Like it or not the Season of Goodwill is just around the corner and the big games are already lining up to take the fattest share of your hard-earned. There’s plenty to choose from, but which will attain the much-cherished Xmas number one?

That’ll be Modern Warfare 2, according to bookmakers Paddy Power. They’ve just made it their festive favourite with odds of 11/10, meaning they’re pretty certain that it’ll be lifting the crown on Christmas morning. Other games are still in the running, though, and with rather more attractive starting prices – 3/1 on FIFA 10, 4/1 on Assassin’s Creed 2 and 5/1 on Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games. Sega may fancy a piece of that action, since they’ve already predicted that Mazza and Sonic’s latest has the legs to beat ‘em all.

Other Chrimble contenders are looking a lot less likely – The forthcoming Saw game is 100/1 and Smackdown vs Raw 2010 is offered at 150/1. Meanwhile, New Super Mario Bros Wii and the awesome Uncharted 2 are afforded outsider status, at 16/1 and 18/1 respectively. Either might be worth a flutter at those odds. Not that we condone gambling in any way whatsoever. Ahem…