Weekly Rentrak game rental chart: December 1-7

The twelfth month of 2003 began with Electronic Arts' Need for Speed: Underground finishing first. According to figures from Rentrak, Electronic Arts' street-racing game was the best-renting title in our car-crazy nation from December 1 to 7. EA captured the second slot as well with the critic-proof WWII shooter Medal of Honor Rising Sun.

The Xbox version of Rising Sun also infiltrated the rental chart at number eight after a week AWOL, the only game for the Microsoft console to do so. The only other new entry for the week was Take Two's snuff-actioner Manhunt, which had a stranglehold on fifth place. Two of the previous week's entries, the movie-based Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Enter the Matrix, dropped out.

The rest of the chart saw returning titles engaged in a grudge match for the highest position. Behind EA, Activision was the top dog, with its True Crime: Streets of LA and Tony Hawk’s Underground coming in third and fourth. WWE Smackdown!: Here Comes the Pain kept its headlock on seventh place and Final Fantasy X-2 stepped up a notch to ninth. The list's biggest loss belonged to Madden NFL 2004, which fell seven places to tenth.

Top console-game rentals for the week of December 1-7, 2003:

Rank / Title / Console / Publisher
1 / Need for Speed Underground / PS2 / EA
2 / Medal of Honor Rising Sun / PS2 / EA
3 / True Crime: Streets of LA / PS2 / Activision
4 / Tony Hawk’s Underground / PS2 / Activision
5 / Manhunt* / PS2 / Take Two
6 / SOCOM II: U.S. Navy Seals / PS2 / SCEA
7 / WWE Smackdown!: Here Comes the Pain / PS2 / THQ
8 / Medal of Honor Rising Sun* / Xbox / EA
9 / Final Fantasy X-2 / PS2 / Square Enix
10 / Madden NFL 2004 / PS2 / EA

*=new entry

The lists above ranks games according to rental revenues. To see a list of games ranked according to GameSpot review score, visit our Top 100 page.