You had to have pre-ordered the game to have played this past weekend. I think the open beta, however, will be open to all users Feb 1-3. If they can fix the servers and the infinite load glitch then it'll be worth it. The combat was freaking amazing. I had a blast fighting and what not. Exploration was also very fun. In free play you just fly around an open world and complete certain tasks and find new loot and items that can be used to upgrade your armor and weapons. There are caves, underground caverns, under water stuff, world events that happen like Titans and giant monsters popping up. I wasn't too impressed with what I seen of the story, but the game play was amazing. Again, what little I got to play glitch free and server issue free.