[kronovan]

I ask because none of the LGS's in my city have the Anniversary edition, but a few have the standard 4th Edition at a good price. A number of the big online book retailers I've checked also don't have it in stock, and the new and used copies being sold by alternate sellers are being offered at a premium price. I've noticed it's in stock for $30 on Amazon.com, but I'm in Canada and after shipping it'll cost a fair amount more.

I've read a number of reviews of the standard 4th Edition on RPG.NET and Amazon.com and just about everyone gave it a thumbs up, with the exception that a few mentioned that The Matrix wasn't well explained. Since this would be my 1st and only Shadowrun game, I'm not even sure how that works or what it entails. Like all my RPGs, I'd like the core rule to at least be in a book that the players can leaf through. The other books I'd likely purchase as PDF's via drivethrurpg.
So I'm curious to hear if the Anniversary Ed is signficantly better - epecially if it improves on the standard 4th Ed to the extent that it's no longer worth considering?

[thalandar]

The  Anniversary edition is well worth the wait, just for the artwork and the comprehensive idex in the back.

[savaze]

The Anniversary ed. (SR4A) is the Standard ed. (SR4) + upgraded art, like thalander mentioned + errata/clarifications + multi-book index, again like thalander mentioned.  SR4A definitely makes more sense than SR4 (unless you like to put sticky notes all over your books with errata), plus all the new books are indexed to SR4A (there is a divide on which books are indexed to which addition, oh well). 

I've got the SR4 limited preordered ed. (filled to the brim with sticky notes) as well as the SR4A pdf from DrivethruRPG.  They have a bunch of specials, I'm particular to this combo for $50 which gives you all the main books minus the core book (which is another &15).  Your money will go farther if you go pdf, but that all depends on whether you game with laptops or e-readers...

[aimlessfreak]

All i have is the standard version and i have no problems using it, just printed up the errata and gluesticked it to the inside of the covers.  That being said none of my group uses laptops when we game.

[kboleen]

You could always buy the 4th edition hard copy and then buy a PDF of the Anniversary book.