Celebrating the SnowRunner birthday with 10 BEST moments (and a surprise)

Today is the SnowRunner birthday, so I thought I’d talk about my 10 favourite video moments before unveiling a random surprise.

I’d be lying if I said the arrival of SnowRunner felt like yesterday. Since its release date of the 28th of April 2020, the world went a bit weird. Lots of mask wearing, less international travel, graphics card shortages, console scalping to the extreme – and those were the good bits.

But in terms of my little YouTube channel, SnowRunner has been great. I can sort of live on the money it generates. It’s not loads but it is a start so thank you to those who let the adverts run. Big love. So, in a year I gained 21,000 ish – which is crazy. Still no idea what I’m doing.

Anyway, I owe SnowRunner at least one biscuit and a mug of Earl Grey tea for helping my ridiculous YouTube adventure get moving. That’s why at the end of this video I shall be revealing a big surprise that may or may not be awesome. I have no idea – I just asked someone to make it.

I’m a little nervous because I want it to be good for you, the viewer. And because I know the person who made it will be watching too. Hi Diane.

Anyway, that’s the first hook to keep you around. So don’t even think about skipping ahead if you know what’s good for you. Now for my 10 favourite SnowRunner video moments over the last 365 and a quarter days, in ascending order. Really pushing the boat out.

10) My first SnowRunner video

Now every journey begins with a single step, so the saying goes. My first step in SnowRunner, besides confusion, was making a video about what the game was like on Xbox One. Nobody watched it. Think there was around 1,000 views at the time and for months after.

Watching it now, I love that I get stuck in the caravan and cannot operate the handbrake. Not sure I’ve progressed much, to be honest. You know, it’s funny because I had no idea SnowRunner would be so popular for A Tribe Called Cars until the next video came along.

9) The Best Truck Showdown

When not stuck in caravans, I realised that there were probably other SnowRunner truckers who were as bad and clueless as I was. Am. So instead of doing let’s play style videos I made a best truck showdown.

This wasn’t my worst decision of 2020 as that video sits at 430,000 views in 11 months. And despite the fact new SnowRunner trucks have come along since, it’s still kind of useful. The follow-up tips and advanced tips and tricks videos also did way better than they should have.

8) Console Mods

Quite possibly the most popular question on the channel concerned the console mods release date. Yes, some of us got the Imandra garage without the Azov Iceberg or other ‘easy mode’ trucks. F in the chat if you did too.

Anyway, knowing how much players wanted to see console mods meant it felt good to finally share the news. Despite some hiccups with memory amount and approvals along the way, I think it was worth the wait.

7) Full Steam Ahead

Slightly more recent in the SnowRunner catalogue was a video about one of SnowRunner’s weirder tasks. I was struggling for ideas that day so I thought sod it, let’s see if I can make a video about pulling a train amusing.

Naturally I failed with great success, but I did have a lot of fun making it. The truck bouncing to the music got a lot of love so I’d say it was a win.

6) Chevrolet Apprehension

From ridiculous to controversial, I wanted to make light of a situation that seemed to annoy a lot of SnowRunner players. I’m talking about the paid DLC trucks, first of which was the Chevrolet Apache 6×6. But instead of just rant on, I decided to initiate full satire mode. I’m sure the devs loved it.

The title and thumbnail with the hearts were deliberately satirical yet I was still surprised how many people commented as if the video was about praising the offending truck. Good times.

5) Not the Halloween Special

In fifth place comes my video about SnowRunner’s spookier and weirder moments. I probably should have released this at Halloween, but anyway.

I have fond memories finding all the clips to put in. A few people thought the roar at the end was real. Sadly, it wasn’t.

Someone obviously very happy with their life said my voiceover was over the top. I mean, it wasn’t meant to be a bloody high-brow thriller was it. Maybe they were just afraid of the glowing eyes.

4) D&D Bowling

Speaking of intellectual content, it’s fun to find silly stuff in games just to break up the videos a bit. I don’t think life should ever be too serious. While the Cat TH357 Telehandler Olympics I never had was a close second, Don & Dan bowling was peak stupidity.

I mean, why wouldn’t anyone want to see a big truck smack into a small truck at the edge of a cliff? Funnily enough, being annoying and witholding the impact seen at the start of the Western Star TwinSteer 6900 review did help with viewer retention.

3) Step-to-the-Dub

Yeah, I know random music features on A Tribe Called Cars but veterans will know dubstep wheelies are where it’s at. I’d love to say I was high or drunk when I decided to see if I could wheelie the Loadstar 1700 AKA Loady McLoadFace but I’d be lying.

“Or drag the crate behind for epic wheelies. Cue the dubstep!”

No regrets though as a few of you have asked for it to make a return over the last year. And rightly so.

2) The Mystery Sherp Job

Now I wanted this to be number one for the laughs, but anyway. I did a video about real life trucks I would love to see in SnowRunner and someone commented that his real-life job involved driving the Sherp ATV. Naturally, I asked him what his job was, as anyone would.

But he never replied. So, I made a joke about it in a follow-up video of the best recent comments. And then again in various other videos. Sadly, this long-running joke does not have a happy ending. We are still none the wiser.

1) The Tayga King

And finally, we come to the Tayga King. The channel mascot. A truck that was hard to beat when the hit Netflix show Tiger King came along at the start of lockdown. I’m not sure anyone knew how long we would be locked up, but Joe Exotic’s bizarre character and vocal talents kept us going.

Anyway, I’d been watching and thought why not combine that with one of my favourite Russian trucks in SnowRunner. A few people assumed Tayga was Russian for tiger, but I was simply playing on the name of the show.

In terms of hits, my Tayga 6436 review never did that well. But seeing my ridiculous video become a smalltime meme was a definite highlight.

And now for the grand finale, the SnowRunner surprise. Press play on the video (and enable subtitles if you want to continue reading). Thanks for watching.