I would suggest 3rd for a newcomer, but I'm not even sure you can get those anywhere anymore. That way you get the really grimy with neo-shine fluff that defines cyberpunk (to me, at least) and some okay (not great) rules. 5E is the way to go right now; get in on the ground floor rather than playing catch-up.
I'm glad that it isn't quite as "grimy" any more. I just wish they hadn't decided not to continue the path the rest of the way out of the "punk" part and more into the transhumanism.
I liked the grime. It hammered home the transhumanist aspect a little more; people are really fragged in the Sixth World, and their only way out of poverty is typically signing up with a corp. Or getting 'ware, becoming more than human. Slowly transcending their mortal selves, and having to deal with a loss of identity, a loss of self that replacing bits and pieces of what makes you human with machine causes. Could just be me, though; I tend to read into things in a different way than most people.
EDIT: Think about it a little. How do you think a wageslave feels implanted with skillwires, going about their mundane tasks with hands that are moving on their own, muscle memory not yet developed, feeling as if someone, or something else, owns their body? Gradually growing into the sensation, developing the muscle memory, and suddenly you're just a little different because of the skillwire in your head, having literally absorbed someone else's skills?
How a cyberlimb must feel, the phantom pain of a severed arm, feeling the cold metal as a stranger at your side? Never overcoming that sense of phantom loss, because it's not a loss - it's still there, but it's someone, some
thing else's arm?
