Microsoft will soon implement an Xbox Series X and S update that makes the console boot up faster.

As reported by The Verge, Xbox's director of integrated marketing confirmed on Twitter (below) that the new feature being tested in Xbox Insider builds cuts the console's boot time in half.

Xbox has created a new animation that, while it doesn't seem too different, cuts the original boot time of nine seconds down to a much quicker four, meaning Xbox users can now get into their consoles and games even faster. As it's currently just in a beta testing phase the update isn't available for all Xbox users but will likely be released fully soon.

Can confirm – worked with @harrisonhoffman and @jakerose27 to create a shorter boot up animation (~4s) from the original boot up animation (~9s), helping to reduce the overall startup time.

— Josh Munsee (@joshmunsee) July 23, 2022

The faster time will only be available those who set their consoles to Energy Saver mode – which results in slightly slower start-up overall but is better for the planet and energy bills – as those on Standby mode typically skip the start-up screen altogether.

Microsoft has implemented a number of changes to make its Energy Saver mode more appealing, including an update in March that allowed updates to be downloaded while switched to this setting.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

The Reef: Stalked is in theaters, VOD/digital, and Shudder on July 29, 2022.

Andrew Traucki’s The Reef: Stalked is the writer/director’s fourth wade back into aquatic horror waters, albeit with inconsistent results. I wasn’t taken by his first shark attack flick, The Reef, which was a concern that proved detrimental coming into his 2022 sequel. Both films implement a style of using wildlife B-roll that doesn’t match character-focused cinematography, but The Reef: Stalked also falls victim to another sin of indie-budgeted shark cinema — poorly computer-animated beasts. It’s never as bad as Alicia Silverstone’s battle against a pixelated atrocity in The Requin earlier this year, but still woefully underwhelming in terms of fin flick thrills.

Traucki’s setup du jour for The Reef: Stalked is four women paddling kayaks towards a Pacific island when Mr. Hungry Shark appears. I’ve seen protagonists adrift on jet skis this year, also floating on a detached coastal hotel bungalow (The Requin is wild, y’all) but Traucki finds sensibility in a getaway excursion on open waters – at least after central protagonist Nic (Teressa Liane) discovers her sister and diving buddy Cath (Bridget Burt) drowned in a bathtub by abusive partner Greg (Tim Ross) during an introductory tragedy, and Nic disappears from other sister Annie’s (Saskia Archer) existence until now. This backstory is how Traucki attempts to empower emotional stakes beyond hunter-prey animal attacks, as Nic frequently hallucinates Cath’s gurgling face gasping for air when gazing into the sea’s churning wakes.

Two narratives fight for dominance throughout The Reef: Stalked. One analyzes Nic’s growth as someone who flees from confrontation and depressive realities after her sister dies — the shark stalking Nic represents her traumas, get it? The other is an actual creature feature where Nic, Annie, Jodie (Ann Truong), and Lisa (Kate Lister) must defend themselves on single-rider kayaks against a massive fishy foe. Unfortunately, there’s never a fluid marriage between Nic and Annie’s reevaluations of PTSD, heavy-handed metaphors, and excitable shark horrors. Traucki aims to chart new waters since he can’t just recreate the capsized nightmare of The Reef, but fails by disconnectedly overcomplicating what surrounds sporadic shark attacks from beneath.

Even worse, and most regrettably, The Reef: Stalked continues a streak of dodgily inserted or animated sharks that never feel like they belong in their cinematic environment. In this case, it appears video footage of real sharks is superimposed into scenes which still give a digital feel. Actors react to invisible lungers that emerge from (sometimes digital) cover-all splashes that surge topside with the ferocity of clunky video game graphics. These are your sea monsters, your fearsome predators, and they don’t even blend into islander backgrounds. Traucki’s dilemma is not uncommon and very well might be a recurring talking point come my review of fellow shark flick Maneater next month. Scared swimmers flail away from meh-at-best sharks (aside from wildlife inserts) for 90 minutes like you’ve seen over and over from underfunded aquatic horror films — when will we learn our lesson?

Admittedly, The Reef: Stalked doesn’t sink until the shark appears, after Traucki’s foursome establish their chemistry and motivations. While the sisterhood angle may wear thin after an hour, it’s initially something intriguing to bite into, and the scenic shoreline landscapes all look lovely. As a casual kayaking adventure across crystal blue waters, we sense the oncoming storm before a dorsal fin slices through waves — the film just cannot sustain that feeling of dread. Once the chomping begins and waterlogged survivors cling to bobbing surfaces for safety, excitement merely doggy-paddles with unmemorable strokes. Nic’s reclamation of self, the ensuing fight for salvation on sandy beaches, an outside interaction with children swimming in danger zones? It’s underplayed as terrifying shark attack cinema, whether post-production additives lack or undercut momentum.

The Gray Man star Ryan Gosling reportedly wants to enter the superhero genre as the new Ghost Rider – and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is equally eager to cast him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

MTV News's Josh Horowitz tweeted earlier in June (below) that Gosling denied rumours he'd be playing Nova in the upcoming MCU project but said he would like to play Ghost Rider. When Feige was asked about it at San Diego Comic-Con, he didn't mention Ghost Rider specifically but said he'd love to cast the Drive actor in some way.

"Ryan's amazing. I'd love to find a place for him in the MCU," Feige told MTV News. "He's dressed up as Ken on Venice Beach [and] he gets more press than giant movies coming out that weekend. It's amazing."

Will @RyanGosling be #GhostRider and what does the future hold for #HarryStyles in the #MCU? #KevinFeige give @joshhorowitz the scoop at #SDCC2022. pic.twitter.com/KEVBWEJr5d

— MTV NEWS (@MTVNEWS) July 24, 2022

Ghost Rider wasn't one of the several new Marvel films or TV shows announced during Comic-Con and Marvel hasn't explicitly mentioned the character appearing in the MCU before, but seeing how far and wide the universe is expanding it wouldn't really be a surprise to see it eventually. However, previously we've seen The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus seemingly pitch for the role.

Feige himself explained that the MCU is now open enough to encompass the character – who, if you don't know, began as a stunt biker who sells his soul and becomes a skeletal spirit of vengeance. "You talk about Ghost Rider," said Feige. "We've got Blade, we've got Doctor Strange, we've got the supernatural angles."

Ghost Rider previously appeared in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, but there's some debate over whether that show could be considered MCU canon.

Gosling has a fairly busy schedule at the moment anyway, having just released The Gray Man (with MCU royalty Chris Evans and The Russo brothers directing), recently wrapped filming on Barbie, and he's also involved with a number of upcoming projects including Wolfman, The Fall Guy, The Actor, and Project Hail Mary.

Ghost Rider last made a film appearance with 2012's Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance starring Nicolas Cage. In our 8/10 review, we said: "The film bears little relation to the original 2007 adventure of Cage's cursed Johnny Blaze, which surely was seen as a blessing."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

For those of you who wanted the image quality of an LG OLED TV packaged in a dedicated PC gaming monitor, your wish has been answered. Today Amazon is offering $200 off the newly releaesd LG UltraGear 48" OLED gaming monitor with anti-glare low-reflective screen and DisplayPort. Pair it with the top-of-the-line ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 3080 12GB GPU, which has now dropped to only $799. In other deal news, get four $9.99 preowned games for $20 at Gamestop, score a Dell G15 RTX 3050 Ti gaming laptop for under $700, or pick up the newest Apple TV for only $129.99 on Amazon.

New Release: 48" LG UltraGear 48GP900-B 4K HDR OLED Gaming Monitor for $1298.87

For those of you who love LG OLED TVs (for good reason) but don't like the idea of using a TV for a computer monitor, there's now an answer. LG has released its first UltraGear OLED gaming monitor. At first glance, the 48GP900 with its 48" LG WOLED 10-bit color HDR display seems very similar to the 48" LG C1 OLED TV. The panel is very similar, but there are some key differences. Instead of the semi glossy coating found on the OLED TV, the 48GP900 features an anti-glare low reflective coating that is undoubtedly a better fit for close up monitor usage. It also has DisplayPort connectivity and lacks the built-in Smart TV interface. It does carry over the HDMI 2.1 ports with 4K @ 120Hz compatiblity for PS5 and Xbox Series X owners, as well as VRR and G-SYNC support, but the 120Hz refresh rate can be overclocked to 138Hz when used as a PC monitor. Last and certainly least important of all, there is subtle RGB backlighting on the rear of the monitor that isn't present on the OLED TVs. This is one of the best gaming monitors you'll find on the market right now.

The Best of the Best: ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 3080 OC 12GB GPU for $799

The GeForce RTX 3080 GPU really doesn't need any introduction. This is the de facto card to get if you plan to run current generation games at 4K, since it's up to 50% faster than the previous generation RTX 2080 SUPER and doesn't command the exorbitant price of the RTX 3080 Ti or RTX 3090 (both of which are a mere 3%-5% faster in real world performance). It has an HDMI 2.1 port for passing through 4K @ 120Hz, which it has the power to drive even in resource hungry games like Elden Ring, Battlefield 2042 or Cyberpunk 2077.

The ASUS ROG STRIX model is considered by many to be the very best RTX 3080 variant on the market. It's usually hundreds of dollars more than the 3080 FE price. That's in large part because of the incredible cooling potential of the massive 3-slot heatsink combined with the quietest triple fan cooling you'll find on any RTX 3080. Despite the low noise levels, the ROG STRIX offers a significantly OC'ed 1890MHz boost clock compared o the stock 1710MHz boost on the 3080 FE. This model also comes with 12GB of GDDR6X VRAM instead of the 10GB of VRAM that comes standard and most other RTX 3080 GPUs.

GameStop Buy More Save More Sale: Get Four $9.99 or Less Pre-Owned Games for $20

GameStop is offering an excellent deal on its huge selection of preowned games. If you buy four preowned games that each cost $9.99 or less, you only pay $20 total, or $5 per game. That's up to 50% off some already heavily discounted PS4, PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch titles like Death Stranding, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, The Last of Us Remastered, Marvel's Avengers, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and much more.

Dell G15 15" RTX 3050 Ti Gaming Laptop for $649.99

This is the lowest price we've seen so far for an RTX 3050 Ti equipped gaming laptop. At under $700 you can't really find a mobile GPU with more power than the RTX 3050 Ti; it's a little bit more powerful than the previous generation's GTX 1660 Ti, plus it offers ray tracing and DLSS support. It should handle 1080p gaming at high settings without a hitch.

Newest Apple TV 4K for $129.99

This isn't exactly as cheap as Amazon Prime Day of $109, but it's still $50 cheaper than MSRP and the best price you'll probably see for a while. The newest Apple TV features two major upgrades. It boasts an A12 Bionic processor that boosts graphics performance, video decoding, and audio processing and delivers high frame rate HDR with Dolby Vision. It also includes a new Apple TV remote. The overall build quality is better than before, but the biggest enhancements are a 5-way clickpad, mute button, and dedicated power button that works for your TV, receiver, and Apple TV.

Razer Anzu Smart Glasses

These Razer smart glasses retail for a ridiculous $199.99. Fortunately, they're on sale today for a much more reasonable price of $48.96. The Razer Anzu glasses comes with two types of interchangeable lenses; blue-light filtering lenses for PC use and polarized lenses for outdoor use. They also feature a built-in mic and bluetooth speaker for hands-free calling.

Alienware Aurora Core i7 RTX 3070 Ti PC for $1399

This is currently the best deal you'll find for a gaming PC for $1400 or less. The RTX 3070 Ti is a 2nd generation RTX 30 series GPU and it sits right in between the RTX 3070 and RTX 3080. This card is about as good as it gets for high refresh rate 1080p or 1440p gaming. It's not a huge upgrade from the RTX 3070 (non-Ti), but considering the fact that you probably won't find an RTX 3070 (non-Ti) equipped gaming PC for any cheaper, this is a no brainer. It's paired with a liquid cooled 11th gen Intel Core i7 unlocked processor, 16GB of DDR4-3200MHz RAM, and a 1TB M.2 SSD,

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Or Mario Tennis Aces + Free 12-Month Nintendo Switch Online Membership for $49.99

Nintendo Switch Online is automatically added to cart

Gamestop is offering a free Nintendo Switch Online 12-month individual membership when you purchase Super Mario Kart Deluxe 8, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, or Mario Tennis Aces. The games normally cost $59.99 each, but they are all on sale for $49.99. An annual Nintendo Switch Online membership normally costs $19.99. In addition to access to online play modes in various games, NSO gives you plenty of perks like cloud based saves, access to dozens of NES and SNES classic games, and exclusive discounts at the eShop.

Lenovo Legion 5 Pro 16" Intel Core i7-12700H Alder Lake RTX 3070 Gaming Laptop for $1599

Walmart is offering an outstanding deal on the new Lenovo Legion 5 Pro laptop that is also equipped with the 12th generation Intel Core i7 Alder Lake CPU and RTX 3070 GPU. The RTX 3070 GPU in this gaming laptop also has a TGP rating of 140W, and it performs as well as the MSI Crosshair on paper. In real world benchmarks, the Legion 5 Pro is one of the best performing gaming laptops on the market. It also looks more like a standard laptop, so you might want to pick this over the Crosshair if you're not into the gamer aesthetic.

XPG S70 1TB M.2 SSD with Heatsink for $109.99

The XPG Gammix S70 Blade is the least expensive 1TB PS5 compatible SSD available right now. Just because it's the cheapest doesn't mean it's the slowest. In fact, the S70 is actually one of the fastest SSDs available with transfer rates up to 7,400 MB/s. It's on par with the likes of the WD Black SN850, the Samsung 980 Pro, or the Seagate Firecude 530. This is a PCIe Gen4 SSD that was pretty much released specifically for PS5 gamers in order to double or triple the storage capacity of their PS5 without limiting the speed. To make this deal even sweeter, it already comes with a very low-profile heatsink.

ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1660 Ti Gaming PC

Walmart is offering this AMD Ryzen 5 3600X GTX 1660 Ti equipped gaming PC for only $799. The GTX 1660 Ti is still a very capable video card that can handle just about any game at 1080p resolution. You certainly won't find a more powerful video card for this price.

New Apple AirPods Pro for $179.99

The current generation Apple AirPods Pro is one of the best sounding "truly wireless" earbuds you'll find, especially at this price point. "Truly wireless" earbuds have no wires whatsoever; even the earbuds aren't hardwired to each other. In addition to the excellent sound quality, the AirPods Pro is the only AirPods with active noise cancelling technology. That, combined with the inherent nature of in-ear earbuds, means that the AirPods Pro will provide better noise isolation than over-ear headphones like the Bose QuietComfort or the Sony WH1000XM5. If you're thinking of getting a pair of new AirPods, we highly recommend jumping on this particular model.

Dell S2721DGF 27" 1440p GSYNC Gaming Monitor

This excellent monitor has hit a new price low for Black Friday. It's one of the best 27" gaming monitors you can buy for under $500. The S2721DGF boasts a high quality IPS panel (better than the VA panel found on the popular S3220DGF model). It features wide viewing angles and excellent color rendition including 98% DCI-P3 color coverage, a super fast 1ms response time and up to 165Hz refresh rate through the DisplayPort. It's also FreeSync Premium Pro and G-SYNC compatible.

2022 promises to be a big year for God of War fans. God of War: Ragnarok has been confirmed for a November 9, 2022 release date, and now the game will be joined by a hardcover book called The Art of God of War: Ragnarok.

Check out the dynamic cover to this new hardcover collection below:

As with Dark Horse's previous art books, The Art of God of War Ragnarok features several hundred pages of concept art, developer commentary and other behind-the-scenes material for the game.

Dark Horse will also be releasing a Deluxe Edition version of the hardcover. The Deluxe Edition features a unique, faux-leather clamshell case and an art portfolio containing two lithograph prints of Kratos and Atreus.

The standard version of The Art of God of War: Ragnarok is priced at $49.99, while the Deluxe Edition will cost $129.99. Both versions will be released in bookstores on November 29 and comic shops on November 30. You can preorder The Art of God of War Ragnarok now.

Previous Dark Horse art books include The Art of Horizon: Forbidden West, The Art of Halo Infinite, The Art of Deathloop and The Art of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

For more on God of War: Ragnarok, find out how you can preorder the game and what special editions will be available.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.