Here ya go, take a gander at this just-released cover image for Shadowrun Fifth Edition.

Is that a roach spirit?
does that mean we can expect more bug plots? pretty please, yes?
From an art aspect... Not quite as awesome as the cover for 3ed M&M, but beats the hell out of 4e BBB covers.

The icon in the lower right looks like the hacker is busting into an Ares facility, so a bug spirit is in line with some of their research.

Runners trying to get pass a door with an Ares logo, and corporate security summoning an insect spirit to stop them kinda fit. But the ork also destroy a samurai-style drone you would rather expect on a Japanese corporation site.

Looks great!

Clearly it's a joint task-force. Runners escaping from a Renraku facility trying to flee pursuit by crossing extra-territorial lines are met by security forces from both companies...they even have an inter-corporate liaison in a suit guiding things.

Pros:
- Action!
- Very good artwork from a great artist.
- I like the color palette
- Bug spirit? Hell yeah!
- A well drawn ork!
- A well drawn troll!

Cons:
- Lighting is too harsh, let's some of the characters look like modeled in Poser and too '3D'
- Too bright. Not enough Shadow in that Run ^^
- Too many corp logos on one site and they look ... glued on. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)
- Too busy, too much is happening, no clear focus
- Cyberarm of the mage, while cool, is too subtle. I would have liked to see obvious 'ware, smack in the middle.



Favorite: The Amerind mage. She rocks!


Edit: To reiterate the bullet point from my criticism and elaborate somewhat further:
I consider the picture too busy. Too much is happening all at once and I find that I don't have a clear focus for my eye. It is fun to find more details when looking at a picture for longer than a minute or so, but when the eye just glides away and doesn't find the center, there is a 'problem'.
Don't get me wrong. I am not saying "ZOMG, too busy, picture sucks!". It's just that I don't enjoy the (maybe even only perceived by me) lack of focus.

I am not clear if the magic duel is the focus, because the Amerind mage is half hidden behind the orc, and the other mage is outshone by the bug spirit / illusion. Is it the orc with his glowy sword, killing that samurai drone? I am not sure about this either, thus, my eye starts slipping and trying to find focus. But so much is happening that I am unable to.
Then the clutter of megacorp logos. It seems like this is megacorp central station, where every corp has holdings 100m from the next. It makes me unsure as to where this is supposed to happen and it feels crammed in, in order to maximize the amount of shadowrunny memes on a minimum of space.
In my opinion, less would have been more, in this case.

None of that criticism means that I don't like the picture, though. You can criticize stuff and like it at the same time.
In fact, I think that it's great artwork and a great cover, and that these are minor points in a bigger picture.

Guys... that bug is manifest...

True-form merge?

Oh jeez I hope so!!


Awesome.

I think this is definitely a worthy image to serve as the cover of an SR core book. Nothings perfect, but this does a fair job of trying to get there, IMO.

I posted on facebook where I saw it first.

It's very iconic. I looked at it a few minutes and picked out the Iconic things in there. The Orc Street Sam. Dwarf Rigger, Elf Indian Mage, the Decker, the corp forces with the big burly troll. The Drones, both the team's Rigger's drones and the Samuri Defensive drone that's been smashed. The bug spirit, the Wadge Mage on the other side. The Corps looming over it all, including the pyramid, Very iconic image. Great visual splash there.

Thing is, like I said on Facebook, I got all that Iconic imagry by just looking at it. Reading the article where it said, basically "Lets go for THIS", made me kinda laugh. Because they hit it right on the head.


Some one above had mentioned that the corps logos seemed a bit tacked on. I wouldn't worry too much about it. That's clearly where the big ol "SHADOWRUN 5TH EDITION" is going to go.

I really like it and can't wait for the promised wallpaper. I grabbed the image and enlarged it for my screen but a high rez version made from the base art would be greatly appreciated.

Great cover art. That's going to draw the eyes.

Aye, as it should be.

The important thing for the cover is that it should clearly state "THIS is Shadowrun". Which I think this coverart executed VERY well on depicting all of the classical elements of Shadowrun.

Anyways, guess what fine bit of art is going as my desktop background! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

(only minor nitpick I would say is that the choices of megacorp logos would have been different. I personally would have gone for Saeder-Krupp, NeoNET, and MCT. still, nitpick at best for a cool bit of art)

I might have missed it, but did anyone else notice the hacker is physically wired to the door?

Overall, immensely evocative cover.

..good looking cover, no doubt.. but i think orc is Adept, not street samurai, thinking of his sword as Weapon Focus. (slightlly glowing)

Eehhh he's got two cyber arms and "Street Samuri" is very Iconic to Shadowrun.

"Adept" While not new isn't really "Jump off the page Iconic" type image.

A StreetSam is also Iconic with a gun and a sword, which the orc in the pic has.

If there was another Street Sam sort, it could be argued that it was an adept with some sort of cyber gauntlets on, but as there's not, I'm betting that's supposed to be.

*Shrugs* Just how I read it. They don't have nametags. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Either way it's a wicked image.

..hand holding a sword have a Forearm Guard, hand holding pistol have a some sort of gauntlet/Commlink (?)..cyber-arms??

Where is Mungo?

Is it my imagination, or does the mage have cyberarms?

nope, just looking it, nano-tattoo starting visible from shoulder,feathers hanging from wrist-guard..

Hm.

The Good:
An Amerindian! Shadowrun wouldn't be Shadowrun without them featuring at leasts emi-prominently. Also, the action is sufficient, it features all major archetypes (fighter, mage, hacker, rigger), all major races (including a very well executed ork and troll), a magical threat, a corpsec mage, corpsec, and sneaking through a back door, which is pretty much the setting's default way of getting stuff done. The Background looks CGm, but that's actually okay, even if a bit more Noir rain to soften the edges would have been fine. The Corp logos' execution is goood in case of Shiawase, which now looks like an actual logo and not something thrown togeter with painter 10 years ago. The others are okay, though the fitting into the high-rises facade seems a bit tacked on. The Ork's and Elf's Cyberarms look interesting, going with the setting's trend away from klunky WH40K implants with lots of unnecessary wires poking out of the character at random, which is nice. The bug itself looks menacing, powerful and scary, and the characters are well balanced, their posing seems natural and their gear believable. The color palette is good too, so long as the book's interior proceeds to go with a blue-tinged layout.

The Bad:
It's just too excited. Lots of stuff going on but no clear story is told. Do the runners try to break into Ares' back door, and Ms. Corp Mage and her goons and troll dude just happen by and then summon a bug spirit? Did Ms Cop Mage follow the bug, and the bug just run into some runners? Are Bug and Ms Corp Mage on the same side, fighting off the runners? Trajectories of fire are unclear save for Ms Amerind Elf. Is leftmost corpsec goon's hitting the drone friendly fire or does he try to prevent the drones from randomly attacking the floor and the dystopian Brazil memorial pipe? Also, what's up with the Ork's sword, and why are the weapons unrecognisable, when the drones are apparently based on a 3E design of the Rotodrone? I'm confused. Also, where's the rain? Cyberpunk is a setting derived fom Noir, and as such, demands perpetual rain.

The Ugly:
The artist went overboard with contrast here. Nothing against a high-contrast image, but this would profit from having saturation reduced a bit. As mentioned, this creates an uncanny valley effect on the characters' skin that takes from the otherwise extremely well done characters.

This definitly is one of the better covers of the setting, closer to the original Sally, Dodger, Ghost one than the previous two (The characters looked weird in 4E's, and let's just not alk about 3E's). I like it, but maybe contact the artist about the high contrasts. With luck, they still have the work version with lots of layers and that can be reasonably easily fixed. As is, it looks a bit like 3D images done by people who have yet to lear how to use ambient lighting. All in all a good cover with relatively minor flaws.

"I'z inn da Ices Creamy Trukk onn da streetz fer da Gettawayz!"

"Watchin da Bubba porn..."

Now that is a nice ork! But I have to agree with the others on the shading/lighting...the problem with going for a photo-realistic look is that it usually looks great in 99% of the image, but since everybody knows how the real world looks like the remaining 1% stand out.

..hmmm...mission idea brewing...getting stolen private "recordings " of Bubba and Naughty Night Elf Nurses, your ms. Johnson just happens to have
identical look of one of nurses,being with a child and rising politician.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)