591 x 753

Bleh.

Ninja elf fan service. Whoot!

Oh yeah.... except that the hacker looks like he's miming "Help, I'm trapped in a box!"

So... The same image we were treated to on March 15, only this time with tracer fire !!

[EDIT]
Oh, yeah. Different pattern on the street sam, subdermal display replaced with ungodly akward underarm spur. He's smaller, his feet are much smaller, and he has a different head angle. Didn't notice the lack of some of the flying vehicles. Dwarf's goggles changed.
[/EDIT]

Okay. Here's what I take from it:

- edited out flying cars. Congrats.
- the character in those funky pink shorts is a dwarf and a 'Hacker'. Behold the Augmented Reality menu before him/her, and how he just hacks a lock AFTER HE OPENED IT. Also, notice the many gadgets s/he carries with him/her. One would likely be another Cyberdeck.
- the Troll is most certainly a mage, firing a manabolt. Duh.
- the Elf woman is very likely a (cheesy) adept. I take from that and the troll that, apparently, there're still different magical paths of sorts.
- the human character is a streetsam with a SMG and an implant weapon, and some funny device on his coat.
- the building they're breaking into (where laser pointers originate from) is labeled 'ZIC'. Does that signal Zeta-Imp-Chem is going to gain from the crash of 65, that maybe Eurocorps in general rise in influence when Japanocorps fall, gaining a more prominent role?
- the drone/VTOL in the background has Lone Star's insignia. Seems they still hold the contract for Seattle.
- demon rats have taken over from devil rats, apparently. Rats have fur again.
- the whole image is more along the lines of SR2's (legendary) cover than SR3's tarzan troll. Signifying a "back to the roots" feel the game is supposed to have? The whole image looks more Blade Runner than any SR cover before.

Here's what I gather:

The artist isn't someone who actually plays Shadowrun, or at least if they do, then they must be able to recite the entire character creation section from memory by now. What real group of Runners would stand right out in the open of a doorway with bullets whizzing by them? Not the kind that like to end their evening by going home rather than end up being fed from a tube. Nah, real Runners would have their backs against the walls on either side of the doorways, getting some gas or concussion grenades ready to toss in, instead of letting the extrememly short range ninja wannabe charge in first.

Still, the picture is decent. The tag on the wall is a nice touch, especially since it looks like actually good graff.

Makes me long for the sanity of the Cannon Companion cover.

~J

The art itself isn't bad. Just what it says. Why can't the people who draw and write Shadowrun know anything about Shadowrun?

What I don't understand is that if they were truly hoping to draw in a younger crowd, why do they insist on staying with the old, cartoony art? Especially on the cover of their primary product in the line?

They should have dished out the extra money to get a quality artist on the level of Bradstreet (stylistically if not him himself) to do the work, not sticking with the same old names and the same style of art that's both uninspiring and just plain goofy.

Aesthetics are important, dammit.

It definetly brings to mind the orginal SR cover. The scantily clad elf-ninja-chick just needs to be in the fore front of the scene

Heres another thing. They have books full of weapons and equipment to choose from. Yet the artist insist on making up their own crap. What gun is the sam using? What is all that crap hanging off the dwarf?

They draw it cause they think it looks cool. Not that it has ANYTHING to do with Shadowrun.

You mean Timothy Bradstreet? Hehe, talk about giving ammo to people saying SR4 is actually just a straight nWoD rip-off.

I don't think that picture is nearly as cartoony as the SR3 cover. Looking at it there the pallette and feel seems a lot closer to the SR1 with only a slightly less pastel 80's feel.

I do agree about the awkward body position and postures just not jiving with my idea of people that habitually are able to walk away from firefights. It was bad enough before the tracer fire was in there.


Postscript: But still I come back to those thigh-high tights, even if she doesn't have "GLADD" and "Lambda" buttons pinned to her perky torso.

hmm, that implant weapon the sammie sports may well be a variation on the handblade listed in sr3 (p301, top left) alltho i allways envisioned it as being a normal knifedge that allowed the user do to a kind of open palm chop/strike but with a edge

that lone star in the back looks like a artist iterpetation of a t-bir or vtol, in fact the style of take off kinda reminds me of the osprey, only with jet engines rather then propellers.

and the sammie and the dwarf hacker looks like they are located to the side of the door itself (atleast the dwarf is, the sammie is so far back that he may be in the outer edge of the area visible thru the door).

im guessing that the flow of action may be this:

hacker crackes the lock.

door opens and the troll and the elf finds them selfs looks face to face with security or something else that was unexpected. the sammie was doing lookout for any passing lone star or similar and had his back turned.

basicly we are looking at a surprise kind of situation...

hmm, is that a smoking camera or gun mount in the corner of the building?

Coolness. I just picked up on something in this pic. Brownie points to who figures out which corp the runners are hitting.

That weapon could be anything. Maybe it's custom made, maybe it's a new weapon from the year 2070. Who knows.

That samurai and his forearm cyberspur should be wiped off the face of existence.

The cardlock box has an Ares logo on it. I kinda just assumed that it was because Ares made the security system?

All this being said, it is kinda cool that the pic has the security system for the ZIC building as being provided by Ares - it, well, you know, demonstrates a certain familiarity with the setting that some have been claiming wasnt there.

Yes, but so many other details are so screwed up.

I don't have a problem with the scene being depicted. It's the art itself that I'm disappointed in -- it's going to do exactly zero to help bring in new fans as it looks just like all the other books the line has thrown out, and thus will blend into the background in gamestores as its piled right next to the old ones. That and it looks like very little love or passion went into the piece. Oh, and the fact that it looks like the art from the 80's rather than something more modern and up-to-date, despite apparently having that as one of the system's design philosophies.

And they were doing so well with the covers for Threats 2 and SOTA:2063, too. A pity.

Its definitely consistent with the cover art for the previous books though. Slightly over the top, fantastical, combat/ninja/cyborg/fantasy, pulp, funkiness.

It's definitely not the best cover I have seen for SR but it's still fairly decent even if it's not on par with some of the artwork we've got in the past.

From my standpoint, Larry Elmore's first edition cover (now legendary ), Dave McCoy's original Virtual Realities, John Zeleznik's first edition Grimoire's cover, Doug Andersen's Corporate Security Handbook or just the cover art done by Steve Venters for the very old Sprawl Sites helped quite a lot in defining what was SR and with the SR4 Cover, it seems something is still missing to make it stand out compared to what we've been used to in the early 90ies.

My two cents.

Have you also noticed the シャドウラン on the building in the background, which literally translates as shadouran (using the modified Hepburn system). Also when the cargo container is closed it would have a big number 4 on it.

I get brownie points!

I dunno, I think it's kind of a lazy pic. The troll's like "mmm...better throw a lightning bolt now....zap...", while Ms. ninja is all "right n, I ge to run up and try to whack some guy with my sword while he shoots me the whole way there!"

Cut to Mr. "street samurai" - "oops! caught me playing with my spurs again! I'll never live this down."

And finally the androgynous semi-hip-hop-basketball-shorts-chinese-dwarf-tech-nerd-with-gadgets-everywhere-so-I-look-like-I-know-what-I'm-doing.....

I dunno, I guess I'm just not a fan. It would be such a nice pic without... hmmm... the "shadowrunners".

I have to say I'm a bit disappointed with the artwork. I gennerally love the art from Zug, he has done great things with atmosphere.
I don't like the placement and appearance of the runners. The flying drones and cars in the background seems to be scattered at random... not really going anywhere.
..a.nd there is just something "off" with the perspective... normally the depth lines of buildings would converge towards a single point in the horizon (can't remember the technical term). ....printing... drawing lines... maybe it mostly the building on the left that is off. Maybe it's to create some effect, but it dosen't work for me.
Lack of atmosphere... maybe it would be a better if it was set at night... but mostly the appearance of the runners is lacking.
maybe there are too many details?...

well... that just my 2% of a cent... any comments?

I like it somehow, despite the crappy ninja-elf-adept and the strange cyberweapon the human has impanted in his arm. But the overall impression is better than the 3rd BBB.

keep looking at it, still bugs me...
light source seems off on street sam, don't see a point to all the drones....

If I could just not look at it, I'd be fine and forget it.... but wait... this is the cover...and it's hard back...... crap

I hink I liked the first version better

...and yet another piece of SR art that makes dwarves look absolutely ridiculous.

I mean, where the hell does it say in the race descriptions that, aside from having shorter legs in proportion to their torsoes (but not as absurdly short as they usually do in SR art, or they wouldn't be able to walk...) dwarves also have strangely shaped massively oversized heads? And why the fuck always draw them as if they were 3' tall, rather than an average of 4'?


It's also not very appropriate for a system in which body armor is life... I somehow don't see shorts and tank tops being popular SR gear, but I guess they had to go for that "traditional" 80's music video feel.

It looks so static. Its like they are wax figures. They image is completely dead to my eyes.

None of them look particularly like they are in a hurry to get out of the soon to be bullet spray from the guys with the laser pointers.

And the 'Sam looks horrible. The spur is way outta line. If he chucks that into someone, he's gonna have to place the pull away from him, transferring much less power than if the spur was on the top of his arm, so that he could rip it towards him.

If it Must be placed below the arm, it would have been more effective going through the socket of the hand and between the fingers of a fist.

Once again, I'm dissapointed... by a thread in this forum. I think the art is great.