Latest news with #Overture
The Irish Sun
4 days ago
- Business
- The Irish Sun
‘Son of Concorde' boss reveals how much tickets will cost on jet so fast you'll land in US at the same time you left UK
THE "Son of Concorde" boss has revealed how much tickets will cost on a jet so fast that it will land in the US at the same time it leaves the UK. Blake Scholl, 44, founder of Boom Supersonic and dubbed the Elon Musk of air travel, also detailed why he thought the original Concorde failed to take off globally. Advertisement 6 The "Son of Concorde" reached supersonic speeds in January Credit: Boom Technology 6 The founder of the jet revealed ticket prices Credit: Boom Supersonic 6 The boss promised that the breakthrough Boom Overture will be able to fly from London, Paris, Madrid or Berlin to New York before leaving Europe. The ambitious tech boss told The Telegraph: "Whenever I watch the videos of "From the Wright brothers to Concorde, every generation of aeroplanes was faster but we've gone backwards. "We're living in the dark ages. The world needs Advertisement READ MORE TECH NEWS Scholl promised that passengers on his new jet will be He also said the groundbreaking aircraft will also promise to slash the travel time of It will be able to carry around 60 to 80 passengers between any cities on Earth, and will hopefully fly at 1,300mph over water. A demonstrator for the firm, known as the XB-1 supersonic, has already completed 13 Advertisement Most read in Tech He said his successor to Concorde will "transform our lives, the way we meet people, do business, go on vacation". The jet, aptly dubbed the "Son of Concorde", has no audible sonic boom. 'Son of Concorde' supersonic jet completes second speedy test flight within a week ahead of major step early next year A number of orders from the likes of American Airlines, United Airlines, and Japan Airlines have already been made for Boom Technology's passenger jet model, Overture. It comes after US President Donald Trump Advertisement And since Overture will be able to fly supersonic over land, the New York to San Francisco flight will only take four hours. This will mean travellers can leave New York at 9am and land in California at about 10am local time. Any two points on the globe will eventually be connected with super-fast flight, with a refuelling stop or two, the firm promised. Scholl revealed that fares for each of the flights carrying 60 or more passengers will be set by airlines. Advertisement But he expects them to cost about £5,000 for a return from London to New York City. He explained one of the reasons the original jet failed. He said: 'Concorde, with 100 seats and a near $20,000 ticket, made no sense, even on New York to London, the best possible route. 6 Founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic Blake Scholl Credit: Boom Supersonic Advertisement 6 The world's fastest jetliner dubbed the 'Son of Concorde' will cross the Atlantic in 3.5 hours Credit: AP "It flew half-empty. If it had been half the size, the fares would have been lower and it might have worked economically. That's what we're creating." He also said the Concorde did not prove to be successful as it was too heavy, too fuel-consuming, too uncomfortable and too pricey - all problems which Scholl promises to fix. The Boom Supersonic founder also said that not being able to fly over land posed a significant challenge for the short-lived aircraft. Advertisement But the Don's latest intervention has fixed this issue, Scholl explained. A spokesperson for Boom previously told The Sun after Trump's executive order: "While Boom is pleased to see the regulatory pathways to supersonic flight clearing, Boom's business case has never been predicated on regulatory change. "There are over 600 global routes that are economically viable for supersonic flight - even without going supersonic over land. "Now that rules are being updated to allow boomless supersonic flight over land in the US, additional routes will benefit from speedups." Advertisement They added: "Boom's supersonic airliner, Overture, will fly transatlantic routes, such as New York to London, at its full cruising speed of Mach 1.7 over water – about twice as fast as today's conventional airliners. "Boomless Cruise enables Overture to fly at speeds up to Mach 1.3 over land without an audible boom - up to 50% faster than subsonic jets - reducing US coast-to-coast flight times by up to 90 minutes." The company also revealed that Overture "remains on target " to get certification from relevant bodies including the FAA by the end of the decade so it can carry passengers. WHY DID CONCORDE FAIL? CONCORDE was the supersonic passenger jet considered the ultimate luxury in air travel. Air France and British Airways announced they would be The plane had its first commercial flight on January 21, 1976, so was retired after 27 years of service and 50,000 flights. Several reasons led to the decision to retire Concorde. Air France and British Airways cited low passenger numbers and high maintenance costs. By the early noughties, the planes were outdated and expensive to run, despite being incredibly advanced when they were first introduced almost three decades previously. The 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001 majorly impacted passenger numbers, as people opted not to fly. Passenger numbers also fell after an The disaster The plane ran over a small It was also the only aircraft in the British Airways fleet that required a flight engineer. Image credit: Alamy Bosses are aiming to roll out the first Advertisement To accomplish that, they expect production of the first aircraft in the "Superfactory" to start next year. By the end of this year, they expect to produce thrust during fully-operational engine core tests for Overture's bespoke engine, Symphony. "Boom's current order book accounts for the first five years of production at the Overture Superfactory in North Carolina ," the spokesperson added. "Airlines have been very receptive to Overture and the competitive advantages of supersonic travel. Advertisement "In fact, the passenger research we have conducted indicates that 87 per cent of passengers are willing to switch from their preferred airline in order to gain access to supersonic travel." 6 Previous test flights have been successful Credit: Boom Supersonic
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
The Elon Musk of aviation plans to cut your flight time to New York in half
My journey to meet Blake Scholl, the founder of Boom Supersonic, earlier this month took 24 hours. I got up at 7am in London and after a series of flight cancellations and delays finally landed in Denver, Colorado, at midnight – 7am the next day London time. If only there were a quicker way, I say to Scholl when we meet eight eye-stinging hours later at the headquarters of his firm, near Centennial Airport in the city's southern suburbs. As soon as 2030 there may well be, he replies. 'We'll be able to get you from London to Denver in six to seven hours, so, with the time difference, you will arrive at the same time you left.' The 44-year-old techie is standing in front of the test version of the plane that he hopes will be flying me at 1,300mph over water – twice the speed of a subsonic airliner. Already, the XB-1 supersonic demonstrator has completed 13 test flights and broken the sound barrier six times. Scholl is confident it will morph from a single-seater into a larger jet, called Overture, carrying 60 to 80 passengers between any cities on the planet. This successor to Concorde will 'transform our lives, the way we meet people, do business, go on vacation'. Scholl's tech background – before founding Boom in 2014, he worked for Amazon and Groupon – means he has been dubbed the Elon Musk of aviation. He certainly shares Musk's do-or-die ambition and his blue-sky rhetoric. 'Whenever I watch the videos of Concorde's last landing in 2003, it makes me want to cry,' he tells me moments after we've met. 'From the Wright brothers to Concorde, every generation of aeroplanes was faster but we've gone backwards. We're living in the dark ages. The world needs supersonic flight.' Not only will Overture be able to fly me from London to Denver in no time at all, Scholl promises that it will get me from London, Paris, Madrid or Berlin to New York before I've even left Europe. Since Overture will fly supersonic over land, New York to San Francisco will only take four hours, meaning I will be able to leave New York at 9am and land in California at about 10am local time. Eventually, any two points on the planet can be connected super-fast with a refuelling stop or two. Did he just say 'supersonic over land'? Concorde's main drawback was that it could not fly significantly faster than conventional jets over land because the sonic boom it generated as it broke the sound barrier could be heard on the ground as loud as thunder. Scholl claims to have solved that problem – and he has one key backer who agrees it's time to go supersonic anywhere possible: Donald Trump. Last month, Trump issued an executive order overturning the decision by the Federal Aviation Administration in 1973 to impose a subsonic speed limit on commercial flights over the US. Now, says Scholl, ' The sky's the limit!' OK, OK, but before we talk more, can I have a go, please, I ask. Flights in the three-engine XB-1 demonstrator are for test pilots only – men like Boom's former US Navy 'top gun' Tristan Brandenburg. Luckily, Brandenburg, 39 – call sign 'Geppetto' – is on hand to show me how to go supersonic in the simulator. I take my seat and he teaches me how to push forward the throttle levers far harder than I initially dare. I tear down the runway at a virtual airport in a virtual Mojave Desert, racing past ancient Boeing 747 jets ready to be cut up for scrap. In less than 30 frantic seconds during my third attempt, I'm airborne, desert sand racing underneath the glass panels in the floor and a cloudless sky filling the cockpit window. As I climb and level off, I hit 480 knots. 'That's more than 500mph,' Brandenburg tells me. Soon I hit 'Mach point-eight. Keep forward pressure on the nose, so it doesn't slow down. Mach point-nine. And now you're going supersonic. Yeah! Mach 1.01. Max speed 1.18. Real nice. Crushed it.' The sense of speed in the simulator is almost as good as that which I felt when I flew Concorde. I took 'the quick plane' between London and New York in the early noughties and loved the three-hour trips more than any other journeys before or since. My favourite bit? Not the supersonic gin 'n' tonic. Not the celebrity bingo – Joan Collins (check), Gwyneth Paltrow (check), Madonna (check). But the gut punch of the volcanic Rolls-Royce Olympus engines that took me to 69,000ft in minutes, as I watched the speedometer at the front of the cabin tick up to almost 1,500mph – more than a mile every three seconds. Peering out of the window, I could see the afterburners turning the sky orange. Scholl argues that Concorde did not prove to be a lasting success less because it could not fly super-fast over land and more because it was too heavy, too thirsty, too uncomfortable and too expensive. Overture will fix all those flaws, he promises, enabling its operators – the major airlines, he hopes – to make money. It will be made of lightweight carbon fibre and have more efficient turbofan engines. This will mean that although it will still consume fuel at two to three times the rate of a subsonic airliner, the amount per business-class passenger – supersonic jets are all business class – will be far less than Concorde. He adds that Overture will be able to fly using 100 per cent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). 'I want to live in a future of abundant travel and abundant energy on a planet that we take care of. We thought we had to choose Earth or human life. I think we can have both. That requires innovation.' The development of more plentiful and cheaper supplies of SAF is crucial to the future of sustainable travel, 'and because people will pay more for supersonic travel, it makes supersonic jets a great first customer for SAF. We are going to stimulate the market for SAF.' Critics dismiss this as wishful thinking since the priority for SAF production will be the far greater number of subsonic airliners. Concorde was cramped with narrow seats in pairs on either side of the central aisle and tiny windows, but Scholl promises Overture 'will feel like a large Boeing or Airbus. You won't have to choose between speed and comfort.' The ceilings will be 8ft high with overhead bins in the middle, not at the sides, to increase the sense of space. Most seats will have an aisle and a window, which will be four times bigger than those on Concorde. 'You can really see whether the Earth is curved,' he jokes. There will be two pilots and four flight attendants. Fares for each of the 60-plus passengers will be set by airlines, but Scholl expects them to be about £5,000 return from London to New York. In real terms, that's less than a third of the cost of my ticket in 2001, which was £8,279, or about £15,575 in today's money. 'Concorde, with 100 seats and a near $20,000 ticket, made no sense, even on New York to London, the best possible route. It flew half-empty. If it had been half the size, the fares would have been lower and it might have worked economically. That's what we're creating.' Henry Harteveldt, of Atmosphere Research Group, the leading US airline industry analyst, is not so sure. Airlines, he argues, see supersonic jets as 'revenue-focused aircraft – a way to generate more cash with a premium product'. It would be easy to dismiss Scholl as a kid who read too many space comics, but he has a solid entrepreneurial track record. He built an internet service provider in his parents' basement in Ohio. After graduating in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University, he joined Amazon in 2001 as a software engineer and ended up with a $300 million account in digital marketing. He left Amazon in 2006, later setting up an online-shopping software provider, Kima Labs, which he sold to Groupon, the discount-coupon provider, in 2012. Scholl joined the firm. 'There is nothing like working on internet coupons to make you ask yourself: 'Is this why I'm on Earth?'' He soon decided to follow his passion. He had started flying in college and got his licence in 2007. The same year he saw Concorde at The Museum of Flight in Seattle. 'I remember thinking, why was the most amazing passenger aeroplane ever made in a museum when there was nothing better in the skies?' A few years later he founded Boom, while living in San Francisco. He moved to Denver the following year and soon set up Boom's first hangar at Centennial Airport, with a crew of employees plucked from other aerospace startups. He wanted to apply fresh Silicon Valley thinking to aviation. 'I don't think it's an accident that the first new rocket company and the first new car company in the US in a century were created by somebody who wasn't from those industries. Elon Musk had the benefit of fresh vision.' Musk is one of Scholl's high-profile supporters. The former 'first bro' was pictured with Trump and a model of Overture in the Oval Office. OpenAI boss Sam Altman is an investor, as is former United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz. Mike Bannister, Concorde's former chief pilot, is an adviser. This administration is supersonic — Blake Scholl 🛫 (@bscholl) February 14, 2025 Airlines are interested. Boom has 130 orders and pre-orders from American Airlines, United Airlines and Japan Airlines. 'If you just take people who are flying first or business class today on routes where Overture will have enough traffic to fill the seats and make money, airlines are going to need 1,400 Overtures,' Scholl says. Boom aims to produce 33 aircraft a year at its factory in North Carolina, completed in June last year, and to triple that number as new production lines come on stream. Each will cost about $200 million. The first commercial flights will take off around 2030, provided everything goes according to Scholl's plan and the FAA approves Overture as safe. Neither of the original operators of Concorde, British Airways and Air France, have yet formally expressed an interest, I point out. 'They'll do this eventually but they've got a Concorde hangover,' Scholl says. In spite of its glamour and elegance, Concorde was not a commercial success. It struggled to make profits and never recouped its multi-billion pound development costs. And 25 years ago this month 113 people died when an Air France Concorde crashed soon after take-off from Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport. Concorde's would-be successor faces its own huge hurdles, as bigger rival outfits have found. Boeing had a go at creating a successor to Concorde, backing a startup called Aerion, but that closed in 2021 after running out of money. Has Scholl really overcome the biggest hurdle of all, the sonic boom, I ask. He insists that by slowing down Overture to 800-900mph – still faster than the speed of sound – and using complex software to adjust speed and altitude for atmospheric conditions, notably temperature and wind gradients at high altitude, the sound waves it generates refract upwards, not downwards to Earth. XB-1 broke the sound barrier six times on its test flights without creating a detectable sonic boom. 'I was there and I was disappointed,' Scholl says. 'I wanted to hear it. I wanted to call it 'the boom heard around the world', but it was the boom heard absolutely nowhere.' Some see Overture's engines as a potentially fatal flaw. XB-1's engines are pinched off a Canadian fighter jet. Britain's Rolls-Royce was supposed to develop turbofan jets for Overture but backed out because, it said, supersonic flight was no longer a priority. 'I'm not convinced the current team assembled has the experience or depth or capability to develop a supersonic engine,' says Brian Foley, an aviation consultant who worked for French aerospace concern Dassault Aviation. Harteveldt adds: 'If Rolls-Royce believed in the market opportunity, it would have maintained its commitment to Boom. It says a lot that not only did Rolls back out but no existing engine-maker stepped in to take its place.' Scholl insists he can make his own engines – 'faster, cheaper, better'. More people are flying than ever before as business travel recovers post-Covid and YOLO revenge spending boosts snazzy leisure travel. But is speed as important as it once was, I wonder. Airlines are rushing to introduce ever more luxurious perks for fancy flyers – bars, showers, double beds and Wi-Fi faster than many of us enjoy on the ground – which means wealthy passengers can work, rest and play at 39,000ft. 'Nobody gets on that aeroplane to get on it, however comfortable. They get on it to go where they want to go,' Scholl retorts. He has a point. Qantas will soon launch 21-hour non-stop flights between London and Sydney, and early demand, even in the economy cabin, is strong. Ah, Australia. It's a long way away – much farther than Overture will be able to fly. Its range is only around 5,000 miles. That leaves plenty of the routes Scholl claims Overture will be able to fly well out of reach. 'Seattle to Tokyo is right at the limit,' he concedes. But, he points out, the first Overture 'will be the first generation. Five thousand miles' range is where we start. Then there's gonna be a second aeroplane and a third, which will fly further. We're gonna do one new aeroplane every five years.' Over time he hopes to shorten the flight time from London to Australia from almost 24 hours to about 14, with two refuelling stops, in the Gulf and Singapore, 'which will be so fast you won't get out of your seat. You'll be on the ground for less than a half-hour.' To get anywhere remotely near that, or London to New York services, Boom will need cash and plenty of it to build and certify Overture. After initially saying it needed to raise $6 to $8 billion, Scholl now claims 'for $2 to $3 billion' he can get to the stage where customer payments begin funding operations. Boom has so far only raised $600 million from investors, a meagre one fifth of what he needs. 'There's… There's something I can't tell you. Watch this space,' he teases. He's expecting another round of investment? 'Yeah. And we figured out something that's going to massively reduce the cost. But I can't tell you yet. Later, later this year I will.' He's ever bullish but I remind him that he once said 'there's no guarantee of success here. Statistically, failure is the most likely outcome.' He replies: 'Oh, it's still true. We've had technical setbacks. We've had supplier setbacks. We've had deals fall apart. Yet there's no reason we can't make it work. Look at our record. The analysts said a startup can't build a supersonic jet. Only governments have ever done that. We built one. Then they said there's no market for supersonic. But airlines are ordering. Now they say we'll never be able to build an engine. So far, we've proved them wrong on everything.' And, he insists, he will carry on proving the nay-sayers wrong. 'The day we broke the sound barrier I stood with the team, and I said: 'The reason we're here today is because we didn't give up when reasonable people would have given up.' The way we get Overture done is a whole lot of not giving up. We're not going to give up until you can see it right there.' He points up to the sky. 'I'll save you a seat.'
Business Wire
15-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Overture Life Appoints Former Butterfly Network Executive Matt Combs as Chief Commercial Officer to Lead Scale-up of IVF Automation Technology as Demand Surges Worldwide
PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Overture Life, the leader in automated IVF technology that delivered the first live births in the world from automated fertilization and egg freezing, today announced the appointment of Matthew Combs as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). Combs joins Overture to drive global expansion amid rising domestic and international demand for IVF automation technology that directly addresses the embryologist shortages worldwide. In the newly created role, Combs will lead the company's global commercialization as it expands access to technology that automates fertilization and egg freezing processes previously done by hand. These include the ICSI.A, the world's first robot for automated fertilization, and the DaVitri, for automated, consistent, high-quality vitrification that will expand egg freezing beyond specialized IVF facilities. Combs will focus on scaling Overture Life's fertility technologies to meet growing clinic demand. Combs has over 15 years of experience driving rapid revenue growth and scaling organizations across healthcare and medtech, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. He most recently served as Chief Growth Officer at Amalgam, where he led the market expansion of the company's SaaS products. In 2017, Combs joined Butterfly Network as the first commercial hire when the company was pre-revenue, helping scale operations to over $70 million in annual revenue before the company went public in 2021. During his tenure, he transitioned from leading early-stage business development to serving as VP of Sales for the business, managing the commercial organization through periods of rapid growth. He has also held commercial leadership roles at Boston Scientific, Stryker, and FUJIFILM Sonosite. 'We're seeing clinics from the US and Europe, to Latin America and Asia asking when they can get our systems,' said Hans Gangeskar, CEO of Overture Life. 'Matt's track record building Butterfly Network into a public company gives us exactly the commercial expertise we need as we move from proving our technology works to scaling it globally. The demand is increasing exponentially as clinics want automation that actually delivers tangible results.' 'What I've seen with Overture's technology reminds me of the early excitement around Butterfly Network, that sense of a solution arriving at exactly the right moment,' said Combs. 'IVF has been constrained by manual processes that create barriers to accessibility and inconsistency in performance. Overture's automation addresses real operational challenges that clinics face every day, from embryologist shortages to the need for affordable and predictable outcomes.' About Overture Life Overture Life integrates engineering, reproductive medicine, and regulatory-grade validation to modernize embryology lab procedures, particularly fertility preservation and embryo handling, in ways that lower repeated cycles, increase throughput, and reduce the overall cost of IVF. With R&D in Spain and active U.S. operations, including a CLIA-licensed laboratory for non-invasive embryo selection, Overture unites robotics, analytics, and clinical rigor to deliver tools that clinics and patients can trust. The company's DaVitri platform aims to boost reliability and consistency in IVF, giving women and families worldwide more control over their fertility timelines. Overture's backers include Overwater Ventures, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Khosla Ventures, Octopus Ventures and others committed to advancing the future of fertility.
Digital Trends
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
We need to stop arguing about difficulty settings in games
It seems as though every six months or so the discourse around difficulty settings in video games lights up across pockets of the internet — typically tied to the release of the latest soulslike. These games pride themselves on being a challenging experience in which overcoming the odds through skill and dedication is the ultimate reward for most players. Many enjoy piecing together the lore, exploring the world, or playing with the fashion as well, but it is the sense of pride one gets from overcoming these tough, but fair, obstacles that has made it one of the most popular genres in recent memory. Naturally, this leads to some debate about whether or not these games should offer any difficulty options, and if they do, like Lies of P: Overture has not so long ago, if playing on a lower difficulty 'counts,' is not the 'developer's intent,' or one of a handfull of other reasons that miss the point entirely. There is no argument to be had surrounding difficulty settings and it is time we stopped pretending there is. One size doesn't fit all Difficulty settings are accessibility settings, full stop. We might not think of them the same way we do colorblind or visual indicators for sound cues, but there's functionally no difference. If an option allows someone to experience a piece of media they otherwise couldn't, it should be celebrated. Suggesting that lowering the difficulty is somehow cheating or not getting the 'real' experience just sounds like gatekeeping and ignores the main reason those options exist. It is there for people who, for whatever reason, could not engage with the game on the default setting. Everyone is at a different skill level before taking into account genre familiarity, time, and any disabilities. You and I might experience the same level of challenge, but on opposite difficulty levels because our natural skill levels simply vary that much. Recommended Videos It should go without saying, but everyone is unique. That is why options exist. Even in cases where someone uses an easier difficulty when they could spend the time practicing to overcome the challenge, why should it matter to anyone else if they decide to lower the difficulty? We all come to games for different things and enjoy them for different reasons. A newer argument I've seen cropping up as of late pivots the focus from people who use lower difficulty options robbing themselves of something to robbing the developers. The term I see thrown around most often is 'developer's intent' and the assumption that the default difficulty, or a game without any options, is the way developers want players to experience the game. While quite presumptuous on its face, I do get the logic. Whatever the normal difficulty is tends to be what the game was balanced for first, with higher and lower options being tuned after the fact. That isn't always the case, of course, but it seems to be the most common approach. That's about as far as I'm willing to go with that logic, though. For one, every major game goes through tons of changes and playtesting to find the right level of challenge. That doesn't stop when a game releases anymore, either. Elden Ring underwent some major balance changes for bosses, weapons, and abilities. Was the original version the developer's intent before bosses like Radahn got nerfed, or after? Difficulty is a fluid thing and always the result of the entire team working to find a balance that appeals to the target audience best. Again, this goes right back to the first point where what is easy for some might be overwhelming for others. We need to stop pretending that difficulty is a one-size-fits-all situation. Even if you believe that a developer wants a game to be hard, understand that 'hard' is a subjective term. Me playing on easy might pose just as much challenge to me as you playing on ultra-nightmare, or whatever. Even if we lived in a perfect world where everyone was at the same skill level and there were no disabilities to accommodate, there's nothing to gain by shaming people for playing a game differently than you. The death of the author should apply just as much to narrative as difficulty in games — we should be free to experience and take away whatever we want from a game.
Tom's Guide
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
Lies of P: Overture is a massive expansion for one of my favorite PS5 games — and it's absolutely brutal
2023 was considered a pretty phenomenal year for video games. The likes of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Resident Evil 4 remake, Baldur's Gate 3 and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 all duked it out for the majority of GOTY awards (Spidey ultimately won ours). While I thoroughly enjoyed all of those titles, my personal pick for the best game of the year was Lies of P. And after all this time, I stand by it. This action-Souls-like shamelessly cribs from the works of genre-originator FromSoftware, and feels a lot like the Bloodborne sequel we all want, but Sony frustratingly refuses to actually give us (Please, Sony, even a remaster will do). I loved almost every moment of my 60 hours spent with Lies of P across two playthroughs (one on PS5, the other on Steam Deck OLED), and that playtime just increased thanks to its meaty new DLC expansion. Called Lies of P: Overture, it offers you the chance to return to the gothic city of Krat and square off against a new range of tough bosses that will do their very best to cut you down. In a nutshell, Overture is more of the brilliant Lies of P experience I love, but with the difficulty ramped up to 11. Lies of P: Overture: $29 @ PlayStation StoreLies of: Overture is the new DLC expansion for 2023's critically acclaimed action-Soulslike Lies of P. Adding around 15 hours of new content, you explore a past version of the city of Krat, and take on very challenging bosses. To help you fight back against the numerous tricky foes, you get access to a suite of new weapons and powerful abilities. Additional platforms: $29 @ Steam | $29 @ Xbox Store In Lies of P: Overture, you once again play as Geppetto's deadly puppet and are tasked with exploring the nightmare city of Krat. The wrinkle is that this time, you've stepped into the past to experience the striking location before the events of the base game. But it's certainly no more welcoming in this period. The Puppet Frenzy massacre, the aftermath of which you encounter in the base game, is currently ongoing, dropping you into the thick of a city in complete turmoil with chaotic scenes of violence and blue blood all around. So, where do you go first? The Zoo, of course. Overture's opening takes you to Krat Zoo, and it might just be my favorite level in all of Lies of P. Fighting back against deformed animals from aggressive ages, to a truly twisted type of kangaroo, sees the body-horror, which was already a strong theme in Lies of P, ramped up to new grotesque levels. And the first major boss fight, an oversized crocodile, is an absolutely doozy. Later DLC locations like an underground facility and a cavernous mine are less visually dynamic, but the final two of Overture's five chapters do occur in more visually distinctive settings (which I won't spoil here). So, the DLC starts and ends strong, with a slightly mundane middle. The core game's fast-paced combat is maintained, which is a very good thing, because outside of the works of FromSoftware, Lies of P offers the best Soulslike gameplay I've ever played. Though, for the record, I still suck at parrying, so the dodge button remains my best friend. Perhaps the DLC's biggest addition is its numerous lore implications and revelations. I'm far from a Lies of P scholar, but I was constantly finding hidden notes that had me rethinking what I thought I knew about the Lies of P universe and the characters within it. If you enjoyed the well-told story of the base game, you're going to love what you learn here. Alongside the new levels to explore, there's also a bunch of useful new weapons to pick up, new gear to wear and powerful legion arms, including my personal favorite, which lets you shoot spinning sawblades from your wrist. Adding around 10-15 hours of new content, Lies of P: Overture is solid value for money at its $29 price. But fair warning, prepare for a tough time. If I have one substantial criticism of Lies of P: Overture, it's that developer Neowiz has gone a little too far in its efforts to make this DLC the hardest content in the game to date. As part of the Soulslike subgenre, Lies of P was always a tough game by design. And that's part of the reason I loved it so much. Few feelings are better in gaming than slaying a testing boss after dozens of attempts. And some of the base game bosses rank as my favorite ever in the genre. In fact, it's not Overture's bosses where the overtuned difficulty can be felt. Aside from one late-game dud, these named DLC combatants are mostly brilliant. The last boss in particular gives Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree a run for its money. Finally bringing them down had me leaping from my chair in satisfaction after they had torn my face off for almost an hour. The problem arises in the various open spaces, corridors and choke points between bosses. Regular enemy mobs have had their health pools and damage-dealing abilities seriously beefed up, and even my max-level weapons often felt like merely smacking a raging puppet with a pool noodle. Overture also appears to have taken cues from the divisive Dark Souls 2, as not only are standard enemies extremely overpowered, they're also thrown at you in sometimes ludicrous quantities. I'm taking crammed rooms that contain an enemy count in the double digits. This leads to numerous sections that are a complete slog to play as you regularly find yourself swarmed by enemies that can send you to an early grave in just a few hits, and that take a practically silly amount of damage to be defeated. These moments see Lies of P: Overture fall on the wrong side of the fine line between frustration and fun. To somewhat counteract this issue, Lies of P: Overture's launch has coincided with a major free upgrade that adds two new difficulty options to the game. One is marked as essentially easy, the other very easy. Of course, for dedicated Souls players, dropping the difficulty is antithetical to why the genre appeals; the struggle is supposed to be part of the experience. I should warn any new players hoping these new difficulty settings might allow them to breeze through the game, and enjoy the excellent world-building and rich lore, even on the simplest setting, Lies of P: Overture still puts up a real fight. You will need some skill, whatever level you play on. Overall, Lies of P: Overture has given me the perfect excuse to return to one of my favorite games of this current gaming generation. It's a largely well-crafted expansion with some intriguing new locations to explore, and some tough but tantalizing new bosses to overcome. I just wish the supposedly "regular" enemies didn't always hit with the force of a turbocharged monster truck. However, after rolling credits on Overture, my itch for more Lies of P remains burning, which is perhaps its biggest accomplishment. I was already desperate for the already-confirmed full sequel, and after experiencing Lies of P: Overture, that wait is going to feel just a little bit longer.
