It's fansite day. Xerxes writes to say that Halo Orbit, a German fansite, has been thoroughly redesigned, with many new features added. Go check 'em out!

Terror writes to let us know that Ozhalo is not a new Australian site (As we said yesterday)... it's Halo-Australia, joining the CFGN. Same good coverage, same staff, new look! Thanks for the heads-up, Terror. (Word of warning to visitors - as good as this site looks in IE and Opera, it's painful in NS, and a little funky in iCab - so choose your browser with care.)

Thanks to Ferrex, who posted to his old stomping grounds at Rampancy.net, confirming that location-specific damage WILL be included in Halo. It's long been speculated that this would be included... but this is the first confirmation of it by a Bungie employee.

Lee Timms writes to say that a new Halo site is coming soon rom CFGN (Cyber Forces Gaming Nation) - OzHalo. As he says, the new design is very nicely done. Looking forward to the site!

Thanks to Dan Rudolph, who pointed out three separate E3 wrapups (one from each editor) at Gamecritics.com. Bottom line - they hated Halo. Ben thought Halo was the "biggest joke of the show"... but then, he got a bunch of stuff wrong. (If you're gonna name someone by name, get the name right... and if you're gonna ridicule a special effect, like the umbra effect the Halo guys were so rightfully proud of, don't confuse it with something mundane, like a lens flare - it throws doubt on the credibility of the rest of your criticism.) Chi declared that "if Microsoft is hedging most of its bets on HALO, it better seriously think about folding its hand and cutting its loses." And Brad ignored it altogether (though he included a shot of the Halo display in his rant against ALL Xbox titles, and Chi mentioned how underwhelmed all three were by Halo). Ouch!

Thanks to Jan Louw, who noticed that the Game Critics Awards site has posted its nominations for its Best of E3 Awards. Halo is up for Best Action Game. Awards are announced on June 18. Good luck, Halo!

Thanks to Gothmog, who noticed a new poll over at MSXbox.com:

Now that E3 is over, which of the following blockbuster games are you looking forward to the most?

Only 125 votes so far, but Halo's edging out Project Ego... make sure it stays that way!

Clarification: We've gotten a few emails about some pictures we posted last week... and people want to know how they relate to the bungie.org glyph puzzle (discussed here, here, and here). The waters were muddied by this post, written by Chelsea Bridge. Here's the skinny: There is NO relation between the glyph puzzle and those wacky pics. The timing was completely coincidental - not our fault at all. As for the pics themselves... all you need to know is already visible. Hope this helps.

The Corporation has its own take on the changes Halo has seen recently... thanks to Lophan for the link.

You gotta love it when you totally forget you've done something. Halo SETI Team stats were collected yesterday, as they usually are on Mondays... but due to the holiday, we forgot completely to mention them. Team output was up a bit this week - nice job, folks! The Marines are holding steady at 49th place in the Battle of the Teams, but maybe with the two new additions (nurble and Calvin1331) the climb could start again. And what's with the HUGE increase in unit production from CowMutilator? See how YOU are doing on the 7 day stats page.