The deadline for voting on the Game Developer’s Choice Awards is a week from today. I’m consciencously trying to playtest as many of the nominees as I can between now and then (and you wondered what exotic, exciting things I did with my weekends).

Two of the nominees are City of Heroes (Cryptic Studios) and Half-Life 2 (Vivendi Universal), online games you have to sign up and pay for to play. I can’t, as with the other nominees, just rent or borrow them, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to buy a game just to see if it’s worth voting for.

I can’t imagine it’s coincidental that Cryptic Studios has just made it possible for its members to each give away one 14-day trial, trial that I’ve just managed to secure (thanks Ceddy), making it possible for me to try COH and perhaps vote for it. What are you waiting for to do the same, Vivendi?

So, this weekend I’ll be creating a character and running around the City of Heroes, wondering if Half-Life 2 is any good. Oh well.