The month was packed with new software, including Forza Motorsport 3, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and NBA 2K10 which put big numbers on the board. And while the PS3 and Wii secured software spots one and two, respectively, the Xbox 360’s showing as a platform resulted in six of the top 10 games sold in the US this October. That’s a lot of royalty payments going Microsoft’s way.

The top 10 games for the month of October according to NPD are…

01. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3) – 537,000
02. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) – 441,000
03. Borderlands (Xbox 360) – 418,000
04. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) – 314,000
05. NBA 2K10 (Xbox 360) – 311,000
06. Halo 3 ODST (Xbox 360) – 271,000
07. NBA 2K10 (PS3) – 213,000
08. Forza Motorsport 3 (Xbox 360) – 175,000
09. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS) – 169,000
10. FIFA Soccer 10 (Xbox 360) – 156,000

That’s just a portion of the $US572.73 million that US consumers spent on video game software last month, down 18 per cent from the same period last year.

NPD’s Anita Frazier notes that about half of Wii Fit Plus’ sales for the month were of the bundled variety, meaning that plenty of Wii owners are investing in Wii Balance Boards for the first time.

“The top game for the month across all platforms was NBA 2K10, at 575K units,” Frazier says of 2K Sports’ latest. “It was a great launch for the game, outselling last year’s NBA 2K9 by 60 per cent in its launch month. Sales on both the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms improved substantially over last year.”

Now for the bad news.

“The music/dance genre saw big declines this month compared to last year,” Frazier notes. “The genre generated $US53 million in sales as compared to $US137 million last year. Both Rock Band: Beatles, and Guitar Hero 5 have the potential to be good gifting items for the holidays, so we should expect to see an uptick in sales over the next two months.”

The Senior Vice President of Business Development at Sony Computer Entertainment says that as of last week, Uncharted 2 is now among the list of PlayStation 3 games to chart a course to a million. Rosenberg also lauded the game’s critical successes at today’s BMO Capital Markets Digital Entertainment Conference, but we’re betting the majority of those in attendance were far more interested in the game selling so darn well.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was released on October 15, giving it plenty of time for NPD to track its sales.

Yes, that’s right, we’re now publishing reader reviews here on Kotaku. This is your chance to deliver sensible game purchasing advice to the rest of the Kotaku community.

And thanks to the very kind chaps at Madman Entertainment, purveyor of all kinds of cool, indie and esoteric film, the best reader review we publish each month will win a prize pack containing ten of the latest Madman DVD releases.

This review was submitted by Ben Warwick. If you’ve played Uncharted 2, or just want to ask Ben more about it, leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)

Two years after his first adventure, modern-day treasure hunter Nathan Drake is back in the first of hopefully many sequels to Naughty Dog’s third-person shooter/platformer hit Drake’s Fortune.

Loved

Pacing: Approximately 10 hours of non-stop action which will leave you wanting more. When you’re getting a little tired of running, jumping and swinging you’ll be allowed to shoot someone in the face and vice-versa. With puzzles and other mini-events thrown in, the game never gets stale or boring.

Controls: Whether you’re blind firing at a Kevlar-wearing badass with a shotgun, scaling the tallest building of a city in Nepal or fleeing over a collapsing bridge, Drake’s controls feel superbly natural. Fluid animations with seamless transitions complement the controls perfectly.

Humour: I laughed out loud many times during Among Thieves. Drake’s wisecracks and banter with his companions during game play are the icing on the cake.

Environments: Simply beautiful. Crafted with amazing detail and full of colour, including environmental effects such water, snow, rain and lightning, which are the best I’ve seen.

Hated

Puzzle Simplicity: Nothing will get your brain working. Puzzles are solved by following obvious clues or reading Drake’s journal.

Enemy Repetitiveness: All units of each enemy sub-class look alike. Seeing multiple soldier clones with the same clothing, face and body-build together takes you out of the experience a little.

Drake’s Fortune was a great game and Naughty Dog has improved on its formula in every possible way. One could make a case for Among Thieves being this current generation’s best game and I would be hard-pressed to argue. It’s certainly one of the best I’ve ever played. Throw in hours of multiplayer – which feels well developed, not just tacked on – and you’re definitely getting value for money.

Reviewed by: Ben Warwick

You can have your Reader Review published on Kotaku. Send your review to us at the usual address. Make sure it’s written in the same format as above and in under 300 words – yes, we’ve upped the word limit. We’ll publish the best ones we get and the best of the month will win a Madman DVD prize pack.

Yes, that’s right, we’re now publishing reader reviews here on Kotaku. This is your chance to deliver sensible game purchasing advice to the rest of the Kotaku community.

And thanks to the very kind chaps at Madman Entertainment, purveyor of all kinds of cool, indie and esoteric film, the best reader review we publish each month will win a prize pack containing ten of the latest Madman DVD releases.

This review was submitted by Andrew Burdusel. If you’ve played Uncharted 2, or just want to ask Andrew more about it, leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)

Naughty Dog’s long-awaited sequel to its critically acclaimed 2007 action adventure is here and it’s awesome.

Loved

Pace: The game has a perfect balance of shooting/platforming/puzzles and story. Unlike the last game you won’t be in the same place fighting waves of guys forever, the game is generally fast paced and you won’t stay anywhere for long.

Visuals: This game pushed the PS3 to its limits and it really shows, the graphics are some of the best for any video game on any system. From the jungles of Borneo to the wrecked city of Nepal, everything looks immaculate.

Story: The plot, characters and story in general feel like a big budget movie. All of the characters are likable. You will actually want to find out what happens next and who is backstabbing who. I rank this as one of the most entertaining storylines of any game I’ve played.

Polish: Naughty Dog definitely didn’t phone it in and rely on the success of the first game to sell this one. An extreme amount of detail has been put into the smaller things you will only notice after a few playthroughs. Nothing about this game feels rushed or unpolished.

Hated

Puzzles: Although the puzzles this time feel much more epic and generally better, the game simply doesn’t have enough of them.

Background: It can sometimes be difficult to determine what you can actually grab onto and what is just the background, this can sometimes leave you searching for a long time for that one brick or branch you were supposed to climb.

Overall Uncharted 2 outdoes its predecessor in every way and is a game every PS3 owner should have. It has lived up to the hype and then some. If you own a PS3 you should own this game plain and simple.

Reviewed by: Andrew Burdusel

You can have your Reader Review published on Kotaku. Send your review to us at the usual address. Make sure it’s written in the same format as above and in under 300 words – yes, we’ve upped the word limit. We’ll publish the best ones we get and the best of the month will win a Madman DVD prize pack.

Because the Danish Trophy description has finally been fixed. Wait. I mean… Because this weekend, the Naughty Dog folks will be offering up twice the in-game cash in multiplayer games, also giving you a chance to shoot the team behind Uncharted 2 right in the virtual face, showing them how much you appreciate their hard work.

“Double Cash Weekend” runs from Friday, October 30, 2009 11:00 AM PST to Monday, November 2, 2009 11:00 AM PST.

It may also give you the opportunity to kill scores of T-800s whatever those glowing eyed, glowing hearted skeletal monstrosities that Naughty Dog is showing off in the teaser image offered alongside the update info at the PlayStation.blog.

UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Celebrates Halloween with a Title Update and a Double Cash Weekend [PlayStation.blog]

I’ve spent a few hours over the past two days playing matches online to see how things are working now that the game is out in the wild. Here’s what I found.

Finding Games: Finding a good match on the Playstation 3 was easy. Over the course of the past two days, the auto matchmaker found ranked games for me usually in about a minute.

Matchmaking: With the exception of one completely off-kilter match up that pitted a group that included two level 34 characters against a bunch of level 5 characters, I’ve noticed no issues with how the game finds playmates for you.

Reaction Time: I haven’t run into any noticeable lag yet, despite occasionally having what the game identified as a weak connection.

General Consensus: There are complaints in the official thread for the game on Playstation.com with a handful of people complaining about waits of five minutes or longer to find a match.

People are also complaining that the online stats for the game are tracking cooperative mode kills and deaths.

Overall Personal Experience: The inclusion of jumping, climbing and stealth kills makes Uncharted 2: Among Thieves’ a breezy bit of online fun for competitive play.

I’m a little put off by the unlockable perks that can make matches a bit harder for those new to the game, but with a bit of time spent playing you can quickly unlock your own set and the whole thing evens out.

Read our complete review here.

We are proud to launch this new era of virtual fashion scrutiny with a check of what the beautiful virtual people of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves are wearing during their new and critically-acclaimed PlayStation 3 adventure.

Assisting Kotaku this time are:

-Amy Hennig, Creative Director of Uncharted 2 development studio Naughty Dog. Her studio also provided the many reference photos included here.

-Heather and Jessica from fashion blog Go Fug Yourself, who asked us to refer to them as “The Fug Girls”. Their blog is best at cracking jokes on poorly dressed celebrities. They were a shade kinder here. They have not played Uncharted 2 yet.

-Latoya Peterson, editrix of Racialicious, and a contributor to Jezebel. She has not played Uncharted 2 yet.

Let’s dive in…

Nathan Drake

Amy Hennig : Drake is not a man concerned with fashion. He wears what’s comfortable and practical, regardless how stained and well-worn those items of clothing may be. His only indulgences are his belt buckles, and the ring he wears on a cord around his neck — a ring supposedly passed down from his ancestor, Sir Francis Drake.

The Fug Girls: Drake’s basic outfit has all the qualities a guy could need: It’s comfortable, relaxed, breathable, suggests he might be super ripped, and prevents holster-chafing. Our quibble is with the accessory hanging from his belt — surely any adventurer worth his stubble knows that if you might need to break into a run, you shouldn’t dangle a dagger anywhere within stabbing distance of your thigh.

Latoya Peterson: Excellent outfit for the circumstances. Casual but sturdy, easily adaptable for a variety of situations.

Naughty Dog Reference: Converse Jack Purcell shoes

Naughty Dog Reference: Henley shirt

Naughty Dog Reference: Diesel Jeans

Naughty Dog Reference: Belt Buckle

Naughty Dog Reference: Watch

Drake In The Cold

The Fug Girls: If it’s cold enough for Drake’s enormous fur-trimmed sleeves—he looks like a Mongol hunter about to gnaw on an enormous leg of mutton—then why isn’t Drake’s bare neck totally freezing? Are scarves insufficiently manly? And would it kill an adventurer to wash his pants every once in a while?

Latoya Peterson: The shearling coat for winter weather is a nice touch.

Chloe Frazer

Amy Hennig: We wanted Chloe’s outfits to be practical but sexy, and to display a sense of style. Rather than put her in shapeless cargo pants and standard-issue boots, she wears form-fitting cargos that accentuate her figure, and high boots that have a retro-designer flair. Chloe doesn’t want to look too “put-together”, but she’s got a good body, and she knows it.

The Fug Girls: What else would you wear to scramble around the Himalayas looking for treasure than a belly shirt and a bunch of grungy accessories that might get caught on a tree and accidentally garrote you? That being said, we have to congratulate Chloe for wearing appropriately practical cargo pants. They’re still tight enough to be sexy, but she also has all those pockets — so convenient for the adventurer on the go.

Latoya Peterson: Overall, the look works. It’s utilitarian, and it’s clear this character is out to handle her business. The shrunken tees are a bit much though — not much protection against weather or assault. They are perfect layering pieces though, so this could be easily rectified with a long sleeve kevlar undershirt.

Chloe In Red

The Fug Girls: Correct us if we’re wrong, but isn’t this the same shirt Chloe was wearing earlier, just in a different colour? Is she like the Albert Einstein of treasure hunters, with a closet full of multiple examples of the exact same outfit? Regardless: Better a T-shirt than a bra top.

Naughty Dog Reference: Cargo Pants

Naughty Dog Reference: Boots

Naughty Dog Reference: Holster

Elena Fisher

Amy Hennig : Like Drake, Elena tends to wear what’s practical in her line of work as an investigative journalist — jeans, sturdy boots and a blouse that will look all right on camera. In a field dominated by men, she still tries to maintain some femininity in her look, but it’s hard when you’re spattered with mud half the time. Her belt-mounted sidearm reflects the danger inherent in her job.

The Fug Girls: Presumably, it’s no surprise to Elena that she enjoys the occasional gritty quest, so while this shirt is cute, perhaps she should shop for something more practical and less tailored — you know, so she looks like a thrill-seeker rather than a helpless disaster-movie damsel who is running away from the lava that just wiped out her law office. (Note from Kotaku: Blame us for not notifying our fashion experts that Elena is a reporter as well as an adventurer/videographer.)

Latoya Peterson: This outfit is not working for me. An anthropologist doing light field work would wear this outfit. But an adventurer? Not so sure, plus the nude colours are washing her out. Military style is back in fashion, so I would swap out the easily destroyed button up with a sturdier blazer/jacket that can be matched with her existing camisole or a scoopneck top.

Naughty Dog Reference: Shirt

Naughty Dog Reference: Shoes

Harry Flynn

Amy Hennig: Flynn’s fashion is meant to betray a little more vanity than Drake’s more down-to-earth clothing. Flynn’s outfit, while basic, is all designer clothing — expensive jeans, designer boots, and a trendy t-shirt and necklace. Even his choice of a gunslinger-style holster is a conscious fashion choice. The differences in their clothing is meant to set up a subtle distinction between Flynn and Drake from the outset.

The Fug Girls: Nothing says, “roguish” like black clothes, leather gloves, man-jewellery, multiple weapons and a pompadour so aggressively retro that we wouldn’t be surprised to hear it was inspired by the many violent downward spirals of Dylan McKay. Flynn might as well just wear a tee shirt that reads, “I’m troubled and hot. Love me.”

Latoya Peterson: Sorry, this look is completely over. The bad boy stereotype is screaming off the page. “Look at me! I’m the one in black! The unpredictable one! Do my one-liners make me look cool?” Lighten up on the black, lose the accessories and use a piece like Tom Ford’s Herringbone Trench to add some drama and mystery. Plus, it’s the perfect place to keep both those guns, and keep the chill off.

Naughty Dog Reference: Shirt

Naughty Dog Reference: Necklace

Victor Sullivan

Amy Hennig, Creative Director, Naughty Dog: Sully is a throwback to early action-adventure heroes like Errol Flynn and Clark Gable, with a healthy dose of Ernest Hemingway thrown in. We wanted his outfit to reflect this heritage — thus the embroidered guayabera shirt, khakis, old-school boots and ever-present cigar. His preference for a long-barrelled Colt Python revolver completes the picture.

(Note From Kotaku: Victor Sullivan was spared the scrutiny of our fashion experts. You’re a lucky man, Sully! )

Naughty Dog Reference: Shirt

Naughty Dog Reference: Dockers Pants

Did you pick up a copy? If you didn’t you should check out our review of the game and everyone else’s. If you did maybe you could help Kotaku out a bit.

When I reviewed the game I was only able to play against developers, now that the game is in the wild I want to check out how it plays online against the vast gaming public.

To test it out I’ll be on and offline much of the day playing online matches. If you’d like to join me hit up KotakuCrecente.

In the meantime feel free to use this post to drop in your own opinions of the game and to help set up online matches if you’d like.

For the upcoming launches of Ratchet & Clank: A Crack In Time and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, PlayStation Home is launching two new virtual spaces and creating a new apartment for Home users to enjoy.

The Ratchet & Clank space was built with several casual mini-games like find-the-sheep and actually has music that sounds like something out of one of the games. There’s a firing range game as well that changes what kind of enemies you’re shooting at depending on if you’re playing the Past, Present or Future range. Sadly, the apartment isn’t Ratchet’s apartment from the games — but it does have three levels and a massive view of space from the basement.

Oh, also, you get a Ratchet costume complete with ears, a tail and a Clank backpack.

The Uncharted 2 space is Nepal, complete with prayer flags, breathtaking temples in the background and a massive interactive board game in the middle of the town square. It seems a lot bigger than the Ratchet & Clank space — but perhaps that’s because there’s open sky instead of a robot factory.

The space has several casual mini games like the sheep-hunting one in the Ratchet & Clank space — but the board game really impressed me. It’s called “Fortunate Thieves” and its oriented around changing terrain spaces with treasure hidden on certain tiles. Players choose what terrain map they want to play on (mountainous, desert, etc.) and each get cards that somehow change the terrain (e.g. an earthquake card). This allows them to stall other players out or open up other parts of the map to move to during the movement phase on the hunt for treasure.

Like with everything else in Home, there’s always a reward to be had for getting really good at the games built into these specific spaces – so be sure to check them out whenever they go live (usually right around a game’s release).

And sadly we didn’t get any Nepal screens, so here’s a parting Ratchet shot:

The fall gaming season starts off with a bang next week with two huge titles both dropping on Tuesday the 13th, but GameStop doesn’t think you should wait. More than 800 North American GameStop locations will be staying open till midnight in order to make sure eager gamers get their Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Brutal Legend fixes as soon as humanly possible. There’s a list on the GameStop website you can consult to see if your local store is among those with slightly angrier than normal employees come Monday night.

Sadly my local stores are not, which means I might just have to go to Wal-Mart and pick the games up instead. Sure I’ll miss out on waiting in line, but at least I’ll be able to buy a rake in case the need arises. Take that, GameStop!