Mercs 2 conquers UK chart

Mercenaries 2 proves it likes a challenge. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the open-world action game has debuted at the top of this week's UK sales chart. EA's latest destructive offering beat out last week's numero uno, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09, and sim-everything Spore, which find themselves in second and third places respectively. It's not all bad news for Will Wright's evolutionary epic, though; according to Chart-Track, Spore accounted for 53 percent of full-price PC games sales last week.

Following EA's top-three hat-trick is the usual Nintendo fare including Wii Fit, Carnival Games, Mario Kart Wii, Wii Play, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, and Big Beach Sports, with WALL-E rounding off the top 10.

After spending one week in the top 10 at eighth, Too Human has dropped out of the top 10, to 16th. Other new entrants that have failed to make much of an impression on the sales records to date include Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, which debuted at 23, and Stalker: Clear Sky which entered the chart at 25.

There'll be new competition this week from the likes of Crysis Warhead, Warhammer: Battle March for Xbox 360, and a price-slashed Rock Band finally competing across multiple platforms.