It was a big week for THQ Nordic, which is quietly continuing the process of building itself into something of a mid-tier gaming colossus. The past few days have seen it pick up Wreckfest studio Bugbear Entertainment, and Coffee Stain, the maker of Sanctum, Satisfactory, and, yes, Goat Simulator. It's also now the proud owner of the Expeditions strategy-RPG series, and has announced plans to begin work on a third game (after Conquistadors and Vikings) with original developer Logic Artists. 

The terms of the Bugbear deal weren't disclosed, although THQ Nordic said "the purchase price matches management’s estimated royalty payments to Bugbear during the upcoming three years." THQ Nordic was previously the publisher of Bugbear's Wreckfest, which it said it's been the company's best-performing game on Steam since its full release in June.   

The Coffee Stain deal cost $35 million up front, "plus additional earn-out considerations subject to fulfillment of agreed milestones." 35 mil for Goat Simulator might seem a little steep, but along with ownership of Coffee Stain's own games, it also grants THQ Nordic the publishing rights to Deep Rock Galactic, which is now in Steam Early Access. It will also create "a highly complementary third leg" for the company, with a particular focus on "digital sales, retention, cross platform and multiplayer." 

THQ Nordic obviously isn't in the same league as Activision or EA, but it's kind of fun watching it become the heavyweight of the middleweights. It launched in 2011 as Nordic Games, renamed itself to THQ Nordic for some reason in 2016, and gained real prominence this year with the acquisition of Deep Silver parent Koch Media—giving it ownership of games including Saints Row, Dead Island, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance—and, more recently, through a deal with Microsoft to publish multiple mid-tier games on Steam and in physical formats. 

Goat Simulator is an unusual game, not just because it's really bad but because the Steam description warns that it's really bad and actually suggests that people should spend their money on something else, like a hula hoop or a pile of bricks. But now Coffee Stain Studios has a mysterious new project in the works called Satisfactory, and it said that this time it's actually trying really hard to make a decent game. 

The teaser doesn't actually reveal anything about the game (sorry), nor does the threadbare press release that brought it my way. There are hints of something maybe a wee little bit sinister to it, however. The cute little lizard-pupper who's trying to enjoy his lunch appears to have been interrupted by some kind of construction happening behind the camera; there's industrial noise and a spot of what I assume is welding, and then a large-sounding vehicle, like a dump truck, starts up and takes off, close enough to cast a visible shadow on the little guy. 

The game logo suggests something along the same lines, with flora and fauna along the bottom half, smokestacks and power lines across the top. And let us not forget the name: Satisfactory.

It's not much to go on, but it's all we're getting for now. "If I told you more it wouldn't be a teaser now, would it?" Coffee Stain CEO Anton Westbergh said.   

Goat Simulator jokes aside, this will hopefully be—and could be—a good game, or at least a proper one: Goat Sim was a goat rodeo but before that Coffee Stain made the Sanctum FPS/tower defense crossovers, and they were quite decent. More about Satisfactory will be revealed over the coming months, and Coffee Stain is taking signups for an alpha test that may or may not begin in May at satisfactorygame.com.   

The Humble Best of 2017 Bundle is—you guessed it—a collection of games from 2017's best bundles. It runs through Tuesday, February 20, and altogether Humble reckons it's $137 worth of games, with the highest tier going for $10. Here's everything you get at each level: 

Pay what you want 

•  Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location 
•  Goat Simulator 
•  Hacknet 

Pay more than the average ($5.57 at the time of writing) 

•  Verdun 
•  Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion 
•  Death Road to Canada 
•  Turmoil (and the soundtrack)  

Pay $10 or more 

•  Dead by Daylight 

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To say Goat Simulator has gone off the rails isn't exactly fair, given that I'm not sure it was ever affixed to the rails in the first place. This is a game, in case the name didn't give it away, that's inherently about the ridiculous. But somehow, with each DLC drop, it's managed to become even more absurd, to the point that I'm not even sure what we're dealing with anymore. The next expansion is titled Waste of Space, and is an outer space-themed update with a trailer narrated by an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator.

It opens with a reference to The Force Awakens, and continues to fit as many sci-fi gags into the two-minute running time as possible. Almost hidden among all the jokes are shots of a game that's barely recognizable from the one that developer Coffee Stain Studios launched on April Fool's Day two years ago.

The primary physics-playground this time around appears to be a lunar colony, complete with flying vehicles and habitation domes, but there's a brief shot of what seems to be a flyable, first-person spaceship sequence. At that point, it isn't even about controlling your own ungulate anymore; that's a completely different game. We take our eyes off of Coffee Stain for one minute, and suddenly it's making a barnyard Star Citizen.

I don't know, maybe this is what Goat Simulator has always been. But it feels like Waste of Space is branching out past its "look, this goat can grab things with its floppy tongue" sense of humor, and maybe into being an actual... game?Probably crazy talk, but we'll find out either way when the DLC launches on Steam tomorrow.

Remember that New Super Secret DLC trailer for Goat Simulator we (well, some of us) got a laugh out of back in early December? Now we know what it's all about: Overkill's heist game Payday 2 is coming to Goat Simulator.

Wait! I hear you exclaim. Didn't we read about this already? No, you did not, I reply: What you read about was a Goat Simulator mode that, for reasons I don't entirely understand, is being added to Payday 2. This is similarly strange but flows in the opposite direction by adding a team of four goats—although it actually appears to be one goat, plus a flamingo, a camel (not a horse!), and a dolphin in a wheelchair—who pick up missions from Pranknet, the static contract database, and then earn money by pulling them off.

If pranks aren't your thing (and by prank, I assume the developers mean running around breaking stuff), you may opt for freeform smash-and-grabs instead: Hogtie people with cable ties, hijack their cars, or even race your own Space Cars, just like in that movie with Charlize Theron. You can use your ill-gotten gains to buy masks, or blow it at the Mahatma Gambling Casino. You'll also have the opportunity to unlock new, even dumber stuff, like the Canon, which may or may not be intentionally spelled with one n, or a burger.

Goat Simulator: Payday will apparently go live tomorrow (the Steam link is here but not active yet), which is also when the Payday 2: Goat Simulator mode will kick off, and will cost $5/ 5. In the meantime, you can dig into the details at goatpayday.com.

Goats are a constant source of ridicule in video games, and sometimes I worry that we're taking it too far. Goats are probably a lot smarter than they look. There are humans that look much dumber than goats. I see them every day. 

While Goat Simulator could arguably be pro-goat, I'm not so sure this cross-promotion with Payday 2 is. It's a new game mode that tasks players with capturing and extracting goats instead of cocaine. "When the Payday gang were ordered by Vlad to intercept a truck carrying cocaine, they expected to act as clean-up and collect the goods," so reads the DLC description.

"Easy peasy, or at least that's what they thought. But as they arrive on the scene and see the crashed truck, there is no cocaine packages in sight, only goats, and chaos."

I have no idea how this will play out in practice: the video below shows goats bouncing on the top of light poles. I don't think shooting them off will be an option, or at least, I hope it won't be. Whatever the case, whether you love or hate goats, I guess this will please you. If you feel ambivalent towards goats, well, maybe you'll feel differently after this? Anyway, goats.

Here's the trailer:

I don't think that anyone can reasonably argue that Goat Simulator is a good game. Yet it's bizarre blend of stupid premise, glitchy behavior, unwavering commitment to ridiculousness, and disdain for people who spend money on it has somehow resulted in a strange brew that people seem to like. And so today, developer Coffee Stain Studios has released a teaser for yet more DLC, entitled (for now, anyway) "New Super Secret DLC."

What's really good here is the teaser. It starts off simply enough with a discussion between a flamingo and a  camel (not a horse!) about the merits of buying DLC and whether or not the decision should be influenced by the fact that you probably got the main game for 90 percent off in a Steam sale. But it slowly and surely turns into something more, and ends on a picture-perfect note. (I think it's best enjoyed without knowing what's coming, so I'll say no more.) It may or may not have anything to do with the actual DLC, but either way it's a lot of fun to watch.

The announcement of the DLC on Steam doesn't tell us anything more than the new trailer: It comes straight out of Coffee Stain's creative butt, and the hype train is started. Seriously, read it for yourself. I'll keep you posted.

I don't know how I didn't see this coming. The guys behind Goat Simulator and I Am Bread are teaming up to bring you an unholy union of Goat and Bread with the aptly named GoatBread DLC, which should come out free for both games in the next few weeks.

I Am Bread will get a new 'RAMpage' mode, while Goat Simulator will allow you to play as the slice of bread himself. (Itself? Herself? Are these even the right questions?)

Despite receiving a bunch of flak for just being 'Youtube bait', it's fair to say both games have been big successes. My experience with both amounts to 20 minutes spent messing around at a friend's house, though I suspect that might be the best way of enjoying these things. Sure, there's a bunch of cool stuff tucked away if you want to go looking for it. I just wanted to chuckle at some stupid goat/piece of bread doing stupid things for a bit: it's a niche I didn't know needed filling, but I'm glad someone has.

You may remember Goat Simulator from the last time you chuckled at one of its expansion trailers. That time it was taking a pop at MMOs; this time, it's survival games. Coffee Stain Studios has announced GoatZ*, a survival-themed DLC add-on that will be released this Thursday, May 7.

*If you don't get the reference, please cherish your innocence.

Here's the add-on's parodic feature list:

• Mandatory crafting system because everyone else is doing it
• Zombies that bug out. There s a pun here about actual living bugs, but we re not going to bother
• You can craft anything in the world, as long as it s one of the half dozen weapons in the game
• Zombies, because this is a zombie game, remember?
• A pretty big new map with some stuff in it
• Completely realistic survival mode where you have to eat every damn five minutes to survive because Dean Hall & Garry Newman said so

Goat Simulator: GoatZ will cost $5.

You may think Goat Simulator is a lighthearted game about goats doing un-goatlike things, but it's actually a vehicle for a much more sinister ploy. Soon goats will takeover the virtual world. Instead of Minecraft Creepers there will be Minecraft goats. Instead of Final Fantasy Chocobos there will be Final Fantasy goats. Instead of Kevin Spacey there will be a goat. 

With the help of Goat Simulator devs Coffee Stain Studios, goats may soon feature in Dota 2 in the form of a courier. The twist is that users have to vote the goat in. If you want to be complicit in the goat takeover, you can vote here. 

If you need convincing (and you do), then here's a video. Just think this through carefully before casting your vote, okay?