Guild Wars 2 players will be able to enjoy a preview of Heart of Thorns later today, provided they have a key to play the upcoming expansion, which is set to go into closed beta. The game will be available to play in three sessions taking place throughout the day. There are no NDA restrictions, so feel free to stream it if you're in it.
Players who found a rare portal during last month's Dry Top and Silverwastes events are entitled to create a new character specifically for the beta test to try out the upcoming content.
"Participants will be able to use a revenant—or any of the existing eight professions—to play a small amount of expansion story content, followed by two beta versions of outposts and their corresponding adventures in part of the Verdant Brink map," reads the official news posting. "An early, partially completed version of the day/night cycle meta-event experience from Verdant Brink will also be available."
The game's developer ArenaNet will be adding additional participants from players subscribed to their newsletter, provided they opted in to receive news about the game's Heart of Thorns expansion pack.
Here's when the closed beta starts:
11:30 am – 1:30 pm PDT / 8:30 pm – 10:30 pm CEST / 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm BST
3:30 pm – 5:30 pm PDT / 12:30 am – 2:30 am CEST / 11:30 pm – 1:30 am BST
7:30 pm – 9:30 pm PDT / 4:30 am – 6:30 am CEST / 3:30 am – 5:30 am BST