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Some friends of mine want to play Shadowrun and since I've always been interested in the game I decided to join. Now apart from who's going to master, we have one question that needs to be cleared: which version to play?
I got 2 rulebooks from my brother, 3.01 and 4.01, and since we're all kinda short on cash we'll probably have to keep using that one. My brother also has a few extra books for 3.01 but I want to keep it tight, since there are a few first timers in the group.

A friend told me version 4 is a big mess and totally unplayable without Expansions, my brother said that goes for version 3 as well. Can you help me out?

4 is better. It is a lot more streamlined and simplified than the old versions. It plays much faster when the dice are being rolled, and some tweaks to the system mean playing an unaugmented human is still actually capable.

I highly recommend 4th edition, actually. It is a pretty good system. Not just for ShadowRun, but a solid RPG with good mechanics.