It's hard to overstate how much better Destiny 2 has become in the last year. The Forsaken expansion and the smaller updates that followed added variety in activities that meant you could earn rewards while playing your favorite content, as well as a huge amount of new, weird lore to sift through and fun secrets to uncover. It's not a stretch to say Destiny as a franchise was the best it's ever been in the second year of Destiny 2.

The new Shadowkeep expansion builds on those foundations in just about every way. While returning to the moon is a pretty good time in and of itself--the expansion leans hard on the spooky locale, which was part of Destiny 1 but refreshed and enlarged for Destiny 2--it's the smaller improvements to the way the game works that are really the standout. Destiny 2 is a stronger experience in Shadowkeep because Bungie has found ways to make it even more fun to play.

Forsaken made some effort to establish Destiny 2 as a game that's constantly evolving. Instead of dropping a series of big content updates with little happening between them, Destiny 2's second year became a drip-feed of new stuff that helped keep the game compelling, for the most part, month after month.

Bungie has said this approach is how it wants to handle the game going forward, and Shadowkeep represents a big step in that direction. That means at least across the first few days, the expansion feels a bit truncated; there's a lot more Bungie has detailed that's just not in the game yet. Destiny 2 story campaigns have always been a touch lackluster--they usually pack cool individual missions, but they almost always end quickly and rarely amount to more than chasing down some big enemy and putting them in the ground. Shadowkeep's main story is also on the short side, wrapping up in a four or five dedicated hours (and less once you start leveling alternate characters who benefit from the high-level gear you've already procured). It's also clearly the first part of a much larger tale, one that Bungie says will play out over the entire year. As such, it presents something of an unsatisfying journey; it's the first few steps, rather than a complete arc, and you might be a bit surprised when it's suddenly over.

Shadowkeep sees the return of a Destiny 1 character, Eris Morn, who was central to two previous expansions: The Dark Below and The Taken King. Here, Eris has learned that the death-worshipping enemy alien race, the Hive, has discovered something on the moon that's conjuring up phantoms of past foes and allies, returning deadly facsimiles of them to life. In a way, it's a big reunion tour of old Destiny content. Eris is back, you return to the D1 location of the moon, which we haven't seen in two years, and you fight slightly watered-down versions of big bad guys you've previously defeated, such as Dark Below raid boss Crota and Destiny 2 vanilla boss Ghaul. Since we haven't been back to the moon for two whole years, it's something of an amped-up nostalgia trip. But we're still waiting to reach the long-term endgame content that will wrap up some of these story threads.

It is cool, however, to hang out on the moon, especially because its spooky factor has gone up. Lunar tunnels are filled with frightening screams of hidden terrors, there are plenty of tough enemies to dispatch, and the whole place carries an air of haunted mystery. It seems we've only scratched the surface of what's hidden on the moon so far. Destiny is at its best when it's full of secrets for the community to band together to discover, and it appears there will be lots to find on the moon during Season of the Undying, the first season of Year Three.

The new content is all generally pretty fun, though it does feel a bit thin, at least in the early going and especially compared to the big, layered content offering that was Forsaken. Part of the issue is that the new seasonal approach means we're still waiting on additional activities, like the Vex Offensive, which starts in the days to come and is effectively a part of Shadowkeep that's not yet available. The story campaign has some exciting moments as Guardians band together to attack and infiltrate the new Scarlet Keep location and discover what the Hive is up to. Nightmare Hunts, the new high-level gear-grind activity on the moon, are pretty much mini-Strikes, making them quick, palatable boss fights that help you grab new gear. Exploring the moon has a lot to offer as well--though a lot of the location is made up of old areas, they're deep and maze-like, and every trip into their depths feels deliciously dangerous.

Where Shadowkeep really excels, however, is less in the content to work through and more in the myriad smaller changes Bungie has made to totally revamp Destiny 2. The biggest changes focus on making character builds a bigger part of the experience, giving you a chance to experiment with weapons and armor not just to make your character more powerful in general, but more powerful in ways that specifically meet your particular play style and needs.

Driving that focus is the new approach to weapon and armor mods, which allows you to mix and match elements that were previously unmovable perks on particular pieces of gear. In the past, you had to spend so much time switching gear in order to make your overall stats go up that more nuanced numbers, like how fast your grenades recharged or how quickly you moved, could generally be ignored. Making sure you had the best rolls on particular gear only really mattered in the game's toughest activities and to the most hardcore of players.

With Armor 2.0 and the new weapon mod system, you can move those perks (now as individual mods) between armor sets to build a few pieces of gear with exactly the capabilities you want. You're also no longer penalized for experimenting since mods aren't consumed on use. It means that once you start to get some pieces of armor and weapons that work really well for you, it's possible to continually tweak them to fit how you want to play the game and your particular role on a team.

I'm still early on in the process of seeing just how useful the system is--moving mods around is great, but how much freedom you actually get and whether you really need to care about them will become more apparent after spending more time in the endgame and upcoming seasonal content. But even early on, the system is providing more opportunities to think and develop character builds than I've been doing through most of the five years I've played Destiny. On paper, this is an improvement Destiny desperately needed.

The early leveling system has been improved significantly as well, making the climb to the endgame a lot more reasonable. Leveling up your character is (mostly) gone in favor of constantly chasing gear with better Power numbers. Up to the soft Power level cap, every drop is a useful one--giving you a chance to try out a host of different weapons and armor in various circumstances before you get to Shadowkeep's toughest content. Shadowkeep's change to move experience points from a needless character-leveling system to a battle pass also helps a major ongoing Destiny problem of running out of things to do as you approach maximum level. Everything earns you experience to advance your battle pass, so there's a lot less wasted time chasing useless rewards.

Evaluating a game like Destiny 2 is always tough, especially now that Bungie's putting more of its chips on long-term, evolving content. There's still a lot that won't be clear until I've been able to spend more time with the game. My initial experience with the post-soft cap endgame climb is that it is, in fact, pretty grind-heavy. After only a couple of days, however, it's tough to really get a sense of how satisfying or frustrating the path to reach Shadowkeep's pinnacle activities will be.

I'm also still waiting for new activities that will launch in the days to come and change from there. No review of a Destiny expansion would be complete without addressing its raid--Bungie's raids are consistently the most inventive, clever, and difficult experiences in Destiny, but we won't see the raid until it launches on October 5. A new seasonal activity also drops with the first completion of the raid, and seems likely to advance the story and help with providing higher-level players with more to do.

What's clear from just the first few days of Shadowkeep is that it represents a shift in the fundamentals of Destiny 2, and that has only improved the game. Returning to the moon is full of spooky fun, and while Shadowkeep might not be as huge as Forsaken, it still provides some impressive additions to the world that will take time to fully explore. More meaningful choices in Shadowkeep, even in the early hours, are pushing me to think beyond just packing my most powerful guns and shooting everything in my path. It remains to be seen just how much new choice and nuance these improvements will provide at the highest levels of play, but they absolutely represent a giant leap forward for Destiny 2.

Editor's note: We will be playing more Shadowkeep, including the Garden of Salvation Raid, before finalizing this review and the score. Stay tuned for the final review in the coming days.

Following five seasons and a movie, Steven Universe will return one last time for a new "epilogue limited series" called Steven Univere Future, and it is "coming soon" to Cartoon Network.

Announced during New York Comic Con 2019 alongside a new opening sequence you can see above, Steven Universe Future's synopsis, according to Cartoon Network, is "After saving the universe, Steven is still at it, tying up every loose end. But as he runs out of other people’s problems to solve, he’ll finally have to face his own."

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Disney is going all in on the streaming wars.

According to THR, Disney announced that it is no longer accepting ads from Netflix on its entertainment networks.

The change only affects the entertainment networks — ABC and Freeform will no longer accept ads for Netflix, but ESPN will continue to do so.

The change comes just 38 days before Disney is set to launch its own streaming service, Disney+, on Nov. 12. For more on the streaming service, check out the video below.

Disney+ will be available for $12.99 as part of a bundle deal with Hulu and ESPN+, the same price as the standard Netflix plan. Users can access the streaming service on Apple and Google products, through Xbox One or PS4, Sony TVs, and Roku.

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Now that World of Warcraft Classic is up and running, it’s time to look forward to the next batch of content updates coming down the pipeline. Blizzard already revealed that content for WoW Classic will be released in six phases, and the second phase will likely be released later this year.

In a new interview with PC Gamer, WoW Classic director Ion Hazzikostas revealed phase two will be out “later this year.” But there will be some factors that determine when exactly that might be.

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A Monster Hunter World: Iceborne crossover will add Resident Evil 2 characters next month. Similar to previous events, it appears players will be able to make their hunters look like Leon Kennedy or Claire Redfield, and even dress The Handler up as the imposing Tyrant.

Additionally, it seems there will be a way to make your hunter look a bit like a zombie, alongside potentially new gestures in that vein – you’ll even be able to get a Tofu weapon pendant, complete with tiny knife and hat.

Watch the trailer revealing all this and more below:

The crossover content will drop this November, but details beyond that haven’t been revealed yet. It’s likely earning these outfits and other cosmetics will be similar to past crossovers, locking them behind special events that earn you tickets that can be used at the Smithy.

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The Internet is currently abuzz over The Irishman director Martin Scorsese's declaration that Marvel movies are "not cinema," and now Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has weighed in.

Gunn took to Twitter to reveal he's "saddened" by Scorsese's comments, drawing a comparison to the pre-release outrage directed against Scorsese's 1988 film The Last Temptation of Christ.

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If you've been following the saga of Hasbro's biggest Transformers figure, ever, you know how close it came to missing its goal. However, Hasbro extended the funding period for the over-2-feet-tall Unicron figure, giving deep-pocketed Transformers enthusiasts extra time to back the Lord of Chaos.

Originally, Hasbro sweetened the deal by adding a to-scale Galvatron figure and interchangeable chin accessories for Unicron, but as the deadline draws near, Hasbro has upped the ante with even more features.

Unicron, if funded, will come with another to-scale mini figure: Hot Rod, as well as "an Autobot shuttle ship inspired by the movie." Unicron's hands also have 15-points of articulation, "3 per finger," and there's now a clear plastic stand to display Unicron's disembodied head, to recreate "the part where the Bringer of Chaos's head flies off into space."

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Director Martin Scorsese has shared his view on comic book movies, admitting that although he has previously given Marvel movies a chance, in his opinion they are "not cinema."

As reported by Comicbook.com, the veteran filmmaker recently sat down with Empire magazine for a career-spanning interview, in which he was asked about the superhero genre and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"I don't see them. I tried, you know? But that's not cinema," Scorsese told the publication. "Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn't the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being."

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If you love both space fantasy and dinosaur bones (and who doesn't?), a new graphic novel called Alien Bones has found a way to combine the two into one epic, all-ages adventure.

Created by writer Chris “Doc” Wyatt (Marvel's Rocket and Groot) and artist Chris Grine (Time Shifters), Alien Bones stars a ten-year-old boy named Liam Mycroft, who roams the galaxy with his paleontologist father in search of dinosaur bones on different planets. When his father disappears in the ruins of an ancient civilization, Liam must team up with his friend Dianna and his faithful robot and dinosaur sidekicks to unravel a giant mystery that affects all life in the universe.

We have an exclusive preview of the graphic novel below, one that shed slight on the cosmic threat Liam and his friends are faced with in this epic adventure:

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Rockstar Games has officially announced Red Dead Redemption 2 is coming to PC. There will be special bonuses for anybody who pre-purchases the game on Rockstar’s PC launcher starting October 9 at 11am ET/8am PT.

Red Dead Redemption 2 has been rumored for PC since it launched on consoles. Dataminers previously found evidence that pointed to a PC version of Red Dead Redemption 2, but at the time Rockstar wouldn’t confirm anything.

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