Apparently the first beta weekend for this game was last weeked. From the gameplay footage I've seen, the game looks like a cross between Dragon Age and Guild Wars.

Did anyone have a chance to actually play it, and if so how was it?

I played until level 19. I was pleasantly surprised, the combat doesn't feel like dice roles, but more like an action game (I am playing as a guardian). The missions so far have had great stories in them and the "kill x amount of x creature and return" missions have been very limited, and when there you don't have to spend a lot of time on them since you will kill those anyways doing the main quest line. There are some speech form quest givers later on and some great boss battles.

The only thing I don't like so much is that it's not a big open word like WOW or Lord Of The Rings Online, but the areas are big and detailed and vary a lot. I am still in the same city and judging from the map there will be plenty of places to go and see.

It's still in beta but I didn't have any issues at all during my hours in the game. You should definitely check it out in a couple of weeks when it goes out of beta if you are in to RPG's (good stories, you can solo most of the quests) or MMO's.

I played over the weekend and got to 20. Combat is fun and is like Michael pointed out, more like an action game.

With no cancel button you can't just button mash and expect to win. This is ever apparent in the newly added PvP. You have to pick your skills usage wisely. With there being only 8 skills each skill you decide on is important. I used a third party program to get my Xbox controller to work with it. I did have a few issues in groups where I had to use the keyboard for loot, but other then that it worked great.

Speaking of PvP it was enjoyable and look forward to seeing what other mods they will come out with.

The player created quests showed great promise. I found myself playing them as much as playing the quests made by the dev team.

Crafting wasn't in the game and the AH wasn't much use at all (the latter is to be expected with it being only open for 3 days)

The visuals of the game are serviceable enough. It's not like you should ever look for Crysis 3 graphics from a free to play game. That's not the idea. The best part of the visuals take place in combat and for me that is where they should be.

The state of the game in this beta gave me the impression that open beta won't be more then a few months from now. And, with the current open beta trend, it will most likely be a quasi full game open beta. Meaning they will take your money for things and what ever you get you will keep when the "full" version of the game is released.

If your into the fiction of Faerun you will get a little extra out of the stories. But if your not familiar with the lore the game doesn't beat you over then head with terms you won't understand.

If your looking for a western fantasy action rpg with fast combat this might be the one for you.

I thought it was pretty great, with the foundry and combat being the real highlights for me.

Really enjoyed the combat, although I only played it briefly. Played a Rogue and really had fun slicing dudes up. You really feel like a shadow of death.

Huh, now more interested than I thought I would be.