The latest list of most played games on Xbox Live has today been revealed by Larry 'Major Nelson' Hyrb, and has heralded a couple of surprises, as Halo 3 tops the chart for the first time since late September.

More importantly, it means that Epic Games' Gears of War 2 has already lost its grip at the top of the list after a month on release.  The drop to second place for Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad may be linked to the matchmaking issues that have plagued the title since its launch at the start of November; Epic has now released a patch that aims to eradicate the problem.

Halo 3's success is likely to be the result of a 'sale' for the Legendary Pack downloadable content, which was reduced to 400 Microsoft Points.

So whilst the Master Chief and Fenix battle it out for first and second, what's making up the rest of the list?  Activision can certainly be rather smug as it holds both third and fourth positions, with Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare respectively.  Fifth most popular game on the service goes to GTA IV, whilst the original Gears of War finally (after two years) doesn't even make it into the top ten.

All eyes will now be on Halo 3 in the coming weeks, to see whether the Bungie title can make it two in a row – or will Epic's sequel make a resurgence to the top?