastronaut Studios' long-awaited Xbox Live Arcade game Small Arms, followed by the multiplayer demo for Rainbow Six Vegas and Electronic Arts' popular football release, Madden NFL 07. At number seven is the newly released multiplayer demo for Capcom's Lost Planet, followed by Activision's Call of Duty 2, the Tony Hawk's Project 8 demo, and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, holding it position on the charts at number ten. This week's charts covering the full versions of games being played over Xbox Live Arcade is itself topped by the aforementioned new release of Gastronaut's Small Arms, moving Konami's Contra to number two. XBLA mainstay UNO comes in at number three, followed by classic shooter Defender at four, and Midway's popular fighting game Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 at number five. Capcom's popular 2D fighting game Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting moves up two slots to number six, followed by a return from Geometry Wars Evolved, id Software's Doom, arcade classic Pac-Man at number nine, and Texas Hold 'em rounding off the chart at ten. Turning to the original Xbox, Halo 2 once again held its by now near unshakable slot at the top of the chart. EA's Battlefield 2: Modern Combat once again was the second most played Xbox title on the chart for the week, followed by Madden NFL 07 and the Xbox port of Counter-Strike. The Xbox version of Call of Duty 3 moved up two slots to number five, followed by LucasArts' Star Wars Battlefront II. Microsoft's popular racing game Forza Motorsport also rose to number seven, followed by Ubisoft's Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow and Call of Duty 2. The weekly chart was rounded out by Ubisoft's Ghost Recon 2 in tenth.