Met recently the european editions of these games and... wow.. the art, at least the cover's , are really cool, definitely more cool than the original amercian counterpart.

And I think they (europeans) got a more serious tone in their art, that I like. While original americans got a more catoony tone, thats present most of the time, even if only in spirit. See for yourself...

Shadowrun: http://www.pegasus.de/1467.html#c1434

By the way, the Unknown Armies line is the same case:
http://www.7emecercle.com/7cv2fr/jdr/ua/ua.html

What you guys think?

Actually, I prefer the US covers. Mostly.

Augmentation? I hate vats with a passion. They're dumb and inefficient in almost every case where a human is involved. The artist could at least have stolen the rigs that get used in Ghost in the Shell SAC instead. Vats, especially the kind in this cover, are everything that is wrong with SciFi.

Unwired? Okay, so this might be an exception. I mean, I don't know why the Hacker's got his shirt off, or why he's got that kind of physique when his job is essentially sedantary, but the art is good and the high contrast environment is nice. The AR is as cool as the stuff on the cover of the US version, but it's far enough away that you don't get any wallbanger effect off the UI. So, yeah. Good going. One of four.

Arsenal? OH GOD WHO THE HELL DREW THAT TRAVESTY ON THE COVER OF THE GERMAN EDITION? Seriously, is this what German people imagine when they try to describe a Street Sam? So we've got an 80's military guy with his hair spiked up in a static pose (with his guns pointing at the ceiling!) standing in front of two bits of geometric art, or something. Those things aren't Drones. Shut up. The man is massively overloaded, too. Imagine how much weight that all is.

Street Magic? The new German cover makes the mage look mildly constipated and retarded. It looks like an amateur 3D render and doesn't show us what the guy is looking at (and he doesn't look scared, so there's really no need to not show it). Expressing head syndrome I can actually deal with (I watch anime, after all), but this just looks bad.


If the cover tries to present itself as an in-universe scene then I prefer it depict events that might actually occur in game (ie people look to be in motion, and aren't posing in an apparent combat situation). SotA '63 has a great cover. Shockwaves (the English PDF I've got) has a cover that just makes me look at it over and over. All of the Shadows of line are good. Survival of the Fittest and Threats 1 are good. Threats 2 manages to put together a multiple scenes all of which have sufficient action that it all works.

Many people these days have watched the higher budget anime series or read well-drawn comics and know what good, fluid drawn action scenes look like. Poseritis is not enough any more.

Seconded. But i actually do like the Street Magic Cover and hate the US Arsenal, but the german one just... while i could imagine the US Cover happen in Shadowrun (maybe a top level fixer showing her goods) the whole vat stuff is just Boobie-Bonus

Links? I am lazy.

Can be found in the OP.

The French line has the exact same art as the English one.
When the French BBB came out, they just weren't allowed to change it (they wanted to change the cover art).

i actually prefer the european covers myself.

Honestly, none of the covers in either line seem especially inspiring of late. The European covers seem flat, while the North American ones are often cluttered. I haven't had a cover really grab me since Shadows of Europe.

Their Emergence cover is much better than ours.

the euro art is much better IMO. i'm not a fan of the cartoony look in my rpgs.

Yup. I've seen oodles of worse 3d artwork than the augmentation cover back when I helped run a poser forum. But not by people who got paid for it.

I agree with DH that none of the art covers have been fantastic in recent years. I prefer to SR2 and SR3 artwork from the old days, especially the Bergting stuff. That guy rocks (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)

Why do the European books have different cover art, anyway?
I do admit, the link for the the Emergence cover..I wish that was the cover we got.

But, seriously, why the difference in the looks?
Or, put another way: is it that Europeans can't take teh American art...or is is that they think that Americans could
not handle the European art? Why not use the best of both in future reprints of the american?(Yes, I like the Arsenal cover, but I do not like the U.S. Augmentation cover, because I look at it and find myself inventorying what models, textures, and such I have from that..I mean..they even used the base colours for her "suit"...)

• Arsenal was considered to colorful and comic-like (basically a fallback to SR3's cartoon style that was never popular with German gamers).
• Augmentation was just ugly.
• Same with Emergence.
• Unwired has a nice pic but it doesn't fit the German cover layout*.
• Street Magic had the original US cover when printed by FanPro. Pegasus has not commented on why their re-print has a new cover - might be layout issues again.

* Pegasus' layout has a border running around the cover with a big SR logo on top. This, combined with our different paper size, means a picture designed to cover a full cover with different measurements might not fit.

Bleh, I prefer my Shadowrun free from Goth-crap. It's quite a popular fad over here, though.

The guy on Street Magic looks plain retarded. Somehow all of his angles are off, amateur level art.

I would have liked the Arsenal cover back when I was 14. Now... I think I'm getting too old to see that as anything than stupid posing.

But.. what do I care. I avoid translated versions of nearly everything like the plague.

I Think The Guys from Pegasus tried a streamlined Cover Art so it can be easily distuinguished
Arsenal : Ork with Blue Background
Unwired : Troll with Green Background
Augmentation: Elfin with Greyish Background
Streetmagic :Dwarf (Jupp, the Mage is supposed to be a Dwarf) with a Red Background

with a streamlined Background Dance
Medicineman

Yep, that is how I read and understand it, too: the German covers are designed along a certain line, with one central figure (often in the middle of the pic and standing/posing rather nonchalantly) being the core of the art. The German Almanac cover follows the same line.

As for my personal taste: sometimes I like the US versions better, sometimes I prefer the German/European versions. *shrug*:

Arsenal: German (but I would vote for this cover for Arsenal anytime!)
Augmentation: US ("like" may be a strong word here)
Emergence: German!
Street Magic: US!!!!!!!!!
Unwired: US (I like AR! I just lack the soft to do it any better)
Feral Cities: German! (I like the US coversketch, but I absolutely hate the color)
Almanac: German (duh)

If I could make a wish on who should do ALL covers of SR, it would be this guy:
The perfect cover tells a whole story

Presenting: Seattle Sourcebook
Presenting: Runner's Companion
Presenting: Arsenal
Presenting: Attitude
Presenting: Feral Cities
Presenting: Re-Wired (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
Presenting: War!

And for all those who are totally destroyed by the quality of that art and who think that they can never ever get that good, here's the first pic that same artist put on Deviantart
Whenever I am ashamed by my poor skills, I look at that pic and say: If he could move from this to this in 6 years, then so can I (I hope).

That guy is really good, indeed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I have seen that "re-wired" pic somewhere else already... just cannot remember where. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

The pictures you posted on there are very nice, too. The Traveller cover looks awesome! We'll see what you can do in six years! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Bye
Thanee

re-wired looks very much like one of the covers of the original GITS Manga.

It possibly is.

He's a troll, that's fat and lazy for trolls (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Different box/cover art for different marketing regions (US/EU/JP) is a totally normal practice in publishing.

While I agree with you, I still prefer it over the gecko car and walls of U.S. Arsenal. I keep thinking the driver is going to say "Help, I'm stuck to this stupid car!".

Well, that can't be it... I do not read Manga/watch Anime. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Most likely someone linked to it in a different topic here or somewhere else. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Bye
Thanee

I have a sedentary job, and I lift weights, and I could be shirtless if it was hot. Not all buff guys are combat monsters or lumberjacks.