Goat Simulator trailer riffs on Dead Island, but with goats

It's hard not to think that Goat Simulator 's ascent from cheese dream inception to being one of the most talked about PC releases of the year owes a lot to just its name.

's ascent from cheese dream inception to being one of the most talked about PC releases of the year owes a lot to just its name. Because you might think, in the same way SimCitytheoretically lets you simulate a city (yes, I know), so the name Goat Simulator suggests it will simulate, hopefully in painstaking detail, the life and times of one of the world's lesser loved ungulates.

It was surely the very idea of this banality—left click to chew cud! Right click to gaze into middle distance—that fascinated prospective players. But the actuality of Goat Simulator is arguably less strange, and quite a bit more stupid. It's more a sort of sandbox destruction engine, a bit like PlayStation's Pain. But don't take my word for it. Check out the new trailer, which riffs heavily on Dead Island's infamous emoto teaser.

You can also read Tom's hands/hooves-on from GDC last week here. Goat Simulator is developed by Coffee Stain Studios and will be out on April 1 (I mean, of course it is). Those of you who've prepaid via the game's web site will be given access to the game on Friday. Good luck, and goat speed.